6b Coping - Escaping

Ch.6b. Coping - Escaping, plus

This is the 2nd section of chapter 6 on how we cope with life on earth.

ESCAPING.  (6CC)

Distraction and Entertainment.  (6CC1)

We can easily spend our lives thinking about anything rather than look at them. This is partly because we have no idea of the value of so doing. In this current technically marvelous age we can distract ourselves with computers and communications, the media, and watch films, read fiction, fill ourselves with fantasy forever and so on; these are our 'circuses'. All of these are a consumption of someone else's imagination, creativity or life. They are not our own. For many people their own lives are just about unbearable, particularly in comparison with 'the beautiful people who wear black all the time'. But, of course, 'we're all having fun here' because that's what we're supposed to be doing with our lives.

It's perfectly possible to spend our lives this way, but not particularly rewarding.

We can also use our minds to get off earth; we can 'jump'.

Spirit can jump off.  (6CC2)

We can use our minds to 'jump up and away' because that's what our spirit part can do. But as we 'nick off' we cannot get to our own abilities or powers to do God. 'Nicking off' is a 'do nothing' answer to life which has nothing to do with Life or Energy or Explore and Express or healing the split.

Heavenly.  (6CC3)

Most forms of ‘Eastern spirituality’ as taught in the Western world have a large emphasis on the need to meditate as the path to enlightenment, and hence getting off the ‘wheel of suffering’ of life on earth etc. etc.

Our ‘gurus’ who teach meditation talk of a blissful state, feeling at one with God, or ‘we are all one’, freedom from suffering and ‘saving the world’ if we all learned to do it. Not to mention, it’s all an illusion anyway. Surely, this is ‘the answer to it all’.

‘Love and Light’. (6CC3a)

Spirit’s teachings and aspirations of ‘love and light’ and ‘forgiving everyone’ imply that this is all you have to do to ‘get there’ (enlightenment and off-earth) but it’s a tactic that may or may not work for you. It is not the be-all and end-all, and in particular it is perfectly unable to deal with the dark. But it’s the dark that is telling you the actuality, and it is the dark that can show you what light could be. Jung makes it clear that the ‘the brighter the face, the darker the shadow’; see below.

(Watch the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ to see the dark side in glorious technicolour (and it’s not just India either)).

This difference between light and dark is showing you the split or difference between outself and InSelf, or what we want versus what we have. Peace vs War, or Wealth vs Poverty provide good contrasts at the moment.

The problem with busily ‘loving’ everyone as the antidote to fear is that the ‘love/lerv’ is still based/founded on fear and unless the fear is addressed, it stays that way. It (‘lerv’) is being used as a mental (read conscious) method to cancel out the fear. This is a control/repression or denial of the fear, which means it is still there, and you are just wishing or wanting that it is not. “What you resist persists”; you will wish or want on…

The more afraid you are, the more you may try to ‘love’ everything or everyone, but the ‘love’ here is a mental concept only, so it cannot encompass the other domains (PEMS). But you can certainly kid yourself about your own ‘lovingness’.

We have concepts of ‘unconditional love’ which sound so enticing; surely the more we can give it, the more we must qualify in the ‘love and enlightenment stakes’ and get to escape off earth for good. But, in repressing fear, we have been unable to address the fearful part of ourselves, much less look at it or love it. Fear is the other side of anger, and we can feel trapped and very cross underneath, but these also have to be repressed in case God or anyone else finds out we’re not very loving after all.

With so much ‘love/lerv’ flying around, TISP is a very useful tool for checking what’s actually happening. Wanting to give TISP is the key here; spirit isn’t very good at that. Remember also that creativity is dependent on Merge. Repressing your fears does not lead to Merge because you are repressing your InSelf (GLS) which is where your true creativity lies. Not to mention you won’t want or like life. You’re refusing it, and sending it to the dustbin (waste/refuse).

The funny thing about all this ‘sweetness and light’ is that our society ingests truly stonking amounts of sugar (including alcohol), with a very high occurrence of Diabetes. Do we consider that we have enough ‘sweetness’ in our lives?

The more we feel trapped in this situation, the more we essentially feel bullied by God and hence a victim; (He’s plonked us here and He won’t say why and He’s bigger and forcing us to stay here). But we’re not allowed to blame God or we get stuck here. (Nice double-bind, eh?) The upshot is that the more afraid we are, the more we try to impose our ideas/opinions/views on the other, and cannot cope with individuality or differences on the other’s part (tolerance has flown out the window). This is how we bully others; watch how teenagers impose their concepts (correction; the media’s concepts) on their peers. This is herd mentality.

Some more ‘New Age’ words. What do they actually mean?

