Growth Online > Knowledge Base > Personal/Spiritual Growth > Keys to Achievement & Personal Growth > Negative Expressions

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Growth Online

Negative Expressions (of the Individual)

Knowledge Base

by Roy Posner and MSS

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Introduction to Page General Observations Negative Life Response Specific Negative Expressions: Wanting Attitudes Selfishness Greed Stinginess, Miserliness Ego Pride, Arrogance, Conceit Disturbed Emotion, Overreaction Anger, Irritation, Arguing Fear, Worry, Anxiety, Doubt, Insecurity Habituality, Fixidity, Rigidity Closed Mindedness Reluctance Expectation, Overeagerness, Impatience Desire Possessiveness, Attachment Being Critical, Judgmental On Being Criticized, Offended

Complaining Lack of Self-Esteem Jealousy Depression Confusion Sarcasm Skepticism, Cynicism, Lack of Faith Teasing, Taunting Meddlesomeness, Imposition of View Lack of Energy, Fatigue, Non-Well-Being, Illness, Ill-Health Ignorance, Error, Falsehood, Evil Superstition Mistaken Assumptions in Life Psychological Weakness Naiveté, Innocence Negative Atmosphere, Social Context Coarseness Meanness, Cruelty Distain for Benefactor Anachronisms (& Other Negatives of Society)

Other: (Dishonesty, Irresponsibility, Corruption, Ambition, etc.) Also See: Physical Illness Overcoming our Limitations in Life (other page) Perceptions of Failure & Success; Good & Bad; Positive & Negative Miscellaneous   Note: Items in italic are on other pages

 

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 INTRODUCTION TO PAGE
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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
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NEGATIVE LIFE RESPONSE
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SPECIFIC NEGATIVE EXPRESSIONS
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Wanting Attitudes
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Selfishness
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Stinginess, Miserliness
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Ego
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Disturbed Emotions, Overreaction
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Disturbed Emotions Attracts Negative Life Response
In Pride and Prejudice Caroline's comments about E's looks and about Wickham come as a disturbance to his and her (Eliza's ) emotions. She is a girl worth 20,000 pounds and has that weight on her side, which makes her remarks hit hard. Their disturbed emotions are followed the next day by an elopement with a man connected with Darcy. Disturbed emotions attracts negative (LIFE RESPONSE). That elopement is indicated the day before by Caroline's provocation. And a few days earlier when Elizabeth visited Pemberley, she told her aunt that they might be deceived about Wickham, from Mrs. Reynold's talk. Disturbed emotions attracts negative life response.

Negative Response to Overreaction
A calm detached and non-reactive condition is certainly a fine psychological position from which to face the world. Roy Sir's coinage of the term "Beingness" is somewhat unique as I do not find it in Sri Aurobindo's or Mother's writings. Anyway it is an apt coinage to describe what he has put forth and his examples are very relevant to the point he is putting forth.

I have seem many incidents of what overreacting leads too. Small disturbances get blown up into big quarrels simply because the concerned parties overreact and make much of petty misdeeds. When a Serbian nationalist killed the heir-apparent to the Austro-Hungarian empire it got blown up into such a big issue that the result was the outbreak of world war one which lead to the death of millions of soldiers and civilians.

Petty physical aliments like a mild fever or headache will disappear on their own in a few hours if the concerned individual chooses to ignore the discomfort. I have seen the ailment getting markedly worse when the patient takes it seriously and goes to the doctor in an agitated manner and demands relief.

Something in the human personality responds in an exaggerated manner to contacts of the outside world. It may be the vital's love of drama. If the vital can be trained to absorb the shocks and touches of the outside world in a reasonable and composed manner it will help us attain the calm and detached condition described as "Beingness" by Roy sir in a big way. (N. Asokan MSS)

 

Anger, Irritation, Arguing
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Fear, Worry, Anxiety, Doubt, Insecurity
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Habituality, Fixidity, Rigidity
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Closed Mindedness
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Not Listening to Others

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Reluctance
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Being Critical, Judgmental
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Avoid Pointing to Another's Weakness
Avoid actively pointing out someone else's weakness. Instead, if it should happen, let them come to you for discussion or advice, and perhaps they will reveal their weakness to you.

Untitled
The human individual is quick to judge, and slow to learn.

Conclusions about Others

Avoid coming to conclusions about an individual until you know his mind.

 

Judging; Not Learning

Man is quick to judge; slow to learn.

