Love Thy Self, Exclude Other?

We don’t even know where a thought comes from, yet we can’t help ourselves but to think. Once all we can do is think, through our assumptions and perception of self and other, the illusion becomes very strong. The incessant chatter we transpose through different levels of our consciousness forms our resonance and the majority of our experience in this life. It brings us through a myriad of ups and downs through what we perceive are positive and negative events. The compulsive repetition of these cycles and patterns of thoughts are ingrained in our subconscious. It’s not material or spiritual because these are simply ideas. It just is. It can’t be explained in language nor does it need to be. Through this perpetual repetition, we form our field of consciousness which naturally assumes potentials because that’s all we can do in a consciousness that wants to know. But we don’t really know what anything is. Because we are it.

We can’t stop thinking. We are human beings. To try or emphasize that we must stop thinking is in itself to think. So we will always do what the human being has been designed to do in the consciousness it serves. And part of that remains to think. Thinking can be constructive and destructive in both functional and dysfunctional patterns. Each births the other and both are happening simultaneously regardless, so their function in unity together is clear. Two reciprocal forms of consciousness operating in unity, but functioning separately, each supporting and nurturing the other. These patterns of consciousness form fundamental processes in the identity of self and other through comparative analysis happening millions of times per second. It is constant. Self always supports other and other always supports self. Each recognizes and observes the other.

From a non-duality perspective there is no self or other. All is one. So self is all that is just as much as other is all that is. There is no difference between them and each cannot exist without identification which implies difference. The Universe is a magnificent dynamic system of subjects and objects perfectly catered to each other. Take one piece of other out of any place in this system and self cannot be what it is. The separation between self and other can only be discussed within duality and any identification via either perspective is obtained from the matrix that sees two rather than one.

A common journey pursued by those seeking mindfulness is to initially take self very seriously. Self feels like a safe place without other because self often assumes uncomfortable thoughts come as a consequence of other. Sometimes self takes itself so seriously that it begins to exclude other. So what happens then? We eventually stop celebrating the difference between us. And without difference we no longer have identity. The self then internalizes, remains well invested within the egoic self, chatter of the mind, and rejects others literally as being part of self. It no longer yields to other, it prefers to impose self. It no longer sits patiently because self is impatient in its offering to other. All it wants is self-gratification. It is selfish by nature because it understands that other is a creation of self, and so it gives itself the power to ignore other, diminish it and exclude it from the consciousness that gratifies self. It eventually objects to other, and it does it through the same method it used to develop its own identity. Self then builds a mindset determined to overcome what it objects to in an attempt to reinforce its reality. It becomes perpetual and self eventually digresses from behaviors linked to compassion and kindness because it does not bestow them upon self first and foremost, and thus cannot share it with others.

This version of self may be perceived as unkind, unloving, rude, obnoxious, selfish, even sociopathic with narcissistic tendencies at varying degrees. This can happen at any point along the journey as long as a fractal of separation has been introduced into the field of consciousness that aligns with the nature of self in a hierarchical fashion. Self then develops a superiority complex to compensate for the inferiority complex it has nurtured through feelings of inadequacy and lack of love for self due to the comparative potentials it processed initially to create the identity. Self then does not care what other thinks or not, does not care about disagreements on other’s behalf because self created other and thus self has all the answers. Eventually this creates more separation, division and segregation between self and other because the superiority complex of self rejects the immense power that comes through a consciousness that is invited, explored and observed by other, something self designs. A consciousness that celebrates difference among its pieces and parts always creates unity in magnitudes greater than a consciousness that excludes and rejects what is different than self. This happens for one simple reason…a celebration of difference embraces to a greater extent that all is one, while a consciousness that excludes and rejects difference does not. Self enjoys its creation of other so much, it reserves the right to exclude it from its experience, and by doing so, it includes it.