‘Enlightenment’. (6CC3b)

If we look at synonyms for the word ‘enlightenment’, such as delight, feeling lit up or lighter, pleased, more relaxed, the tension eases; 'Seeing' (insight), ‘the light bulb goes off’; 'the light turns on', etc, we get a much better idea of what enlightenment might be. ‘Delight = de-light’ and is a very useful word - ‘enlightenment’ less so. There is a temptation to think of enlightenment as one huge blinding flash, as in a bolt of lightning, and everything is Seen all at once, but I suspect that human insights are probably little ‘enlightenments’ which to me are more like light bulbs going off one by one, and on to the next one over the years. I use the term light bulbs because they’re usually enough to light a room in a house, from say 40 watts (luminescence) to sometimes 100 watts on a big issue. One bolt of lightning is an awful lot of light bulbs, but rather more scorching.

Insights are delightful; “de light’ will show you the way’, but all the more reason for staying on earth to find more, and there’s always more.

‘All one’.  (6CC3c)

I suspect we are meant to feel alone so that we will look within for ‘the other’ (GLS). Nor do I consider ‘all one’ with no attempt to better ‘the other’s condition in life’ to be particularly useful to anyone. We are here to work out who we are when we are alone; how else do we find out if we can’t be told, which we can’t? We are also here to explore Energy which is pretty strange stuff and very interesting too. There’s plenty of time to be ‘all one’ when we’re dead. Our ‘oneness’ lies in ‘the other’, not our idea of God or heaven. So, ‘how are you that other’ is a far more relevant question than looking for escape mechanisms. The Mirror Laws are always there whether we like it or not, simply because that is how energy ‘works’.

The more you are able to create from your own ‘aloneness’ (which would be a partnership with GLS, ie, your InSelf) the more you are loving your InSelf, and are able to become more connected to the world of Nature.

‘Bliss’  (6CC3d)

I suspect that feelings of bliss, freedom, and ‘all one’ belong to the feeling of release from the fears of being alive, as in, success in jumping back to spirit’s state when it is by itself in space, and indeed one with God, ie, part of. (Oh! Thank goodness! I’m not really alone.) Freedom from those boring demands of the soul (”Till and Keep”) and children, and bliss that it has solved the problem. But, maybe not. This UUS is arguing that we are meant to find out who we are in our apartness, so that we can become partners to God. Hopping back into being part of God kind of short-circuits this aim.

‘Illusion’.  (6CC3e)

‘It’s all an Illusion’, so it doesn’t matter; I’ll just ignore it all. We do get things wrong, and much of this book is about trying to explain which bits; and all explaining brings up semantic problems and this one’s a doozy. But ‘illusions’ bring us to the problem of what does matter to you, because that is why you are here. How can you matter if life does not? If it’s all illusion, can you do as you please because it does not matter? The real illusion is our own thinking/perceptions  about the world and our own teachings; it's not the world around us.

The primary illusion for human beings is the failure to a. know that we have an unconscious in the first place, and b. realize its importance.

Treating Life as an 'illusion' and meditating off to 'blissikins' short-circuits the whole point of being alive as far as this UUS is concerned.

‘Saving the World’. (6CC3f)

While I agree we’re making a truly horrible mess, I suspect that dealing with it by physically cleaning it up, starting with each of us picking up rubbish and cleaning up messes, is a good way to begin (or maybe, not even making a mess in the first place?).

Life may do very well without us; as in, Life/Nature needs protection from us; we’re the ones that are killing it. Notice that ‘saving the world’ usually means ‘I want the world to be the way I want it’ ‘and maybe notice me while I’m at it’ (back to the Big Cheese again).

Those who teach these things.  (6CC4)

Over the years as I have observed/watched these gurus with The Answers; they tend to have a pattern which can be characterized by …

·         Generally male charismatic teachers who are ‘enlightened’ and ‘get it’ .. Thus, they are allowed (= have the authority) to tell you what to do, and you are allowed to hang on their every word. (check the BC list)

·         Like to look and dress like Jesus or Indian gurus, as much as they can,

·         Do not have the ‘drag’ of supporting women and children,

·         Travelling (this means they are healthy and strong; the sick tend to stay still, but if you’re sick you’re not enlightened anyway),

·         Generally singular; enlightenment is for those who ‘get it’, and it makes you ‘free’.

·         They are teaching and speaking about how they have the answers; they are not making, doing, creating, supporting or serving an-other; they are not using their hands; someone else does the housework; no ‘chopping wood or carrying water’ here,

·         Are basically saying ‘be like me’; (remember the BC list),

·         Often surrounded by a ‘harem’ of women who ‘get it’, competing (and squabbling) to be ‘the one’ while the guru enjoys being competed over. There may or may not be sexual exploitation going on, but you’re unlikely to hear about that until much later as part of the ‘imploding’.

·         Rarely have intimate long-term relationships with a woman of equal age and status; it’s much more likely to be someone younger; who can be taught and moulded to the ‘right’ shape, for a while.

·         Little personal expression of understanding how it all fits together; in general it’s the line about ‘you’ll understand when you ‘get it’’ (of course!),

·         Meditation is ‘the way’ to freedom and bliss; (but not very handy for bringing up children).

