Nothing Personal

It’s normal for people to suffer with emotional pain, often throughout their entire lives. And it’s not just the more overt symptoms such as anger and resentment, but a more subtle background vibration which desensitises the connection with the natural wellbeing within the body. What soon consolidates as the child gathers experience and enters maturity is an emotional body of pain; this is the person, which is outwardly projected as the face of the self in the world.

It’s the person who feels slighted and takes offence when someone else is indifferent or appears to be critical of something which doesn’t match their own self-image. A motorist is likely to feel annoyed if, after giving way, the action is not acknowledged by the other driver. Why is this? It’s because we experience the sensory world through a psychic system that is continually adjusting to the forces of existence. Without the presence of enough love in the body consciousness, emotion is the dominant force. This creates a ripple effect within the psyche that creates inner tension which when triggered by external provocation is often interpreted by the person as a slur on their fundamental right to exist. The primal instinct behind the person is to be acknowledged by their fellow man and woman as being worthy to be here as the embodiment of the principle of love and truth on earth.

There is nothing personal to defend when life is lived as an authentic being of the earth. Then there’s no justification for anger, frustration or any other emotional negativity. It’s only when a part of existence becomes separate from the whole that it needs to be defended. At every level of human affairs, it’s fear of being vulnerable to life with all its uncertainties that attaches the person to what is known and, subsequently, what needs to be defended. To defend something such as any ideology, religious belief or personal feeling involves taking a particular position to offset the resistance of outer forces. A castle, for example, is fortified to defend its position against any threat from an enemy. From an inner perspective, the mind adopts a position fortified by emotional pressure as a result of the self’s fixation to the experience of the past. This is the basis of attitude, which is a particular mind-set in a person – and when provoked is forcefully released against those opposed to their point of view. The more ingrained the attitude, such as racism, the more reactionary and emotionally charged the outburst.

The nature of the person is banal, which is why everyone’s personality is so predictably mediocre and lacking in originality, despite the surface sheen. However, concealed behind every person is the character; this is the mark of the authentic being and instantly recognisable in another when invoked through the drama of life. One of the anomalies of character is that it can never be known by an individual man or woman. Whatever anyone perceives in themselves is false and a projection of self as the person. The virtue of character is that it can only be recognised in another; and, in this, it is pure and free from self.

Whereas the personality seeks reassurance and security from the herd instinct, the character of an individual is inclined to stand alone. Character is invoked in the absence of fear and personal consideration, particularly of what others might say. The body may shake and show symptoms of distress, but character holds to the integrity of any situation unto death. In the process of detachment from emotional pain, it’s the nature of character which is increasingly summoned as a power of negation to neutralise the ignorance of the past. For a long time, until the perception levels out, someone can be one moment identified with the emotional pain; and the next, detached and surrendered as an impartial observer in the mirror of inner space. Increasingly, there are longer periods that are free of emotional negativity as the burden of the self is surrendered.

If anyone is moved to alleviate the suffering of the human condition, it’s to continually acknowledge the good in life and those they profess to love. This is then returned to inform the deepest recesses of the subconscious that all is well in the world. As an essential cell in the body of humanity, I within every man and woman have a divine right to exist because I do exist. Life is a totality of being, and the idea is to be joyously engaged in this wondrous creation. But it’s nothing personal.