The Perils And Pitfalls Of Awareness

Blog #1

The perils and pitfalls of awareness

Welcome to the first posting of the "Master the Mystery Tour" Blog! I am as excited to start this journey as I was when I first started writing the book. The purpose of this blog is to help as many people as I can with the journey of heightening their awareness to some of the common issues that plague mankind. Some will call this enlightenment, but that word might already mean things to others that may turn them off. Enlightenment suggests a point of awareness that is a destination. That would make it seem that there is no where to go from there. I don't believe that we should ever stop learning. If someone calls their self enlightened, that would make me seriously doubt them.

The content of my blogs will not be "New Age" or the psycho-babble that is so prevalent on the Internet. My themes are very practical and real to all of us. If you have read the book I'm sure you will agree. This tour will take us to many far away and exotic reaches of our mind. It will be quite the trip. As Lao Tsu said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." And here we go... But which foot should I begin with, the right or left? Decisions, decisions!

It is important to get off on the right foot with any endeavour so I want to begin our tour with a topic that needs to be addressed first and foremost. That topic will be the exposure of the perils and pitfalls of learning enlightening information. It isn't always easy peasy and pleasurable to grow as a person. It can be a real challenge and sometimes very uncomfortable. I don't want to be responsible for taking people where they don't want to go. So you have been warned! Proceed with caution!

There are a number of very real reasons why it is uncomfortable to become more aware. If it was pleasurable to grow then everyone would be doing it, But it isn't and the majority aren't. There are some universal problems associated with advanced awareness. One of the main problems of personal growth is there always includes some invalidation of what you have previously thought. So at some point you have to be able to recognize that you probably were wrong or confused about how you were seeing and doing things.

Most people can't do that. Being proven wrong by others is one thing because you can always rationalize that they are the wrong ones, not you. But being proven wrong by yourself is an incredibly difficult procedure and probably one of the few things we can't rationalize. One commonality of all human beings is our uncanny ability to rationalize just everything we do. We can rationalize everything and anything. This gives us the permission to do what we do and be right about it. I think that we should call our species "human rationalizers" instead of "human beings". It really is the most glaring flaw we all have.

"Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of

attempting to make reality fit one's emotions."

Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It?"

Actually, most of the things we say and do are done by our emotional instincts if you really think about it. When ever there is an emotional response to something or another, how much real thought is taken to plan out exactly what you are going to say. We will cover this in more detail in future blogs. The point I would like to bring to light is that we usually do and say things and then we rationalize doing it. We use this rationalization process to prove to ourselves that we were correct and right. Some of get so stuck in this process that we can't see anything else.

So one of the first steps in shaking off the shackles of always being right (and hence being stuck) is to be aware of how this process works. Always being right is an incredible obstacle blocking us from growing. Our rationalization process must be questioned and observed objectively in order to grow. When I say grow, I mean become a better, more rounded, more effective, happier person who sleeps better at night and has more peace of mind, etc... These are all the reasons to become more aware and to develop yourself. It is worth all the effort.

"Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and

functioning of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern

himself and he will always remain a slave."

G I Gurdjieff

A conscious decision has to be made at some point. Unfortunately, this decision usually stems from a painful event that forces you to reevaluate your self or your life. Growth usually won't begin in an environment of pleasure and happiness. If you think about it there really is no other way it could happen. Why change or grow when all is well. (Here is a little hint about how life works. That is why we have to have problems.) Without them, what would we have to do. More on that in later blogs...

When you make the greatest of all intentions to become a better person, be prepared to finally declare to yourself that you are not the all seeing, all knowing, all rightous, and superior being that you thought you were. But that is really ok once you get used to the idea. In fact it is very freeing. True acceptance of this is the first breakthough necessary to proceed with the personal growth journey.

If you can achieve this goal, congratulations! You are officially off to the races.

Talk with you later, Scott