·         Tending to come and go as a bright comet travels through our universe and may not last for very long. Many ‘blow up’ or implode eventually or die young. By this I mean that they are unable to sustain (the S of TISP) themselves in the face of life in the long term.

Meditation is The Way.  (6CC5)

Meditation is a word for thought, so we can meditate on something as a method of collecting and sifting and sorting our thoughts. We need it and it is very valuable.

My understanding of Meditation as currently taught in the Western world is that a lot of people use it to ‘shut the mind up/down’, to get rid of the ‘racket’ and manage perfectly well to do so.

But I suspect that the Toltec goal of ‘stopping the internal dialogue’ is also a name for getting rid of said ‘racket’. This UUS posits that the racket is a measure of the split or the distance between outself and InSelf.

Meditation can be an experience of peace and quiet which you may not be able to get any other way. Peace and quiet are one of the factors required for ‘grow’, see below. But we are taught that getting there requires stopping the ‘monkey mind’ (Buddha’s name for it) or ‘the racket/noise’. This is probably the ‘self-talk’ that just goes on and on and never shuts up. We tend not to notice it if we’re ‘busy doing’ but there’s nothing like still and quiet to notice the contrast. So, we do our darnedest to stop it and control it, otherwise we are never going to get to peace and quiet. But, here’s the control bit, again.

The Monkey Mind. (6CC6)

This ‘monkey mind’ is your self-talk coming from your InSelf; it's part of our sub-conscious to unconscious. But it’s a sort of gabble or gibberish and a mish-mash; it makes little to no sense and we don’t want to know.

But the InSelf is not referred to as the ‘Inner Child’ for nothing. It communicates as a small child does and you get to translate if (and only if) you give it the time and/or interest to listen to its concerns. A small child doesn’t know the whole story, as in, it has no larger picture or scope of Life; it is fairly unconscious and unlikely to have a full vocabulary to describe or name its concerns. No context and no labels make it pretty difficult for you as your conscious mind to quickly work out what’s going on. What ‘the child’ wants is for you to acknowledge it and respect it and help.

So, here you are busy telling it that it’s not ‘real’, or ’nothing to do with God’ or it’s stupid, and kindly ‘shut up’ for God’s sake etc. etc., because you are thinking that unless you can meditate, you can’t get to ‘spiritual’, much less ‘enlightened’, and so able to get off-earth for good. Some people can shut it up, and some people can’t.

But this ‘child’ is your InSelf; it deeply needs and wants your Time, Interest, Sustain and Protect (TISP), but you’re too busy, and you don’t want to.

As someone who could never meditate and certainly not find any peace of mind, I spent a lot of time searching for ways to find it. The only way I could find was to give that scared and angry gabbling child the time and interest which I eventually found fascinating anyway. But I had to learn to translate and understand how ‘she’ worked. (The ‘child’s’ gender may not necessarily feel opposite to your own.) Eventually I found a method of addressing her/my/our concerns (with much help on the way). This method is called the Treasure Tool which has a chapter to itself further on.

In general, we have very little social understanding that in giving TISP to this Inner Child, it can and does ‘grow up’ and begin to take on a partnership role internally. This partnership means both of you working together and that ‘child’ has the keys to the doors that open to Life. An internal ally with good connections can be a great help. You have much to gain by addressing that child’s concerns, not the least being that as your child’s concerns diminish, so does the ‘racket’; (thank the Lord).

This internal partnership is the way that you learn to partner Life (GLS), and is thus the source of feeling ‘fed’/satisfied, along with proper rest when you have done that. Hence growth for both of you.

It is in fact, just like bringing up a child - it does require a lot of your time and resources. These are much easier to give if you are interested in it. Hopefully, you can eventually find it fascinating as well.

This is the way that our inner life reflects or mirrors the ‘worldly’ life of bringing up children. The outer life is the model or metaphor for the inner process.

So, the upshot?

We look for peace of mind which certainly is not easy to find in our current social milieu and we think it comes as we repress/control the ‘monkey mind’. But this ‘monkey mind’ is part of us all as well; it’s your other ‘me’, and a small child at that. As you repress and deny this child, so it cannot grow, and neither can you. So, no internal equality, partnership, merge, creativity or TSE. If it’s not there internally, it won’t be there externally with the other either.

‘Successful’ Meditation may be your ticket off earth, but your actual business is to learn to want to be on earth with your InSelf and delighted about it. As you are able to Real-ize your InSelf (GLS), so your InSelf has become ‘real’; this is delightful.

'Big' and 'Little' Minds.  (6CC7)

Meditation/’spiritual’ teachings bring up the business of explaining how our minds work; that we have 2 parts of the mind. One part being the ‘bigger’ which is also superior, and knows what is required, and has to discipline and control the ‘little’ mind which insists on behaving like a monkey; hence ‘monkey mind’.

