The Fourth Way for the rest of us.
Pretense
We have two Wednesday night groups that met to share our experiences with the exercises that I've added to this site. Not many have shared their experiences here. Of course I don't know why people haven't but I know why some people haven't. It's not because the exercises don't work. Our groups have just completed them for the second time. We did one exercise a week until we had finished all eleven exercises. Then we started again to see if we could notice any differences between the two times. Because most of us kept journals we had everything written down and it was easy to go back to exercise three or nine or whichever one we were working on to see what we'd written a couple of months earlier. Those of us who did that were enriched by the experience.
There were a couple of people who wrote to me sharing their findings while doing the exercises but no matter how much I encouraged them they were unable to post their findings for others to read. For one reason or another they trusted me enough to share but were unable to extend that to others who might be reading here. I'm glad they at least shared with me because the Second line of Work is very valuable. Unfortunately, not many people who listen to podcasts know that outside an intellectual idea. It's hard to hang your internal life out there for anyone to come along and read about, hear about or see. It's because we're identified with our pictures of ourselves and the image, mask or face we show the world. The purpose of the exercises is to find out things about ourselves. Mostly the things we find out aren't in harmony with our self-love. It's hard enough to look at them alone and try to accept them. Writing it out for the others to see is often too much for our self-love to bear.
Being in one of the groups that meet on Wednesday night is no panacea. Many people found it difficult to share the deeper, more revealing things about their False Personality that they'd noted while doing the exercises. Sometimes there were exercises that were easier than others and that depended not on the exercise but on the person applying it. When others have shown some commitment to the process it can make it easier to share but for some it's nearly impossible. The more we love ourselves the more we want others to agree and love us too. Telling them things that aren't so wonderful looks like we're inviting them to love us less. That's not the way it works but we rarely realize that when we're in the grips of self-love.
I'm leaving the exercises where they are so people can do them if they want to. Maybe someday someone will take the risk and share.
There were a couple of people who wrote to me sharing their findings while doing the exercises but no matter how much I encouraged them they were unable to post their findings for others to read. For one reason or another they trusted me enough to share but were unable to extend that to others who might be reading here. I'm glad they at least shared with me because the Second line of Work is very valuable. Unfortunately, not many people who listen to podcasts know that outside an intellectual idea. It's hard to hang your internal life out there for anyone to come along and read about, hear about or see. It's because we're identified with our pictures of ourselves and the image, mask or face we show the world. The purpose of the exercises is to find out things about ourselves. Mostly the things we find out aren't in harmony with our self-love. It's hard enough to look at them alone and try to accept them. Writing it out for the others to see is often too much for our self-love to bear.
Being in one of the groups that meet on Wednesday night is no panacea. Many people found it difficult to share the deeper, more revealing things about their False Personality that they'd noted while doing the exercises. Sometimes there were exercises that were easier than others and that depended not on the exercise but on the person applying it. When others have shown some commitment to the process it can make it easier to share but for some it's nearly impossible. The more we love ourselves the more we want others to agree and love us too. Telling them things that aren't so wonderful looks like we're inviting them to love us less. That's not the way it works but we rarely realize that when we're in the grips of self-love.
I'm leaving the exercises where they are so people can do them if they want to. Maybe someday someone will take the risk and share.
Add a Comment
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Comment by James Parkinson on May 22, 2009 at 3:38pm - it's good to know you're still out there doing what you do.
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Comment by Ulrich Schnell on May 22, 2009 at 3:35pm -
This post I should be able to comment on... I have a hard time sharing anything at all. Sure I am an idiot. I am actually a lot of idiots and a lot of them want to share in a a genuine way what is going on. I am also a vain idiot but I don't think that it is vanity that stops me. It is more like; When one idiot is writing a comment, all the other idiots are questioning his motives The work doesn't stop because one idiot wants to write a comment.
Let us say I want to tell you about how I have been totally identified with a broken car for a week or so. Vanity would have me give an elaborate description of how painful it was. I might finish it with a little boasting about my reading. At the same time a slightly better I would look at that and say something like " look at that idiot, the mere thought of sharing something makes him drop to the most stupid arrogant useless vain little I..."
Finally the most stupid thing is that end up not sharing anything while being blessed by what everybody else share.
Thanks for leaving the exercises there. A lazy and forgetful idiot like me finds that a great help ...
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Comment by Bodhi Greenman on May 9, 2009 at 4:16pm -
When I read this, I quickly went to check on my comments in the exercises page to ascertain if I was one of those podcast listeners mentioned, had I inadvertently opted to keep my response private? ...relief ... I hadn't.
I'm happy to share aspects of my life that don't support me, in some crazy way, putting it out there actually helps, and there is nothing anyone could think or say about me, that could be any worse, than I have already said to myself.
Yes I am an idiot, yes I don't know anything. I lie and I'm arrogant.
And I'm here to change that.
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