 

Example of Power of Not Blaming Others and Instead Taking Responsibility

Yesterday we had invited our friends, an American couple, who were leaving this country. My husband had to go with a friend to view a car and so I was left out with cleaning the house and cooking all alone. But the sincere apologies from my husband left me cool. It was 5'o clock and only then I started cooking, the guests too arrived. I was not satisfied with the cooking. But as usual I prayed to Mother, "please rectify all the defects, the half cooked peas in the pulav, the burnt smell in the kulfi ice cream."

When the dinner was over the guests were praising the food, and I told them, "sorry I should have cooked more dishes, but I didn't plan earlier and so I was late." Usually I would have blamed each; everyone from my husband to the cooker. But my change of not blaming anyone, but accepting and then confessing the mistake made the dinner tasty and the guests happy.

One more life response was my son -- who was suffering from food poison for the past two days and was not at all eating -- started eating from last night. The inner change within me to please the guests got a good life response. Surely the inner moves the outer. (Durga Karthik)

 

On Withholding Blame of Others

-When life bears down on us and exerts pressures, we can respond positively or negatively. Those who take responsibility rather than blame others, grow as individuals, and set the stage for positive response from life. On the other hand, those who blame others tend to suffer further negative consequences.

-Complaining about others, life is a false, anti-spiritual movement of powerlessness, wanting vital urge, and a limited, exclusive view of the truth of the matter.

-The more you complain, the more the object of your complaint (e.g. spouse, workmate, or boss) will disappoint.

-At each point you are ready to blame others, hold your tongue. Better still, take responsibility.

-One can remove complaint on a scale from banning blame on the outside, to eliminating blame in one's feelings; to overcoming it even as a mental thought. They are progressive forms of non-reaction.

-It is best for a manager never to blame an employee, but instead to get at the root cause of problem, and from that knowledge make the necessary change for improvement. (Having the attitude of learning from mistakes is a great one that we can all foster in our lives.)

-He who sees the speck in another's eye should remove the log inside his own is a well known spiritual insight. In other words, don't complain about, criticize others. Instead be humble and focus on changing your own wanting nature in that context. As a result, life will cooperate from all quarters, and you will grow as a person.

-Often when you complain about others, there is a corresponding negative quality inside yourself. E.g. if I am intolerant of my friend's lack of organization, it shows the limits of my nerves that cause me to be bothered by it. Therefore, it is an opportunity to investigate why I have this limited, intolerant nature. Making that effort will enable me to grow while evoking powerful positive response.

-Our own grievances towards others, our complaining about them is a sure sign of our own deficiencies.

-See problematic circumstances as a response to oneself and not lay blame.

-The ego despises failure and feels abused. It seeks to compensate by blaming others for its failure. Watch for and overcome that tendency.

-Ego is at the root of blame and not taking responsibility. Therefore, develop a more harmonic consciousness within, and you will be far less likely to blame, seeing instead the wider truth in things, including one's own responsibility in the matter.

-In Pride and Prejudice Darcy does not blame Wickham for the elopement, but instead takes responsibility and goes ahead and apprehends him, which has the life response effect of winning Eliza's love, providing the greatest happiness of his life.

-Every time you blame someone in your mind or actually, offer it to the Mother, so that tendency can cease forever.

 

Seeing Behind the Serene and Quietly Engaging Facade

Recently due to Netflix streaming to my large screen TV, I have been afforded the opportunity to watch the hundreds of episodes of Star Trek across five different series without commercials. So many life lessons are presented there against a backdrop of futuristic technology.

Every dozen or so episodes there seems to be a story of a person who came across as humble and serene. This quality is endearing, especially at first. However, once the story develops, this seemingly elevated character turns out to be a fraud or filled with virulent attitudes and motives. There must have been several dozen episodes with this theme across 20 years of television episodes. If this is so, it must be there in the Character of Life. (It also serves the purpose of miss-direction and fooling the audience, but still there must be a truth in it being a living reality.)

Many people in history have had this demeanor, only to turn out negative. We all know of several ourselves. One I know ushered me into Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and then turned fully hostile.

Karmayogi surely has explained this phenomenon in his many thousands of pages of writings. It is there everywhere in life.

In Pride and Prejudice, it is there in Wickham. Though not necessarily serene and taking to the Spirit, his outer demeanor was pleasing and winning. They were all then fooled by his treachery. In our lives too we must be vigilant, and perceive the limitations of motive and character behind the serene or quietly engaging facade.