The whole of the Little Mind is denigrated as wrong, weak, fearful, crazy, lazy, stupid; the cause of all our failures, and keeps us trapped on Earth and so on and so on. Since soul is housed in the body, the body cops the flack as well. This 'Little Mind' needs to be controlled and trained to behave and be good, and it is Big Mind that can and has to do it, or no 'enlightenment' or escape from Life. I consider that this ‘smacks’ of being punished for your own good, and other ‘father’ type ‘authority’ thinking.

Big and Little are the Wrong Way Around.  (6CC8)

But, these terms are actually the wrong way around. What is termed the ‘big mind’ isn’t because this bit is our outself, and it is limited in its awareness, although we think it is 'big'. In fact, what is termed the ‘little mind’ is actually the ‘big’ bit.  The whole of Jung’s work is geared to this understanding, and that is why it is so important. The unconscious really is a great deal larger than the conscious; psychologists use figures of about 9x bigger, but it is difficult to quantify, (although I am not quite sure why we need  to quantify it).

What we have here is a situation where our mainstream religions (which I consider to be based on spirit’s ideas only) attempt to ‘explain’ our human psychology without any understanding of what that might actually be. Spirit is assuming that it is the Big Cheese here which, however 'natural', is entirely incorrect.

This causes a rather large problem, in that ‘spirit’ has the psychology of itself and hence all human beings the wrong way around, and hence all ‘spiritual explanations’ are incorrect. (And this in spite of so much consensus among spirits too, for so long!) Thus, not only does spirit have human psychology incorrect, it has God’s ‘psychology’ incorrect as well. If we are made in the image of God, then God has to be made in the same way as we are.

This ‘explanation’ by spirit of our psychology leaves out any understanding of partnership with anybody for anything. It cannot even begin to consider such a thing because as far as it is concerned there is no ‘other’ to be a partner with. Spirit considers itself to be singular. This is why I call these religions Spirit-Based.

Thus and so, SBRs, in coming from spirit’s estimation of itself, have got it wrong, and therefore can never ask the right questions. And if you cannot ask the right questions you will never find the right answers.

We cannot ask the right questions.  (6CC9)

Within our social understanding based on SBRs we cannot ask the right questions.

Questions are like keys in a door; if the question is wrong, all our answers will be wrong and the door can never open.

If the question is correct, our answer can be correct; the door will open and we can move through the door.

The other things that trip us up are our assumptions; the things we don’t question. The assumption that our conscious mind is ‘bigger’ than our unconscious (not to mention ‘in charge’) is a major assumption that has really bitten us on the bum, as all assumptions do; this one for a very long time.

If this UUS is correct, it should lead to our ability to ask the right questions, which I think it does, which is why I’m writing this, because it makes sense to me of so much that has puzzled me over the years.

AUTHORITY   (6CC10)

In all our religions we are looking for authority because we want to know what to do to fix our troubles, and think that ultimately it comes from God, especially since He has all the Power and Control. But there's a problem, because the question is, 'who has said so?' because that bit comes from a human being who said 'this comes from God', and you get to take their word for it, or not.

The most obvious things about our current mainstream religions is that they a. come from Spirit's ideas about things, and b. none of them value the feminine to varying degrees. The other obvious thing is that these are not the only religions/teachings available to us; they are simply more common in the Western world.

The fact that every person has had both male and female lives in their pasts shows that gender, while important in the differences, is of equal value in what we are here to learn about ourselves in relation to Energy. Not to mention every one of us has both genders within our psyche now - one of them being conscious and the other unconscious.

There can be no proper relationship when there is disparagement, and Love requires proper relationship.

Hence, any 'word of God' that diminishes/devalues the feminine/Life/Earth/Nature simply hasn't come from God. Somebody with a bias has got in the way.

Neither does God have P&C over us. Here, to repeat, we are failing to understand that God and Energy are 2 different/separate things. God understands that TISP gets us to Life and doing anything else doesn't, and since Energy simply reflects your InSelf, it's up to you what you want to do with that, ie, it's your choice how you respond and how you work with Energy. Being like God means that doing TISP will get you to Life, while not doing TISP will get you to not Life, and we don't like that bit, but, it's our choice simply because it is our own attitude.

It is also true that the more afraid we are , the more we turn our brains off as part of that physiological fight/flight mechanism and don't and can't think. This shows up with all beliefs that are unavailable to seemingly contrary/different data or logic. This is when this information/data/logic is simply condemned rather than any attempt to explain or incorporate said contrary facts/ideas.

It is also nice to be told what to do; it has all the 'advantages' of remaining a child and able to blame others, but it has its disadvantages as well.

Well, if God doesn't have the authority, who does? Well, how do you know? Just because 'everyone says so' does not mean that it's correct. What do you want authority about? How to avoid the 'bad' and get the 'good' and be happy? And what are these? Because they are different for us all, and they all have a function and a message for you. Your 'dialogue' with Life is your Exploration of Energy and how you Express what you find out about who is inside you. God is at all times trying to tell you how this Energy works/functions, and so was Jesus, and others, but it gets lost in the translation, even if you heard anything in the first place. My understanding of Jesus is that he was trying to live and teach a life-giving way of working with Energy and God, but much of his message was ditched by whichever church found bits of it inconvenient, especially as they increasingly wanted P&C.

We also have trouble with God being 'Real', so if He's not, we won't get punished, and we can do what we like, and so on. Remember that the Mirror Laws (ML) of Energy are the reason for ethical behaviour on your part at all times for your own sake. 'Do as you would be done by' is alive and well in the 21st century. See also Part I, Mirror Laws.

If you do want to look for some form of 'authority', look for someone with integrity, wisdom and kindness for a start, who is able to direct their lives to a 'right living' for themselves and some sort of 'light' within them that's attractive to you, eg, human, with humanity.

In the end, you get to decide, for better or worse, but it's always possible to explore concepts and test and observe for yourself (while keeping an eye on those MLs of course). It's also wisest because then you will know for yourself and thus it won't be simply a belief. Edgar Cayce apparently said 'Serve or Suffer' and that's what it looks like to me, although I consider that there are some very rewarding reasons to Serve. See below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are still looking at how we cope with our fears/issues in life, and there's a great deal in the media about 'putting it all behind you'. Our fears have lots of different names and degrees of strength. We like to think we have all the control, so, we can decide that these fears are not there anyway, but they insist on 'popping up' when we least want them as anxieties, neuroses, obsessions and compulsions, depressions, irritations, stuff that gives us 'the shites' and so on. But, they all have a fear aspect to them, which is why I use the word 'fear; as a catch-all term, and judging always makes us more fearful. Well, what happens then? 'Putting it all behind you' means that these fears/issues are not addressed. Essentially, we have turned our back on them.

UNADDRESSED FEARS/ISSUES  (6D)

What happens to our unaddressed issues or fears or our 'warts' if we ignore them?

Well, they don't go away, as we wish and tell ourselves so [Spirit likes to think that they do, while Soul knows perfectly well that they don’t]. They sit there down in the dark and build up/accumulate. This means that we don't 'know' about them because we can't see them or name/label them, and therefore can't address them. But, they're still there and the body can feel them, which makes the body feel even 'lumpier' than ever, so even more reason to ignore the body. (Our fears and issues actually get stored in all the tissues, joints and organs in the body.) Since our society has very little idea about the internal domains of the body's sensing and emotional energies, we have/give no value for these and they don't count, hence ignored and unaddressed, ie no attention. We don't want them - they are 'warts' and most un-nice. We can't look at things if we give them no attention, as in, this is neither T nor I from TISP.

We also like to think we don't have them at all, especially because we 'bury' them in the dark, and they're horrible and hardly 'dinner table' conversation. This is called repression, and then we forget we have them, until Life (and ML) insists on triggering them, once again, and bingo! Up they come - again. What's more, they make us feel 'weak at the knees', and thus, a failure. Hence we have trouble gaining the skills to deal with them, not to mention feeling superior to others if we consider that we have buried ours successfully, ie, other people have fears, but we personally don't.

Here are some metaphors for what our fears can look and feel like internally. [6D1]

The Washing Machine Metaphor  (6D1a)

To use the washing in the washing machine as a metaphor - as our fears accumulate inside us, they get thrown together and mixed up rather like washing after it has been through the wash. This is a 'lump/blob' that we consider to be 'wet washing' that can't 'get out' - so to speak. We can't get the whole blob out of the machine at once, because it is bigger than the machine's door (in a front loader). If we pull on just anything we'll simply tear things, and it will all be too heavy.

This is what happens to those who have been 'stuffing it all down' in the name of success in life. Any queries about 'issues' immediately tugs on this inability to know what to do or say about this 'knot of stuff', and generates the reply of 'it's complicated'.

The only real way to attend to this stuff is to give it our Time, Attention, and Action, and action seems a strange word for something that is being done inside, but this is thought, which is what the mind is for. You get to think about yourself. What's here, why; is this what I want, and so on? And start small with the little things first, because it takes practice and time.

This is the way we pull washing out of a washing machine, one by one, finding what they look like so we can name them, and then going on to the next thing. Generally, it's wise to start with the socks ie, the little ones, first. And still it has to be sorted if we want to get it all dry and put away so we can use it again (these things have now become part of our resources for life and looking after ourselves).

Sometimes people refer to the unconscious issues that come down families as 'washing that has never been done', and has been left to you to do. Maybe you're the first person to do so, and that can be a lot of washing, because it seems to get worse as issues pass down the generations.

If the washing just gets left in the washing machine it will go off and start to rot, so it's much better to address it sooner rather than later. This brings us to another metaphor of accumulation.

