Taking the Challenge ©1998 NICOLEA
Do you have a problem because you feel inferior, or do you feel inferior because you believe something about yourself that makes you feel inferior?
Surely there may have been times when it seemed to you that you were inferior because you were in a problem. But is there a particular reason, or teaching, you have accepted about yourself that has bred that feeling of inferiority?
Doesn't that suggest that we are irrational or bad? Because, if we can't stop applying the wrong solution from the past to a present situation we must be irrational, or bad, or worse.
a) Again, let us put the question in another form: Why do we apply past solutions to the present? Is it because we can't help it? Are we irrational if we can't stop ourselves from applying the same faulty solutions to our present problems?
b) Consider your past scenes once again and ask yourself whether or not it seems that those present had reached a limit that they couldn't be expected to go beyond? What leads you to believe that they couldn't go beyond that way of appearing?
c) But consider the past problem scenes and ask yourself in what way your handling of your problem avoided an even greater confrontation.
d) Is it likely that if you had challenged them even further than you had that it would have made the situation worse than it was?
e) But given the forces in your problem-scenes, can you say you were defeated, or did you actually find a way to survive?
Well, you survived! You made it through your early years and found a way to adapt to those around you. You needed to adapt because you depended upon them for your subsistence, and so you remained silent and, perhaps, nursed a grievance from that point on.
f) Consider: Are the lessons you learned from those past scenes your failures or your partial successes? Could it be that the problem you are now having in your life is simply a case where you are applying a past solution to a present situation because it seems so similar to the past-so that you act it out somewhat automatically and just naturally expect that the old solution will work?
g) Rather than conclude before giving yourself an opportunity to reflect on your experience, ask yourself if you always have doubts or reservations about yourself when you are in situations in which you are likely to confront your problem?
h) Or do you act spontaneously without any kind of reflection, without any recollection of having confronted similar situations in the past?
i) Please reflect on your recent experiences when you consider these questions. Do you allow yourself to play out the problem?
j) Do you just go along with it, taking no stand in respect to what's going on?
k) What state of mind are you in when you recognize that you may, once more, resume an old pattern that you would prefer to avoid?
l) But, to oppose what is going on, to take a position against the flow of events taking place, what does that take?
m) Would it take a decision from you to take a stand? What kind of decision would that be? What would you be leaving and what would you be moving towards?
n) What do you think it will be like to encounter your problem and look at it directly, to see it for what it is, and then, to see if you can be true to yourself and be what you most want to be?
o) And, would taking such a stand be exhibiting the courage to be rational?
p) But, you can ignore all this and return to playing out the dramas of your problem, can't you?
q) Or, can you knowingly act against what you know? And what you see?
r) Is it possible that you have already seen too much to play out the old problem games in the old way?
A Golden Thread, John Strudwick
May we preserve these philosophical beauties, and exhibit them to others. May this web site expand their elegance by the enlivening rays of the philosophic fire; and by the powerful breath of genius, scatter abroad in this virtual world these latent but copious seeds.
If some sparks of this celestial fire shall animate the reader, consider yourself as well rewarded for this laborious undertaking. Ancient philosophy has been, for centuries, the only study to break the shackles of ignorance; and in which one finds an inexhaustible treasure of intellectual wealth, and a perpetual fountain of wisdom and delight.
Presuming that such a pursuit bestows the highest benefit, I, Webmistress, desire no other reward than the wealth of wisdom, and Reason as my constant Guide. If successful, may I see the praise of the liberal; and if not, I expect no defense for failure, other than the decision of the candid, and discerning few, thus the opportunity to learn, and purgation by philosophic fire.