On Being Criticized, Offended
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On Taking Criticism Well by Living Within
So often we are tense and defensive; the smallest criticism from someone and we either attack or defend. In either case, we lose control of ourselves. We must realize how we are failing to live from our true nature, from our truer self within; and that we are acting and reacting from an acquired identity, from a false sense of self. If we wish to avoid such confrontations, we can choose to live in the depths of our being, where we see criticism as a positive outer extension of a truth we are now coming in contact with.
(Paraphrase and extension of The Daily Guru)

On Being Offended
If you are easily offended, you can be sure that you are living on the surface of life, where your ego is engaged. Living in the depths of our being, no offense is taken, because there you perceive that there is some truth in the offender's words or actions.

Fantasy of Virtues
"A sure sign of living in fantasy is to imagine that one possesses a vast quantity of unappreciated virtues." (THE DAILY GURU)

To Be Categorized

 

On Accepting Another's Criticism (relates to Taking Another's Point of View)

Embracing the Truth of Another's' Criticism

Karmayogi says criticism often has an element of truth in it, and if the criticism is rejected off-hand, the truth of things remains uninspected and unhandled.

Compulsive introspection is caused by a criticism being accepted, which causes the person to look inwardly. Unless a person is able to evaluate his own behavior objectively, which includes learning from other peoples' point of view, he will not be able to break free from the shackles of a limited personal identity with such kind of persons and realize his actual unbounded higher self. (paraphrase of Karmayogi by Ramesh Kumar)

 

On Embracing Others' Criticism of One's Self

Naturally to take the other person's point of view and embrace their perspective of one's own faults and limitations is always helpful. A truly rational person will always do this. It is to see things from the supramental perspective. It is to cast aside ego and embrace the wider, truer Truth of things.

 

Handling Criticism

Handling Criticism and Praise through Non-Reaction and Consecration

Reacting to the criticism and praise of others is due to the negative influence of the Ego. It takes spiritual development to overcome its separative character. To develop a deeper poise within from which we don't react to anything that rubs the ego the wrong way, (or too much even the right way) is the outcome of an effort of spiritual progress (i.e. Sadhana).

Short-term one can simply learn to practice Non-Reaction in such circumstance, i.e. equanimity of being in the face of life's intensities. If there is harsh criticism, do not react, let it go, be calm. If necessary, you can reconsider its truth at a later time. Also, do not react too strongly to praise, because it can quickly turn into its opposite.

Try to garner self-confidence from one's own sense of self-worth, not from externals, like others' disapproval or admiration. 

Another step is to consecrate the incoming negative (or positive) intensity that engages the Ego, offering it to the Divine Mother. It will have the effect of not only softening the blow now, but weakening the effect of the reactive Ego in the future.

 

 

Complaining
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Lack of Self-Esteem, Inferiority Complex
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Untitled
No one should ever feel bad if Self-Observation reveals that he or she is presently on a lower level. On the contrary, we should be glad, for only this discovery makes upliftment possible. (The Daily Guru)

Arrogance & Inferiority

Arrogance & inferiority complex always go together. What looks convex from one side has to be concave on the other.  (MSS?)

 

Impatience, Overeagerness, Expectation, Excitement
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Desire
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On Desire

Desire is urge and insistence of the lower vital nature.

Conquering Desire and Joy
The joy that comes from conquering desire can be greater than the joy that comes from satisfying it.

Expressions of the Lower Vital Nature
When we are bound in our lower physical and vital nature, we will tend towards overeagerness, impatience, expectation, desire, attachment, possessiveness, etc. Moving to a deeper consciousness moves us away from that desire soul to the right balance in living.

Desires I Have Made Some Headway in Overcoming

Since I have come to Mother, I had made some progress in the following desire-related areas:

• Spending, wasting money, on frivolous things I desired.

• Giving up an urge and insistence that the classes I was conducting needed to follow a rigid agenda; instead opening to the needs of others.

• The urge to put in my two cents in a matter; and instead hold back.

• The desire to accomplish a project all at once, and instead be more patient, utilizing right pacing.

• The need to insist on my point of view, particularly when I see it creates strain or conflict.

• Withholding the urge to verbalize limitations or falsehoods I perceive in others.

• Controlling the urge to broadcast information I have, or achievements I have made, etc.

• Controlling the urge to put myself at the center of attention.

• Controlling the desire to quickly move in a line when it is backed up; and instead be patient.

As others said previously, Mother, the Divine desires us to have the experience of overcoming the desire.

Also the experience of being faced with and then overcoming the urge enables us to grow as a person, which brings us great, deep, long-lasting joy beyond the urge. In addition, every shift away from desire attracts positive circumstance, which only adds to the Delight, i.e. brings deeper, more lasting fulfillment.