Sewage or Baggage or Crapola or ‘Shite’.  (6D1b)

Whatever we deny, bury or repress stays down there and does not go away. Not only does it stay there, it starts growling and festering and getting terribly ‘on the nose’. It’s very much like a septic overflow in the basement which we think is ghastly, and it is. It is reasonably easy to keep the basement door shut while we are young, as in 20’s to 30’s, but the more that is in there, the more that keeps getting put down there, until around the early 40’s it starts rattling the door and it takes more and more effort to keep the door shut; (‘of course it’s all under control!!’). [Shame, guilt, anger and self-pity are part of those ‘shitty/smelly’ things that are increasing and threaten to spill over. All of these emotions ‘bug’ your gut.]

This is the time that marriages/relationships start to fail and the basement owner wants to run; but, of course, we carry our basements with us. From then on it takes increasing effort to keep that door shut, and that effort starts to wear us out, and tiredness, disease and illness begin to tap us on the shoulder.

In this way, it is easy for the young and the privileged to consider that they have no fears and to discount them in themselves and in others; the basement has plenty of room. These would include a great many politicians and corporate executives.

Another metaphor for how issues/fears present or 'feel' to us is the Greek myth of the Hydra.

The Hydra. (6D1c)

In Greek mythology, one of the tasks of Hercules was to deal with the Hydra which was a monster with multiple heads.

Hercules dealt with the heads by whacking them off with his sword, but as he did so, more heads just kept popping up, and he was at risk of becoming exhausted and the beast was still there, if not worse. The only way he could really deal with it was by picking the whole thing up and holding it up to the light, whereupon it went 'phut' and disappeared.

This is a marvelous metaphor for the way our fears appear to us. Monstrous and frightening and the heads 'pop up' and we whack them off, and blow me down, there's more, and it is very exhausting. But, underneath them is a single large horrible 'body' which does indeed disappear when it is held up to the light, ie, you've 'Seen' it or exposed it fully. And, it does go 'phut', which is wonderful, but, it does require effort, and you need to be your own hero, which you can be. See below, the Treasure Tool.

In this tale it is important to notice that the body that generated the heads was in the mud of the swamp where the Hydra lived. It is hidden in the dark and the muck and you can't see it. You can only get at it by groping around using your senses, ie, your own hands/body, not your head/mind which doesn't know what is there, but your fingers can feel in the dark, and give you information about what's down there.

This metaphor is particularly relevant for any form of trauma or shock or being 'shredded' as a child, where these horrible memories and emotions become stored in the 'old' or 'primitive' brain which is very unconscious, and by definition is not easily accessible. Our society with its emphasis on the mind only deals with the 'heads', ie, talking therapies or pharmaceuticals that block perceptions, viz, kill the messenger. It is a warning that just 'whacking the heads off' with our rational minds hasn't got at and can't get at the generating body or the root cause of the problem. See more in Trauma.

The point about looking at and addressing these issues/fears/'warts' is that if we want to be loved 'warts and all', the idea is for us to love them ourselves first which is what TISPing InSelf is all about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COPING.  (6E)

This chapter is called Coping, so what is the relationship between the title and the content? We consider life to be full of pain and suffering, so we try to work out what to do with it, which means trying to label it and to work out why we're here. We also try to work out how our minds work, so then we'll know what to do with our minds.

Humans cope with things by a. describing and labelling them, (what have we got here?) and/or b. working out the reasons why (for the more intangible things). This is actually using the Physical/Sensate (the what, 'P/S') and Spiritual/Intuitive (the why, ‘S/N') domains of Energy, and is essentially the correct method of tackling the intangible or the new.

We think that if we have names for things then we will know what to do with them; we'll have 'the tiger by the tail', so to speak, and in this way we think we have it more under control. Think how important it is for people to have a correct/proper diagnosis; then all will be well and they'll be fixed! But there is a gap between diagnosis and action; the label itself does not mean 'success' or even 'correct' action/'doing' to attain the desired result.

It is the same for our 'reasons why'; we think that if we know what they are, we'll know what to do.

Thus, our labels and our reasons should help us work out what to do with life. This is what we really want to know and we want happiness, love, etc, etc, so, what do we do to get that?, and so on….

Well, do our current labels and reasons help us work this out? And the answer is that for some people they do, and for others they don't.

If our labels and reasons miss out on crucial factors for whatever reason, then what? We do not question these labels and reasons until we find that they don't work for us, and still, then what?

The questions then, are:- 

Does our normal social understanding of Psychology really help us work out what to do to find happiness?  (6E1)

This psychology is our 'what do we have here' and our 'how are we built'?

Well, it does not really understand that we are a duality internally, or that Energy sets up the Mirror for the InSelf, or how that can be used for our own benefit. It does describe signs and symptoms and label them, which is a sort of diagnosis, but it's missing some important bits about what to do about what we have, according to this UUS. It has also become separated from the 'why' for life which doesn't help. We need the 'why' (our religions) to face life in the first place. 

