Behavioral Insight

by MikeNightHaShev 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • MikeNightHaShev
    MikeNightHaShev

    Despite all the different theories of the purpose for this world and its order, mankind still suffers, and still doesn't understand why nature acts up on us this way. Aren't we the very reason for nature's cruelty to the living world?

    When will we finally wake up and realize that we are all part of a whole, and everything we do causes a reaction and affects everything else, including our own emotions, causing us to make bad choices and experience cruel consequences.

    Take the nature of hate and aggression for instance. When its not biological its an emotional state by choice. We sometimes chose to feel angry and destructive in this sort of cancer cell mentality, and this occurs from our psychological and emotional problems through dealing with life's stressful nature and the sociological problems we face. Common sense says we should strive to make life the least bit stressful for ourselves while learning about our own social behavior in order that we understand and control our emotions from getting the best of us.

    Therefore I believe the fundamental and perpetual happiness of man ought to arise from value to himself and his own conduct. Feeling that his witness is high, he ought to be satisfied with the approval of his own conscience and not rise and fall in soul, like an applause meter, with the favors and frowns of his fellow peers.

    When we do things to please others, that is when we seem to make our lives complicated and overly stressful. What society paints as a picture of normal life is not necessarily the right way for most people to live their lives.

    Sometimes we are subjected to useless pain and agony over the inability to see what's best over what is placed upon us. We often forget that our neighbors are valuable to us and that we benefit from their works, explicitly that we should appreciate them.

    However, never should we make our lives more stressful and labored over trying to impress them or in seeking their approval or validation in order to feel self-worth. That kind of thinking is where a person’s ego leads them into the wrong path or into a much too complicated a life especially, when they are doing it to maintain the wrong kind of friends.

    In fact ego itself is a major cause of bad things occurring in our life. It is a big measuring stick for how much one suffers. The more ego the more suffering and the more they rid this ego, the less they suffer unto themselves. A fully developed person must have a natural instinct against the nature of egoism, while the opposite is true for someone who has not grown psychologically and spiritually.
    Look at the egos of the great evil dictators, who plaster their face and their name all over the place. Look at what great harm ego does to the pride of a national leader, who will try and save face for his own needs rather than his people, like in wars. Ego can keep people from admitting faults, make them displace blame, cause them to disregard truth and what is right, just out of pride.

    Ego makes discerning right from wrong, good from bad, light from darkness, very difficult for some people because they will always seek excuses rather then solutions.

  • Introspection
    Introspection

    "In fact, at this point in history, the most radical, pervasive, and earth-shaking transformation would occur simply if everybody truly evolved to a mature, rational, and responsible ego, capable of freely participating in the open exchange of mutual self-esteem. There is the 'edge of history.' There would be a real New Age."

    - Ken Wilber, Up From Eden

    Just read this quote last night. Mind you, this guy is a transpersonal theorist and he believes in further development, though as I indicated in the subject line..

  • crossroads
    crossroads

    Putting my sign down,
    I APPLAUD

  • MikeNightHaShev
    MikeNightHaShev

    Taking this thought further we can see the problem in which group pride might cause through labels we carry especially the group adhesion seen in our grouping of religions into labels or as I call them 'Gangs'.
    I call them Gangs because they see everyone outside their affiliation as a rival and in that no matter what good the rival contributes to life they will be frowned upon and people will be condescending towards them, while also within their own group adhesion they will see their own no matter how wrong or bad as being acceptable and justified within the order of the group and it's group pride
    creating for itself a ('gang Mentality').
    We see how wrong and silly this gang mentality is in the mean streets and in Prison social classes, however we replicate it in our own practices of group pride through our religious affiliation which carries a label thus carries a banner of the home team verses the other rival teams type mentality.
    We know in sports there are the great players and the lousy players on each team, we must realize that this also takes place in every religion.
    By our not noticing this means we don't see the good from the bad and discern good from bad we only see us against them thus become complacent about the sins in our own group while ignoring the blessings of those outside our group.
    We see them categorized and stigmatized by their group adhesion. This is causing people to treat others, not by who they are, but by what our conscious assumes about them through these triggers in thought. This sadly is why sometimes a label is more important than the heart and soul of a person.
    Labels are just a way of accepting your own and the hell with the rest. Like a sports team who's name is proud and anyone without that name is the rival. With these walls we end up rejecting anything good and logical coming from the contributions of another group all because it's not part of our groups contributions.
    All because of our pride and prejudice we then miss out on the value, thus we spite ourselves.

  • Introspection
    Introspection

    It's interesting to note that in the book Integral Psychology, Wilber outlines a model of human development from egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric to theocentric. (incidentally, he's a Buddhist so that is not quite what one might think) Those who may be interested can see one model he uses/integrates at this old post:

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=5988&site=3

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit