LETTING GO OF SELF-OBSESSION – “Most of us owe amends to at least one person who has also harmed us. Perhaps we haven’t truly forgiven that person yet. We must let go of resentments and focus on our part in the conflicts in our lives. We won’t get better…if we are still in the grip of self-obsession.” (It Works, How & Why, p. 55 on self-delusion)
FREES US FROM SELF-DELUSION’S PRISON – “Some of us, though, tripped over a very different snag. We clung to the claim that when drinking we never hurt anybody but ourselves.” (12 & 12, p, 79)
(Quote no longer sent in emails – “It would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear.” Aung San Suu Kyi (1945 – ) discredited Prime Minister of Burma & freed 11/13/2010)
Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff (2:47)
Myanmar, Burma: The Three Jewels Meditation (14:56)
What truth(s) about your past have you’ve been afraid to face due to self-delusion?
The Self-Unseeing
by Thomas Hardy
Here is the ancient floor,
Footworn and hollowed and thin,
Here was the former door
Where the dead feet walked in.
She sat here in her chair,
Smiling into the fire;
He who played stood there,
Bowing it higher and higher.
Childlike, I danced in a dream;
Blessings emblazoned that day;
Everything glowed with a gleam;
Yet we were looking away!
Vaclav Havel Brief Bio
Havel was the son of a wealthy restaurateur whose property was confiscated by the communist government of Czechoslovakia in 1948. As the son of bourgeois parents, Havel was denied easy access to education. But managed to finish high school and study on the university level. He found work as a stagehand in a Prague theatrical company in 1959 and soon began writing plays with Ivan Vyskočil.
By 1968 Havel had progressed to the position of resident playwright of the Theatre of the Balustrade company. He was a prominent participant in the liberal reforms of 1968 (known as the Prague Spring), and, after the Soviet clampdown on Czechoslovakia that year, his plays were banned and his passport was confiscated. During the 1970s and ’80s he was repeatedly arrested and served four years in prison (1979–83) for his activities on behalf of human rights in Czechoslovakia. After his release from prison Havel remained in his homeland. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vaclav-Havel)
Lately, I have been afraid that I may require additional surgery to my back. In the past 18 months I have had 5 back surgeries and I abused the opportunitiy to take pain medication each time I was hospitalized because I thought I had the green light to take as much pain medication as I wanted as opposed to what I needed. I have fear that if I have to have another operation then I will have to take pain medication, at least initially, and I fear that if I take any at all then I will release my addiction all over again.
Luckily I’ve faced my truths before I started AA and don’t really feel the need to dredge up anything that I’ve laid to rest.
re Walk on By – if one person is oppressed we are all oppressed. if one person is starving we are all starving. In this way I am part of a whole humanity and it dispels my sense of isolation caused by this disease. and I can see self-obessession is definitely errant.
above comment by Brita.
Of course I have my own sibling issues, I but the one thing I haven’t been lately is an uncle involved in my nephew’s lives. Self-obsession is at the root there I guess.
Ah, the burden of self – of ego. It has taken me more than a year to forgive my sister; the hardest part of forgiving her was acknowledging my part in our separation. I cannot forgive her or myself unless I acknowledge my expectations of her – my arrogance in deciding who she must be. We are both ourselves. I forgive her even as I forgive myself. Maybe now we are free?