And what about our mainstream religions?  (6E2)

The argument in this UUS is that these religions come from sources that do not want to be on earth, so, 'how on earth' can they be useful to us to find happiness, satisfaction or love on earth while we are here, not to mention courage and kindness which I suspect are of the highest value? In these religions there is no understanding that God and Energy are 2 different things, or that we are composed of a spirit and a soul while we are alive, both of which are about the dualities that can be made a unity. As well as this, our mainstream religions do not understand our actual psychological makeup, with no ability to value all life either. In effect, our religions don't understand what humans have and how they are built; their 'what' is not correct. (Just because problems are un-noticed and un-addressed doesn't mean they are not there, but, we wish on….. )

And what about our fears/issues?  (6E3)

Well, ignoring them or telling ourselves that they go away is the 'Ostrich' solution, and we don't think highly of ostriches.

The argument in this UUS is that as we leave our fears unaddressed, so we leave our inner 'other' unaddressed and unknown, and therefore no relationship. We can't 'Know Ourselves', and we cannot Love/TISP our Inner 'other', so that's a bit of a problem too.    

So, what do our normal Coping systems do for us?

Well, all of them imply that we have no power to do anything about the life we have; 'God or whatever has put us here' and we are powerless to do anything about it. Thus, anything 'good' or 'bad' that happens to us all boils down to 'luck', 'fate', and 'God', which leaves us essentially powerless and the thing is, we don't like being powerless, at all. After all, that is what all the Sup/Inf business of Chapter 5 is all about; wanting some form of 'power' somehow, and being very cross/afraid/miserable when we think we can't get it, and it is also true that many of us can't. We can't find the point of it all and this UUS argues that Spirit does not know, and cannot find it by itself, but it thinks that it's self is all there is and it wants to get away - that's the problem. 

Hence, our coping systems consider that we are powerless, so we must be powerless. ['Ipso Fatso' (Perishers).]

But, there must be advantages to having a life on Earth, ie being on Earth.

To repeat, we know enough about our psychology to know that there is no point whatsoever in trying to frighten people into doing the 'right' thing because all the motives then get bent/skewed. It's all head and no heart, really, and neither is it love in a fit.

Therefore, the 'right'/correct thing must have its own rewards 'built-in' to the system, so to speak. In this way you end up 'doing the right thing' for its own rewards for you internally, as in, you will like doing the 'right' thing; it will feel 'correct'. This is a signpost for you to know you're on the right track, for you.

Power.  (6E4)

All of us are looking for Power for ourselves and our own Explore and Express which is an essential need within us.

So, what is Power? There is a huge difference between power over another and power for one's own purposes. Power over another simply pulls in Mirror Laws so you are actually doing it to yourself which is not what you want.

Our own power in life to Explore and Express as we wish is essentially what we are looking for, and is essentially what this book is about, as a how to do it for yourself, although not necessarily by yourself.

The next 2 chapters continue to explore this theme.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All of this discussion over chapters 5 and 6 has been about our search for 'bigness' and about how we cope with our difficulties in life. But, there's more.

BIGNESS. (6F)

So, here we are, wanting ‘bigness’, and no actual idea what it is or how to find it; but we certainly search, and the direction we know about is ‘out there’.

But, once again, you are wanting energy from out there and will stay wanting and won’t get, by definition.

 

And, once again, it’s the looking ‘out there’ that is getting us into trouble. As soon as we want others to tell us how big we are, we start getting into trouble with ‘small’, because the world ‘out there’ is a duality, (as are we).

You can’t actually be told you are big. You will not believe you are big unless you feel ‘big’ inside.

This is how we end up exploring the gap between too much and too little of whatever we want to be ‘big’ about. How much is too much, and how big is big, and how little is little?

And in all of this, you are allowing ‘out there’ to define you (tell you who you are), and your estimation of yourself becomes dependent on ‘the other’. If you consider that you are getting the energy you want you will feel Superior, Self-Important and pleased with yourself (self-congratulation); if there’s not enough, you will feel Inferior, full of Self-Pity and victim, ‘poor me’.

But, the most important part to understand is that the ‘see-saw’ of too much to too little is inside you; you carry both ends internally; one consciously, and the other unconsciously. When one side is up, the other is down, and vice versa. This ‘see-saw’ is a continuum between 2 opposites, or as Jung named it, the ‘enantiodroma’, because each end is actually informing you about the other end.

Our looking for external confirmation of our ‘bigness’ leads us to look for as much Superiority as we can manage, but as we do so, we are telling ‘the other’ (our InSelf) that s/he (ourself) is ‘small’, so you are doing this to yourself, because of ML. Hence, it is we ourselves who are generating while really detesting the Inferiority (some irony here). So then we look for more Superiority, hoping that this will compensate or get rid of the Inferiority, but it actually just makes it worse.

