Being Better Than I Am
The idea of trying to be better than we are is a fairly pervasive one because we, as a species, generally perceive problems with ourselves and that assists in forming both our secular and non-secular concepts of our identity. Most people sense that life is happening to them rather than them happening to life. When life is only happening to us, we struggle to step into the realization that we are creating it. And then we may become dismissive of many of our patterns because our interpretations of what we are experiencing becomes more related to a loss of our control, or at least that is the perception. Reality is as much deterministic as it is free will, not one more than the other, but a complement of both working in tandem. So we are always involved in the creation of what we are.
When it comes to creating our reality, what seems to be an underlying issue of contention is that we like to segregate or compartmentalize what we feel we are creating. So we may embrace that we create our reality but ONLY the things we find acceptable to our sensibilities. If people are on the receiving end of negativity, or anger, or abuse from others, there is often a disconnect relating to why we created these experiences. Some will insist that that they are only creating experiences in their lives they agreed to consciously and the rest is created by other means outside of their control. What this ultimately leads to is a complex system of hierarchy where we must always attempt to gain control or impose our consciousness on matters we feel are outside our consent and of course ourselves . It’s akin to a doctrine which promotes that a deity is responsible for all the good on Earth and what we perceive as all the bad is created by Satan or the ego. Yet the ego carries within it a mastery that is so evident, so beautiful, so powerful and so contagious.
If we experience discomfort in our interactions with others, a pattern of resistance is often built, signaling our conscious mind that others who we are uncomfortable with, are fully responsible for what we are experiencing. We overlook our role in the entire process of feeling why the experience is uncomfortable to us. It then brings issues of stereotyping and bias where we label future experiences with these individuals or individuals like them as negative according to patterns they’ve shared with us. It becomes easier to dismiss our own power in exchanging with these individuals. We start to negate the bond that exists between us through a collective blending of our reality. It’s a two way street. We cannot experience anything at all without an agreement at some level of consciousness, whether conscious, subconscious or superconscious. If there is no agreement to experience an event, it does not happen. This is the nature of all bonds. We are in a duality matrix that can host destructive bonds and constructive bonds…both are always aligning with the consciousness in which we reside. So discomfort with others becomes our greatest opportunity to find comfort and vice versa. It’s a constantly ever changing landscape of contraction and expansion infinitely changing within the spiral of creation. This is happening in your DNA, it is happening in our cells, it’s happening in our blood, our organs, our muscles, our bones, our brain, our perception and our entire field of awareness is dependent on this cycle so that we continue to cycle who we are at this moment. Just like you have made an agreement to beat your heart without your conscious awareness, you also have inherent beliefs that are very invested in things you will never want to let go of until you are ready to transition from the planet.
The same goes for our innate beliefs we have regarding our identity in the world. It is an agreement or bond with ourselves that creates patterns of function or dysfunction within us. Each births the other regardless. But if we think we are awful versions of ourselves, then we are also negating the mastery that brought us to this level of awareness. What did it take for us to master beating our own hearts unconsciously, or tuning our organs as we do so effortlessly? How did we master becoming human, building this body, our emotional states, loving or hating as well as we do? These are all beautiful things we don’t pay attention to because they are often second nature to us. It’s all automated.
We’re not in the habit of thinking beyond time and space. We’re not conditioned for it. We tend to assume that there are beginnings and endings to everything. Throughout the passage of time we have always created the idea that there should be progress in the development of what we are as a species and planet, yet progress is very subjective and only relates to our current state of being. We can’t know what progress is 500 years from now because we are not in the consciousness. Physicists are telling us that the concept of time is simply an illusion made up of human memories, everything that has ever been and ever will be is happening RIGHT NOW. If there is no beginning and there is no end, then all we have is this moment. Past, present and future are all elements within our consciousness we believe to be separate yet they are all one as the one is all.
The human uses time as a unit of measurement but also to build its reality. Past mistakes are to remain in the past and should not be repeated in the future. Our future is a reflection of what we learned in the past. But are there other options available? What if the now moment can change the past and future simultaneously. Would it change our perspective of progress? Would things ever have to be better than they are? If you can change everything from the now moment why would that matter?
The inevitable realization for those who consider themselves on a path to enlightenment, is that there is none…ever. Because there is always another phase, stage or level in awareness that will be more enlightened than the last while in the physical body. So the process is not necessarily about attaining enlightenment or some perceived nirvana as much as it is about the journey we experience in that discovery of our truth, which is always more precious than the truth itself, because once it is known it becomes second nature, like walking…like talking. We want better because we assume better is progress and the more enlightened we become the better we will be. But could we ever really know what being enlightened means?
If we always try to be better than we are for the rest of our lives, we will eventually find that we are going in a circle. Because we are always trying to achieve something in ourselves that is not ourselves and in that place we find some kind of solace until the satisfaction of that moment passes and we again pursue the next stage of betterment. It’s how millions of self-help books and courses are sold around the world all promoting the idea that you are not good enough as you are because you are doing “THIS” and you could be so much better if you did “THAT” which with claims that doing “THAT” will bring you that much closer to where you want to be. It’s an illusion. It’s a cycle that never ends and always has you striving for things that are not you. It’s an assumption that another version of what you are is more appealing than who you are right now, because your desire takes precedence because being you is not comfortable, so off you go reaching for another more acceptable version of you. The ego always thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and so we place more emphasis on attaching a semblance of ourselves we which perceive is best when we have absolutely no clue what this is. We simply base it on societal, cultural, political and social values within a morality construct of right and wrong which has been conditioned from birth.
Sure we can create an ideal and embrace peace rather than struggle and love more than hate but what if both are equally necessary to be in the place we are today? What if both are necessary to be who you strive to be? It doesn’t necessarily imply you need to be full hatred, but how you love and who you love may be dictated by elements of contrast within you that relate to how others hate. Your individuality does not exist without the collective. The collective nature defines the individual just as the individual defines the collective. So what you are then becomes directly related to what others are. Because others are you and you are others. You can be different than others but can you be better than them? Can you really be better than any other human being? Can you be better than who are right now? If you can be better than others then what is your bench mark? What comparative analysis are you using in your experience to make this claim. Are you making yourself better according to your standards or the standards of others? If we answer these questions to exhaustion eventually we realize there is no possible way to be better than we are. Because being better than we are at this moment involves an acceptance that things are not perfect at this moment. This moment aligns with everything you are because you are the designer, the architect, the creator of every experience. So why would you be in a moment that is not the best possible version that you can be from the consciousness you are experiencing? We are consciousness creating a body, our environment, our experience and the entire Universe in an instant. And here we are wanting to be better than that. Worried and wondering if we can be better than the magnificence of what we already are. But it does keep us striving for more doesn’t it? It creates talented athletes, fosters growth in artists and skilled workers, creates jobs, economies, industry, education , healthcare, but it also brings us tragedy through greed, control and manipulation because it’s always the do-gooders that want to change the world to a preconceived idea of what they think the world should be. How has this worked for humanity thus far? How many wars have been created on this premise alone, that others are not like us, and so they should be forced into being like us.
If we internalize this for ourselves, the betterment of our own skills, social interactions and health and wellness it can all be incredibly beneficial for our experience as a human, but if we must set a standard of what is better for all others, we will always be required to impose ourselves for what we assume are universally accepted truths of betterment, and those may fall very short in other perspectives, especially those who select a different journey of what being better means. If we are going to design a humanity and a world that always has to achieve something in the future to improve our current state of being, how can we ever really enjoy who we are right now? That doesn’t mean we won’t try. We will because we can. We can imagine what a better world may feel like. And that is always exciting.