Finally, it is interesting to note that when the desire is overwhelming and it is offered to Mother instead of fulfilling it, the result is Ecstasy. I hope one day to prove that true.

 

Desires I Have Made Some Headway in Overcoming

Since I have come to Mother, I had made some progress in the following desire-related areas:

• Spending, wasting money, on frivolous things I desired.

• Giving up an urge and insistence that the classes I was conducting needed to follow a rigid agenda; instead opening to the needs of others.

• The urge to put in my two cents in a matter; and instead hold back.

• The desire to accomplish a project all at once, and instead be more patient, utilizing right pacing.

• The need to insist on my point of view, particularly when I see it creates strain or conflict.

• Withholding the urge to verbalize limitations or falsehoods I perceive in others.

• Controlling the urge to broadcast information I have, or achievements I have made, etc.

• Controlling the urge to put myself at the center of attention.

• Controlling the desire to quickly move in a line when it is backed up; and instead be patient.

As others said previously, Mother, the Divine desires us to have the experience of overcoming the desire.

Also the experience of being faced with and then overcoming the urge enables us to grow as a person, which brings us great, deep, long-lasting joy beyond the urge. In addition, every shift away from desire attracts positive circumstance, which only adds to the Delight, i.e. brings deeper, more lasting fulfillment.

Finally, it is interesting to note that when the desire is overwhelming and it is offered to Mother instead of fulfilling it, the result is Ecstasy. I hope one day to prove that true.

Desire and Memory
Desire is the emotion's need for a thing in the future, which binds one to time. Mind does something similar when it languishes in memory, and binds itself to the past. The goal, on the other hand, is the realization of timelessness in the ever-present.

Unfulfilled Desire
Buddha concluded that all suffering in the world was due to unfulfilled desire.

Untitled
If we have concealed hopes and demands, we will have disappointments. If we have no unconscious wishes, disappointment is impossible. (The Daily Guru)

See Thoughts on Desire in the Vital Makeup of the Individual

 

To Be Categorized

Desire (negative aspects)

On Overcoming Desire

The question was raised on how to overcome Desire in life. By desire, he meant lower forms of desire and want that are expressions of lower consciousness. Here was my response:

1. Watch out and be aware of your desires. Often they express through ego movements. It takes shape as Me First, and others or life second.

2. If you develop an inner orientation -- a consciousness that calmly looks out on the world as Silent Witness, you become very much aware of such desires, ego movements, selfishness, etc.

3. There is a difference between legitimate aspiration to improve one's condition and desire. To know the difference between the two is spiritual insight.

4. Offering your desire as it arises to the Divine Mother and Her Force has the power to dissolve one's tendencies towards desires over time.

5. To see how self-givingness attracts powerful positive results from life, and desire the opposite, compels one to control one's desire.

6. Each time a desire arises, control it as best you can.

7. Desire is marked by constant conflict and division with others and life. Controlling desire brings harmony. Perceiving the difference in your life will cause you to control desire in its variations.

8. Control over one's lower nature is a key aspect of undertaking the path of conscious evolution (yoga). How much you aspire for this journey will determine your sincerity in conquering lower desire.

9. Higher Desire is to constantly aspire for that which the Divine wishes for you. Lower desire is to aspire for what you want at the expense of others, life, and the Divine.

10. Accepting what life gives you, and following its signals is the true path. It is the reverse of desire, which is what you want to force on life. Again, legitimate aspiration for improvement in your life is not really desire as we are addressing it.

Possessiveness, Attachment
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Jealousy
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Depression
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On Depression
Many in life are overcome by depression. Using medicines to overcome it may work for awhile, only to return in greater measure at a future time. From the spiritual point of view it is not depression that possesses us; but it is we who possess it. One's determination to get rid of it, especially if accompanied by inner movements to our Truer Self and opening to the Force which heals and transforms, leaves no scope for the depression to remain. (Paraphrase of MSS)

 

Confusion
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Sarcasm, Caustic
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Sarcasm
Sarcasm indicates weakness and a negative temperament. It does nothing but invite negative conditions.

Sarcasm Returns

Unsavoury sarcasm inevitably comes back. (MSS)

 

Skepticism, Cynicism, Lack of Faith
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Cynicism and Skepticism
Listen to most people; there is an inborn cynicism and skepticism. You here it all the time in their voices; from the dynamic ones to the dolts and dull ones. It is the modern disease. (Actually what you hear in their cynicism is your own.)