Thus and so, we racket up and down this see-saw  of each end of any continuum of Energy from one end to the other, in so many ways and in so many lifetimes, from wealth to poverty, powerful to powerless, too much sex to too little, greed to poverty or abstinence, and so on and on; explore, explore, explore, whatever we can have too much or too little of.

But, life is actually asking us to decide what we ourselves want, as in, where on this continuum is ‘just right’ for each one of us, and the ‘answer’ appears to be ‘the middle way’ of coming to the centre and finding the balance point. This being the ‘middle way’ spoken of by various religions.

 

And, once again, there is a ‘however’.  (6F1)

This continuum, or see-saw, or duality that we are exploring is a pair of absolute opposites, an AO1, which is a concept that was introduced and discussed in Part 1. And the way to get off an AO1 is to look for its opposite, which is named the AO2.

So, the AO1 which arises through looking out there and comparing and judging has the AO2 of looking inside yourself to find your own answers that lie within you. This gets you off the see-saw altogether and back inside yourself where you belong.

This AO2 is Jung's 'transcendent function', which means that once you See/find it, you can understand the relationship between it (the AO2) and each end of the continuum of Energy in the AO1s, and thus the necessity, function and usefulness of all 3 points (of the 'coat-hanger'). This gives you the bigger picture and lifts you up and out of getting stuck on running up and down the 'see-saw' of each end of the AO1s.

Hence, the see-saw of the duality of life is forcing you to look within for your own answers for yourself which is your own truth about you and that is how you get to know yourself. This is what GLS wants from you, and in fact, what you want from you. God has set up a system that benefits Her and benefits you at the same time.

Thus, however much pain and strife we think we are in, and for how many lives, we are still exploring and we are still learning, and this is the only way we can learn, and it will teach us, eventually. We have given it and we have received it. The only question then is 'how long do you want to be in pain?' which sounds awful, but that is because we consider ourselves powerless, but we are actually perfectly powerful in our own way. It is our own attitudes and beliefs that must be changed first, and we just don't want to know. Nobody has any idea of the potential powers within you or any one of us that can come alive through your 'jousts' with Energy, but they are there, and they are your treasures within you. Your children are a great way for you to find out; this includes your 'inner children' as well as your outer children.

Experiencing Energy and finding our own power within that is why you are alive; you cannot get to find out about yourself while you are dead. Life is Serving you as it forces you to look in the mirror and think. Getting to know who you are is very empowering.

Lots more about how to carry out this inquiry will be covered in the chapter on the Treasure Tool.

Conclusion to Coping.

Our current coping systems don't seem to me to be working that well, and the strange thing is that our psychology needs another 'religion' (the 'why' of life) and our 'religions' need another 'psychology' (the 'what' of life).

Thus far, for the last 2 chapters, we have looked at how we try to get 'bigger' and find some sort of 'handle' or 'control' on life. We do want to be bigger, so much so that we use our minds to do this as much as we can, because we can. And we will do it at the expense of the other if we can. We think this is OK and in fact, this is normal and what life is about, and this is what God does too. (This UUS argues that God does not and cannot, and it makes no sense to do so.)

But, it's all judgement, with blame attached accordingly, and it brings anything but Love/TISP for self or the other. Whatever we do at another's expense will cost our own selves internally. Is this what you want to pay?

This is Mirror Laws in action reflecting, always, our InSelf back to us, which is what we are here for. 

Our minds are built to be able to compare and contrast; that is our advantage over other life which is not built that way. But judging good/bad over others is bad for us. Yes, we can do it, but it's a 2-edged sword, and judging gets us into trouble. It actually leads to suffering. This is what the Adam & Eve story is about. It's the warning not to judge, because to 'eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil' means you are deciding 'good/bad' which is the problem. See Adam and Eve addendum.

This UUS argues that we are using our minds incorrectly for the sake of these wants, and the results bring us pain and discontent. Then we try to cope with said pain and discontent by telling ourselves that this is what life is for, so if you do 'xyz' you can get away/escape, which also presents problems.

And yet, however much we do things the 'wrong' way, we are still within a system that we can use to work out what the 'right' thing for us actually is. In fact, it forces us to look, and the answers are there to be found within the way Energy works. I suspect God got to go through this Herself, and Heaven knows how long it took, but once we 'get' it, we can't 'un-get' it. The 'light' has switched on and then we can See. And there is great Delight.

We are meant to be here, and we are meant to be looking, and we will find out eventually that we have an Internal Power to direct our own lives, so the question then is, do we want that sooner or later? There's plenty of time……

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

However, we still need to enquire about what we are really wanting.

In the next 2 chapters I look at what we want, and the first thing to notice is that there are heaps of things that we don't like that we wish would go away. We want them gone. These are our fears (Chapter 7).

The second thing is to work out what we are really wanting and why, and what the rewards are and whether they are worthwhile and what do we do to 'get there'. We also need to check if these things fit in with what we already know about humans and life. These are our Desires (Chapter 8).

And so we turn to the first of those things that we most want - to get rid of those fears.