Not this racket
So where is this coming from?
Well, you know I’ve been discussing vasanas for years now. (I hope a day arrives when I no longer have to define vasanas each time I mention them.) Vasanas are our archaic and troublesome behavior patterns born of earlier traumatic incidents.
But there have been areas of human behavior that I not only haven’t talked about but hoped I never would have to because I didn’t think I had the time or the wits. Recently I saw that I probably couldn’t avoid it if we’re to build Nova Earth together.
In the ordinary course of affairs, working as teams, situations arise where something happens. And depending on the importance of the desired outcome, the impact on the team, etc., that which happens can have consequences.
When something consequential happens, it brings things to awareness and I’ve become aware recently that our lightwork is going to be such that we probably do have to consider certain elements of behavior more closely than we have. I don’t think we’ll be able to escape it and realizing this is what has changed for me.
And, since there’s no one around that I know of who’s willing to do the task, then I need to at least start in on it.
I’m going to mention some elements of behavior but please don’t anyone take this personally. I say this as a pro forma statement. Despite my saying it, many people will indeed take it personally. But does that not simply bear out what I’m saying?
Not this act.
Human beings construct their behavior. Animals usually respond instinctually but humans respond culturally – that is, through the application of ideas to behavior.
What I’m about to mention are common constructed elements of human behavior today. I’m not saying they have to go. I’m only saying that they have to be raised to awareness.
The list sounds very negative and people tend to get defensive when these matters are mentioned. But these elements of behavior are not necessarily negative.
They can produce mischief however when we’re not aware of them, less seldom when we are. Some of them are what make us unique and don’t have to go. If they did, life would become colorless. But we have to use them with awareness.
Some of our potentially but not necessarily mischievous patterns of behavior are known in the Growth Movement as our acts, numbers, rackets, games, scripts, preferred ways of being, poses, postures, winning numbers, hidden agendas, and hidden investments. Everybody has them. There’s no sense feeling bad if you find you have one or another. We all do.
I have my acts. I act as if I’m a handsome guy when I have circles under my eyes, carry a watermelon in my shirt, and have little hair on my head. I’ve been sitting staring at this computer for so long, I can hardly turn my head or walk a city block. I pretend I look good when in actual fact I speak on a video as if I’m drunk, cannot pronounce certain words, and gawk and stare like a loony person.
I work my numbers on people regularly, pose to look good, run my racket on others. I have hidden agendas and hidden investments.
Not this agenda
But I raise them to awareness when they raise themselves in the course of a day. Being aware of something is really the most important thing to do. The rest follows naturally.
Notice I didn’t mention vasanas anywhere. So this area of behavior involves learning that is additional to that connected to sourcing or completing a vasana.
There’s a line that many people find difficult to cross. On one side of it lies our unconscious running of our acts, numbers, etc., and on the other side lies our willingness to call ourselves on our own acts, numbers, etc. The line itself is the willingness to realize that we even have acts, numbers, etc.
I’ve never tackled this area because often it requires great effort and a team of people to get an individual to (A) acknowledge that they have acts, numbers, etc. and (B) to reach a point of willingness to look at them or raise them to awareness.
It took the est training, complete with a raft of volunteers and considerable logistical materials and arrangements, to have some people see that they had acts, numbers, etc. They had to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege and were willing to sit through sometimes gruelling days.
It takes an encounter group sometimes days for people to reach the same willingness. It took me months in an encounter group to realize I was out of touch with my feelings, a further stage of awareness. I had to pay a few thousands dollars for the privilege and take three months out of my life.
Not this investment
I don’t have a team of volunteers and, anyways, I’m a writer, not a workshop leader.
These constructions of behavior are intended to get us what we want and prevent us getting what we don’t want.
They’re intended to have us be well received and prevent a spoiled image or impression; i.e., to look good.
They’re intended to cover our butts, to excuse, deny or justify an unfavorable outcome.
They’re our tools in navigating life so as to get pleasure and avoid pain.
As long as we remain unconscious of them, our use of them can produce results that are not always the best for everyone concerned. When they’re raised to awareness, then we and everyone else has access to them and can reflect on them. They can be used in a guided and prudent manner and be enjoyable to everyone.
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have acts. I’m saying that it works to run our acts from awareness; that’s all.
Somehow we as a society need to begin to learn how to raise our acts, numbers, rackets, games, scripts, preferred ways of being, poses, postures, winning numbers, hidden agendas, and hidden investments to awareness.