On the Clarity of Mind and Skepticism
The clarity of mind has another side which is skepticism. It undermines faith. When skepticism is fostered, it will ripen into perversity and finally hostility to the Divine. (MSS)

Unfaith Blocks the Actions of the Force
The Force always acts unfailingly. It is our lack of faith in it or faith in our usual beliefs that abridges the power of its action. (MSS)

Source of, Overcoming Skepticism

Skepticism is a creation of the material intellect, which is incapable of seeing or believing in anything that does not already exist in a form perceptible to the physical senses. It is another word for blindness or what Sri Aurobindo calls the refusal to inquire.

It can be overcome by withdrawing from sense-oriented mind that depends on the visual and auditory; that believes only in what has crossed its path; what is materially perceptible and experienced. It is further overcome by discovering a deeper source that is more open to reason and various possibilities; that uses insight, and higher still, light and intuition to garner the real, many-sided truth of things; rather than be skeptical through the filtering of the material, sense-oriented mentality.

By having an inner orientation, by opening to others' points of view, by practicing non-reaction, we open the doors to true knowledge, instead of being skeptical about anything that is not materially or empirically familiar.

Bottom line: Restrain yourself from being skeptical. To do that move beyond surface understanding; be open-minded and open to possibilities; try to grasp all sides of a matter; and if you can, develop an inner life that fortifies these capacities. As a result, your knowledge and power in life will expand in all directions. (with input from Garry Jacobs)

 

Teasing, Taunting
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Small Negative Movements Attract Negative in Pride and Prejudice
At the Netherfield Ball, Elizabeth feels what Austen calls an irresistible temptation to tease and taunt Darcy and raise the issue of Wickham. The movement of irresistible temptation spreads like a tsunami wave from her and reflects in the embarrassing behavior of Sir Lucas, who approaches them to speak about Jane's imminent marriage, Collins who insists on approaching Darcy, Mrs. B who openly abuses Darcy and brags about Jane's marriage, Mary who wants to play piano, etc. Elizabeth never realizes the whole movement began with her uncontrolled impulse.

Later Mrs. B taunts Mrs Lucas with the prospect of Jane's fortune marriage and says she hopes the Lucases are as fortunate very soon, fully convinced they will not be. Two days later Collins proposes to Charlotte and the Lucases inherit Longbourn! Had Mrs B known that her taunt would not only help Mrs Lucas achieve but transfer the Bennet good fortune to her, she might have been constrained to silence. That is the very truth of it. Ill-will transfers our good fortune to others.

 

Meddlesomeness, Imposition of View
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Lack of Energy, Fatigue, Non-Well-Being, Illness, Ill-Health
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Thoughts on Increasing Energy (and Achievement in Life)

Thoughts on Health and Well-Being

 

Ignorance, Error, Falsehood, Evil

Thoughts on Expressions of Ignorance in the Individual Human

See Entries for the Nature of Evil



Superstition
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Entries on Superstition

Also See Religious Superstition

 

Mistaken Assumptions in Life
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Mistaken Assumptions We Have in Life
There are many things we assume about life to be true, but which are not. Here is a partial listing.

1) To mistake one object for another and believe in it.
2) Trying to do a thing for which one does not have either the skill or capacity.
3) Initiating a work for which some essentials are missing.
4) Not to know one's physical endowments.
5) Not to know the limits of one's physical endowments.
6) Assuming a relation between two things where none exists.
7) Ignoring a relation between two things that exist.
8) Trying to advise others where one has failed.
9) To mistake the general for the particular.
10) To extend the truth of the particular to the general.
11) To mistake the form for the content.
12) Trying to accomplish in the context based on the knowledge of the form.
13) To believe others will do to us what we are not willing to do to others.
14) In matters of greater importance, expecting secrecy based on lesser relationships.
15) Expecting the rival to raise you.
16) Mistaking the organization for the Ideal.
17) Expecting human nature to change.
18) Expecting life to be just.
19) Expecting gratitude.
20) Hoping a man will act against his interest out of enlightenment.
21) Waiting for Luck.
22) Expecting positive results somehow.
23) Expecting people to miss an opportunity for enjoyment.
24) Expecting people to avail of an opportunity that needs exertion.
25) Expecting loyalty from the subordinate in areas where you have no authority over him.
26) Expecting values of goodness to prevail over claims of power and money.
27) Assuming our weakness will not be known to others. (MSS)

 

Superstition
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Entries on Superstition

Also See Religious Superstition

 

Psychological Weakness (lack of psychological strength)
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Naivete, Innocence
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Negative Atmosphere, Social Context
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Supporting Atmosphere
Though there may be the real possibility of good fortune in the air for one's self, one can end up in utter ruin if the supporting atmosphere surrounding the possibility is negative. Likewise, if it is positive, it can catapult one to the pinnacles of achievement in life.

