On Becoming Your Own Authority
Mar. 18th, 2021 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
isaac_hillOne of Richard Rose's favorite sayings was that "you must become your own authority", because in finding the truth of your essential identity, you ultimately can't rely on any external authority. Nobody can tell you who you are, and "you can't agree your way to the truth." (another Rose maxim) This is hard though, because the self is tricky. This is because the "self" seems to be, rather than one, indissoluble thing, a flux of competing desires and fears. So some parts of yourself can trick other parts of yourself. Also, it seems that people don't really like to look at themselves, or see the bad parts about themselves. Of course, unless they can wallow in how bad they are, and therefore, how special they are. I've certainly seen these tendencies within myself, and in other people.
My idea of the spiritual path is greatly influenced by Rose and his students, and his teachings make a lot of sense to me. Doubt everything. Back away from untruth to find truth. No paradigm can encompass the truth, so the path is one of transcending paradigms by opposing paradigms with their opposite. The tension thus created gives the energy to transcend.
So my goal is to define myself. To see clearly what I am, and thus acquire a yardstick for understanding the world at least. If not much, much more. (For the open secret is that you are God, I am God, but we are not what we think we are.) And I define myself by seeing all these conflicting desires come up, all these secret, dark, tricky selfishness, all this weaselly humanness. And as I see it, it becomes objective. It can now be worked with consciously. It is now "not-me"- not my essential self. But this is work of the spiritual path. Embracing the humanness, the drudgery, doing the dishes, sweeping the floor.
Becoming your own authority means taking responsibility for yourself, not bypassing the muck. And, paradoxically, it can't really be done alone. Solitude is an important part of the process, but it is too easy for the tricky parts to fool the innocent parts, and steal the driver's seat. This is why friends are so important. Real friends, friends that will tell you when you're trying to pull a fast one (even when you're only half conscious of it.) Friends who have their own center in themselves, instead of relying fully on external sources of authority. Because it's hard to be responsible for your own actions. It takes will to be responsible for how one thinks, how one believes, how one speaks, how one acts. But it's also so easy to use other people's advice as excuses for listening to the still, quiet voice inside, the voice of intuition. That's the voice that really matters.
My idea of the spiritual path is greatly influenced by Rose and his students, and his teachings make a lot of sense to me. Doubt everything. Back away from untruth to find truth. No paradigm can encompass the truth, so the path is one of transcending paradigms by opposing paradigms with their opposite. The tension thus created gives the energy to transcend.
So my goal is to define myself. To see clearly what I am, and thus acquire a yardstick for understanding the world at least. If not much, much more. (For the open secret is that you are God, I am God, but we are not what we think we are.) And I define myself by seeing all these conflicting desires come up, all these secret, dark, tricky selfishness, all this weaselly humanness. And as I see it, it becomes objective. It can now be worked with consciously. It is now "not-me"- not my essential self. But this is work of the spiritual path. Embracing the humanness, the drudgery, doing the dishes, sweeping the floor.
Becoming your own authority means taking responsibility for yourself, not bypassing the muck. And, paradoxically, it can't really be done alone. Solitude is an important part of the process, but it is too easy for the tricky parts to fool the innocent parts, and steal the driver's seat. This is why friends are so important. Real friends, friends that will tell you when you're trying to pull a fast one (even when you're only half conscious of it.) Friends who have their own center in themselves, instead of relying fully on external sources of authority. Because it's hard to be responsible for your own actions. It takes will to be responsible for how one thinks, how one believes, how one speaks, how one acts. But it's also so easy to use other people's advice as excuses for listening to the still, quiet voice inside, the voice of intuition. That's the voice that really matters.
