We MUST Choose, Part 2: Conscience and Reality and the Dark Side of Daydreaming and Fantasy The opposite of sanity is insanity. The opposite of truth is lying, which includes self-deception, lying, half-truths, rationalizations, denial, scapegoating, transference, projection, i.e. the vast majority of our defense mechanisms. It’s clear that truth will not only make us [...]
ANGER And Anger-Management Growth A huge part of breaking with the past and, in particular, with our past maladaptive patterns and conditioning, and instead learning new responses (being able to actually make new and different choices), depends on our becoming more and more aware of our own inner processes and leading a more self-examined life. [...]
The fusion of emotional and intellectual functioning that is prevalent in people at the lower end of the differentiation of self scale, means that, at those lower levels, much of behavior and thinking is emotionally driven. The emotions are so powerful that when a fusion of emotions and intellect occurs (“amygdala hijacking”), intellectual functioning—which is [...]
“Only the best in us talks about the worst in us, because the worst in us lies about its own existence.” – David Schnarch (Or, as I prefer to paraphrase it: “Only the best in us can talk about what’s worst in us; what’s worst in us lies about itself and its own existence.”) From [...]
The following story is adapted from Pema Chödrön, “The Wisdom of No Escape,” pg. 29. Once upon a time there was a woman who was arrogant and proud. She decided she wanted to attain enlightenment, so she asked all the experts how to do that. Finally one told her, “Well, if you climb to the [...]
[E]very time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into [...]