Untitled
A person can be effective when he tries something in his own plane. But if you try something at a higher plane it won't work. E.g. Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice tries to influence Mr. Bingley who is in a higher sphere, and her plans do not work.

Ultimately what accomplishes is authority whatever the context is.

 

Meanness, Cruelty
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Distain for Benefactor
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Those Who Receive Help Hurt the Benefactor
The unregenerate vital is unwilling to be under an obligation. He who receives a help has a natural tendency to hurt the benefactor. This is a truth known to us centuries ago and is captured in a proverb: if only you take pity on a suffering creature, the SINS of six months will at once land on you. History, literature and life offer copious confirmation of this truth. (MSS)

The Recipient of Any Gift Resents It
It is a rule of life that the recipient of any gift, especially an unsolicited benefit, resents it and as a result desires to be insolent to the benefactor. Based on this truism, a joke was popular in the 20th century in Europe which is summed up in the statement, "I do not know why that man hates me, I have not done him any good." (MSS)

Problematic Issues that Arise Concerning the Impulse to Help Others
-When we genuinely wish to help another, the ego enters the picture in a subtle fashion and offers the help. We miss seeing it.
-It is an invariable rule in human relationships - with very rare exceptions - that the beneficiary never fails to offend the benefactor. Inside the family and close friends group, ALL the problems arise ONLY from this rule.
-If one does his duty pleasantly without fail within the limits of the other person's good will, such an aberration is avoided.
-In intimate relationships, the idea of generosity is strong. One wants to give rather than take. Once it crosses the limits, the horrible rule I now described comes into operation. (MSS)

Untitled

1. The recipient of help never fails to hurt - Basmasura.

2. Results are instantaneous.

3. Trouble comes to one ONLY from those he has helped, apart from his own folly.

4. The very first WORD the beneficiary speaks is "I don't like".

5. It is true even in children of our own.

6. Where the service is out of GOOD WILL, not out of ego, it does not hurt at all.

 

Anachronisms and Other Negative of Society
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Other
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Dishonesty

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Irresponsibility

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Unreliability/Reliability

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Procrastination

Procrastination
A man puts off fixing something that is broken for now, unconsciously figuring that no problem or accident will arise from it in the short run. He doesn't realize that the future, when the problem will occur, is really the present. i.e. the Ever-Present when one connects to the Highest Consciousness. He has in that neglectful moment in effect caused a serious accident to occur in the present, his present, the human present.

We can view all social development issues, including impediments and anachronisms, from this perspective. Looked at closely, we will see that life works like this virtually 100% of the time.

 

Temperamental

Temperamental Men
"Temperamental men sulk and neglect. (MSS)

 

Wasteful

Superstition of Waste
Experts in management know that avoiding avoidable waste changes a losing company into a profit-making one. Waste becomes a source of prestige and status, especially with the newly rich. To them the capacity to waste is a sign of assured abundance. It is a superstition. (MSS)

 

Hero Worship

On the Vital Worship of a Leader
Unformed vital personalities are ready to adore the first dominant person they meet. They look for a leader. When one comes their way, they are ready. In such a population, hero-worship thrives. Such people easily switch over from one leader to another. All that they want is someone to worship, adore, hold up as an ideal. The longing heart finds an adorable ideal, not necessarily that there is something to be adored. (MSS)

 

Theft, Crime

Conditions for Non-Theft
Where affection is saturated, work is routine, duty is respected, stealing has been forgotten for several generations. (MSS)

 

Ambition (vs. Aspiration)

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Corruption

Power Changes the View of a Person
They say power corrupts. Power changes the view or vision. One who has been vehemently speaking against corruption, begins to be corrupt when he comes into that power. At that time, he feels it is right to be corrupt.

The President of the university Teachers' Union was elected to the Syndicate from the Academic Council. The moment he became a member of the Syndicate, he began to behave as the Management, to the utter surprise of the union members.

These are persons who FEEL the immediate environment and do not have a formed personality of their own. To him, it was right to espouse the cause of the teachers while he was their President and it was equally right to plead the cause of Management while on the Syndicate.

That was his logic. When the stark reality faces, his face undergoes a great change

 

Power Abuse

Power Acting in Freedom Leads to Abuse
Where POWER acts in freedom, man is uncompromising. [E.g.] The employer will be merciless if there is no law restraining him and if the workers are timid and unorganised.

The workers will not be reasonable if the courts take their side. How far these expressions of power - assertions - will go has been seen in different decades. When the situations change, it will be a sight to see the parties on their own switching sides and becoming rational. (MSS)

 

Prestige

On Prestige
The one thing MAN is extremely sensitive about and ready to act on without prompting is his readiness to acquire prestige, a semblance of upward social mobility, an effort of seeking status. Money moves man, any man and all men. He who is not moved by money will certainly be moved by prestige. Prestige is the psychological centre of MAN. He is most sensitive at that point. On the lower side, it sounds unidealistic. (MSS

 

Sentimentality, Reverie, Melancholy, Dwelling on Past

Dwelling on the Past

When you dwell on the past without any useful purpose, you lose touch with the Field, which are the realities and requirements of the present.

Utility of Examining the Past

The only reason to look back on the events of your past is gain a knowledge that will help you move forward. Otherwise, reminiscing and reverie are vehicles of decay and death.

 

Sarcasm

Sarcasm

Minor Sarcasm that Attracts Negatively

Even the smallest sarcastic or otherwise negative remark will instantly attract a negative response from life.

 

Misc.

MSS Articles on Problems in Life

Vertigo
Anger
Habits
Situations that Defy Surrender or Consecration
Insoluble Problems
Breaking the Human Barrier  

On Bragging
Bragging about something brings the opposite to that person in short order.

Mind's Negative Turn
Mind begins with comprehension and when it moves to the negative side it becomes mean, perverse, evil and depraved. (MSS)

Victim's Limitation that Attracted a Wrong
We, society are conscious of the wrong, the bad, the evil done by one individual or party to another. Rarely, however, are we aware of how the victim attracted through their own falsehood, error, and ignorance this negativity from the negative doer in the first place.

We Reap What We Sow in Ways that Defy Human Logic
It is not easy to see how one's indulgences come back to haunt one at another time. One idealist lecturer allowed students to pass who were not even close to passing, and should have failed. Many years later his own son became a loafer. The father one day begged him to take an examination in order to rise in life, but he refused. How could the idealist know that when he was indulging his students, he was setting in motion a vibration that would return on him as it totally spoiled the whole career of his own son? Life responds this way, which we sometimes call the "law of karma" or the idea that "what you sow is what you will reap." That law holds true as Nature brings circumstances that substantiate this in ways that defy our ordinary perceptions of cause and effect, and space and time.

Overcoming Corresponding Element in Ourselves from Negative Person Around Us
Positive people are of positive value. What can we do with negative person? One who overhears, gossips, abuses, carries tales, sets one person against another, neglects his own work, and feels an intense jealousy, is impossible. The best course for us with such personalities is to avoid them, or at least NOT to give them scope to train their guns on us.

In the scheme of God, nothing happens to us which we do not invite. When someone knocks me down on the road unintentionally, does it mean something in me desired it? Spiritually, the answer is Yes. An abominable person around me in the office or at home, by that definition, is there because something deep in me has a spiritual need of him.

As long as I avoid a bad person, my inner knowledge keeps the inner Ignorance at arm's length. Avoidance is austerity; acceptance is prosperity. He is there for us to make a corresponding progress. When we make that progress, mysteriously he vanishes. He tells us by his jealousy that there is jealousy in us. We are not aware of it, or we are unwilling to concede it. That is the positive value of a negative person. The moment we recognize the correspondence within ourselves and exhibit a willingness to give up the bad trait, that man disappears.

In essence, what occurs is that when a little of our Ignorance consents to transform itself into knowledge, our focus and intent becomes a power which enables the individual to disappear as a response from life.
(MSS, somewhat modified)

Lack of Another's Honesty and Your Fatigue
One interesting phenomenon we have observed is that when an individual is about to be or is in the presence of someone who is not honest or being dishonest with you one feels very fatigued. Their non-genuine feelings gets transmitted in the atmosphere to the object of that insincerity as fatigue. 

Untitled
Loud speech, excitement cancels; i.e. it invokes negative life response.

Anachronisms Within Us
As there are anachronisms in society, so too we can say that there are "anachronisms," in our being; i.e. all things that do not want to change to meet the new realities of our lives.

 To Be Categorized

Arrogance

Arrogance & Inferiority

Arrogance & inferiority complex always go together. What looks convex from one side has to be concave on the other.  (MSS?)

 

Misjudging Another

Misinterpreting Good Intentions, Good Will

Another's good intentions and goodwill can be misinterpreted through an irritated or fixed mind.

 

Small-mindedness

Way of Smallness of Mind

Smallness of mind delights in details and expresses authority. (MSS)

 

Exploitive

On One Who Exploits

He who exploits will not stop on his own, unless denied. (MSS)

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PERCEPTIONS OF FAILURE & SUCCESS, GOOD & BAD, POSITIVE & NEGATIVE
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Click here for entries

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MISCELLANEOUS
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Stages of Correcting Something Untoward in One's Self
You do something untoward, and wish to change that behavior. The first stage is recognition, awareness, and knowledge of what is wrong. A second stage is the will to correct it. A third stage is the genuine commitment to see it end. The fourth stage is action in the right.

Another dimension is perceiving that if you were living overall  in a higher consciousness to begin with  -- e.g. in the depths within in its silence, or opened to the Force above -- such problems would never have occurred in the first place. It can compel one towards such a new life orientation.

Reversing a Negative Life Response
A woman was paying a bill at a restaurant. In the middle of the transaction with the waitress, the woman's friend interrupted the waitress and asked for some brochures that lay in back of the cash register. The brochures were for some local attractions. The waitress continued with the transaction with the woman after which she gave the man the brochures. An hour or so later when the man and the woman went to visit the attraction, it was closed. What had happened was that the earlier negative interruption by the man attracted a negative life response in a related area (i.e. at the attraction which the brochures referred to).

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The man was able to see the connection between his rude interruption to gain the brochure for that attraction and the closed status of the attraction. As he realized the mistake, the woman mentioned that in fact the attraction would be open in an hour, and that that the man had misunderstood what he thought was a closing for a delay. They went to the attraction and had a fine time.

When an individual realizes his mistake it tends to reverse the negativity that it addresses. When he understood and then accepted his fault in the affair, life reversed and cancelled the negativity of the past. A positive life response was invoked.

These are the never ending ways of life's subtle workings. To be aware of them is to become conscious, and to enable a vast mastery over life.

Emotion Enables Contradiction
Mind influenced by emotion experiences issues as dualistic contradiction, leading to side-taking, blocking the true truth of the integral whole.

The Real Heaven and Hell 1
Heaven is not a place; it is a lofty level of psychic development. Love is heaven. So is peace, understanding, compassion, tenderness. Hell is also a psychic condition; one of ignorance and unawareness. Hatred is hell. So is anger, arrogance, jealousy, competitiveness, and especially fear. Heaven or hell are right now as you well know without me even telling you. You get your first foot into heaven by courageously facing the fact that you presently have none of its peace. (THE DAILY GURU)

On Building on a Mistake
"When making a mistake of any kind it is vital to not build a second mistake on top of it. It would be a second mistake to fall into mechanical emotions over an error, such as condemning yourself or feeling bitter toward those who victimized you. Such reactions pin you down to the very level of mechanical behavior which causes mistakes. Instead, refuse to go along with your usual reactions. Try to see how unclear thinking causes the error. This separates you from mistakes, just as you might depart from an angry and dangerous mob."  (THE DAILY GURU)

On Helplessness
A sense of helplessness is the perfect condition and occasion to offer ourselves to the Higher Power. It is also an indicator and measure of our lacking faith and aspiration

Behind Failure to Accomplish
Behind failures lies one invariable reason -- trying to accomplish in the outer field and enjoy what one is not inwardly prepared for. (MSS) 

Also See Key Positive Capacities that Enable an Individual to Accomplish

 

To Be Categorized

 

Overview

Sample Negative Expressions in Life that Block Spiritual Progress

The urge to engage in a quarrel, the urge to shower and heap abuse on another, the urge to demand more than what one deserves, the urge to pull down somebody who is doing better than ourselves, the urge to engage in shortcuts to come up in life quickly, the urge that insists on enforcing one's own view points disregarding other, the urge to blame others when one is at fault, the urge that pushes us to act impatiently without waiting, the urge to make fun of those who are handicapped physically or mentally, the urge to persecute those who are sub ordinate to us and who are under our authority, the urge to make fun of those who do less well than us; all these urges are urges of our lower self only and never to be mistaken as urges issuing from our higher self. Yet many a man or woman makes precisely this mistake only and lends a full support to his or her personality to all these urges as if these are divine inspirations. Such endorsements seriously weaken and impair the intensity of our aspiration for spiritual progress and effectively keep us as zeroes though we may spend hours reading Life Divine and Savitri and in doing meditation etc. (N. Ashokan for MSS)

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