2 - Error / Confusion |
CHALLENGE :
- To identify how error manifests in our life
without us being aware of it
- To dissolve error before it influences us
- To remove this obstacle to expansion
once and for all
RANGE :
| | | |
| - We experience error when we cease to orient towards growth.
- We experience error when our ideas how things work do not agree with reality.
- We experience error when we strongly want to perceive something that does not correspond with reality.
There's no security in numbers. Error stays error, even if it is socially acceptable or mandated by the government. Entire societies, entire nations and the population of the world as a whole can be under the sway of error.
| We cause error ourselves and only by ourselves - either
- by creating flawed ideas within us or
- by accepting (believing in, learning) concepts, teachings and belief-systems that do not correspond with reality and/or are not directed towards growth.
Both causes equally prevent us from finding more satisfying levels of existence.
Error never comes from the outside!
It is our very personal responsibility to examine the beliefs, ideas and dogmas we base our life on, whether they support the unfoldment of our inner and outer abilities, or just solidify a convenient emotional or social stalemate. It is irrelevant whether these ideas originated within ourselves or we adopted them from others.
If our ideas and beliefs are flawed and we suffer in consequence, there is no point in blaming others. No matter how much we'd love to transfer this responsibility away from us - we are the ones who experience the penalty for error, - and thus we need to do something about it, if we intend to stop it.
Blaming others
never removes the real cause for error!
Blaming others only complicates matters because it denies us access to the error's actual source. Blaming others is seeking the cause where it never is and was.
Example: If we stumble over a brick and get hurt, we tend to blame the brick, the person or the circumstances that put the obstacle there ('That stupid brick!'). Yet it is basically our own inattention that made us stumble.
As long as we continue blaming outside factors, we lay the ground for countless further negative experiences.
Yet if we take on responsibility for our errors, we really can do something about it to avert future occurrences of the same kind.
| Error doesn't carry a special tag saying
'CAUTION - FLAWED ITEM !' -
On the contrary, - like a chameleon it hides behind kaleidoscopic many forms. More often than not it is presented with huge conviction, charisma and social pressure as 'the only truth'. This force of persuasion may be so great that we deem ourselves incapable of escaping its overwhelming strength.
Yet exactly this gives us a vital clue how to identify error before it can spoil our life !
When the presentation of an idea aims mostly at bowling over all our objections, criticism and caution, a gut-feeling usually warns us that something is amiss.
It pays to listen to this faint feeling, especially if we are pressured to ignore this early warning sign.
Sleep over it, think it over, find out more details, ask others (critics) for their experiences, observe the protagonists more closely - use any appropriate method to find out why your gut warned you. This might prevent a plethora of problems.
| What About Error Already Influencing Us NOW ? | [TOP] |
Here again our inner senses provide the clue.
Error triggers impressions that things (projects, partnerships, work, life etc.) do not work out. They set off feelings of misfortune, of not being accepted, of loneliness, of being worthless or of life being pointless.
These emotions are warning signs. We feel unhappy because flawed convictions frustrate all natural growth within us.
Yet the emotions are not the cause, but just the mechanism that shows us that we have a problem, - as pain identifies that part of our body that needs attention. These feelings mean to prompt us to examine our life for primary forms of error.
If we detect any of the following emotions or attitudes within us (or within others), primary forms of error are at work:The firm conviction that only WE are rightThis is the firm conviction that only our own ideas are correct and everyone else is wrong, - even if reality shows an entirely different picture.
- The firm conviction that only WE are right
This is the firm conviction that only our own ideas are correct and everyone else is wrong, - even if reality shows an entirely different picture.
Example: The idea that life got generated by the mixing of material substances in the surf of the oceans is totally unproven. Yet this model is so widely believed in that it seems almost blasphemous to point out that it is just a vague, unfounded suggestion.
Just look at the reaction this triggers - either within those confronted with this statement, or within you: - A brusque rebuff that this idea is absolutely right and that whoever contests it must be totally out of his mind. Discussing the underlying facts is categorically denied - not only because those defending it don't have the facts, but also because they like to continue believing this doctrine.
The characteristics of this reaction
- dogmatic belief
- passionate denial though facts are not known
- social pressure to accept it
- one-sided selection of data
- the lack of sovereignty etc.
are solid indications that error is at work.
And just for the record: This does not mean that therefore another model currently in vogue must be the true one. The fact that one model is recognized as flawed does not imply that an opposing model must be accurate by default.
- Confusion
Confusion mistakes cause for effect or assumes wrong causes.
Example: - Many believe that outside influences cause anger (that anger gets triggered by irritating persons, situations or objects).
Reality is that we produce anger by our willingness to engage in this negative emotion - which we then arbitrarily ascribe to any object or person conveniently at hand. At other times, when we are not keen to feel this type of irritation, the same objects or person may trigger entirely different emotions within us.
- Doubt, skepticism, uncertainty
We use doubt and skepticism to reject impulses to reorient ideas and actions before they can stimulate us.
Doubt and skepticism are mostly copied from 'role-models' we imitate - parents, teachers, leaders, friends, actors, politicians, priests etc. These 'role-models' often pressurize us more or less subtly not to violate established opinions or taboos, and to obey conventional behavior. We succumb to this pressure because we shy away from endangering our position in society.
Yet subconsciously we sense what treacherous ground we tread on if we adopt personal motives and opinions from others without thoroughly examining them first.
The deep, hidden insecurity this causes within us makes us impulsively use doubt and skepticism to reject new ideas which challenge our compliance and complacency. Yet this only cements the error(s) that rob us our very joy of life.
- Carelessness / Indifference
We display carelessness and indifference to demonstrate aloofness and superiority - to preemptively reject any possible critique of us. Yet this only further deepens any error we are subjected to and keeps us within the range of negative feelings.
- Carelessness is lack of interest in everything that furthers growth.
We disregard the many opportunities nature presents, because we feel these chances should always exist.
This certainly is true, but our rejection programs within us a mounting inability to RECOGNIZE these openings.
- Indifference is laziness.
We feel an impulse to reevaluate our habitual behavior, or to try out a new type of action, or to discard flawed beliefs, but are unwilling to raise the additional energy new ideas always require.
We might firmly believe all these feelings to be a fixed part of existence. Yet it is easy to completely remove error and error-driven emotions from our life.
| Simple. - Start orienting towards growth. This automatically breaks any dead end error might have trapped us in and gets life flowing again.
We remove error
by leaving the bounds
of our current concepts.
Ideas and concepts based on flawed assumptions often appear surprisingly logical. As long as we remain trapped in this logic, we are unable to recognize the flaws in their basic construction. Our perception is locked into the frame set by the erroneous idea. Escape becomes possible only when we start challenging the whole system from the outside.
Yet this confronts us with a deep-seated, involuntary mechanism of censorship: - Our attachment to flawed concepts makes us check (subconsciously) whether experiences and events fit into our misleading model. Facts not agreeing with the old concept are ignored, interpreted as unimportant, forgotten or not even perceived - without us being able to control this process.
To start growing again, we need to cast off this automatic reaction.
Fortunately it's easy to detect this automatism in our life: Whenever a (new) idea provokes strong feelings within us - repulsion, infuriation, stubbornness and even anger, but also fervent justification of our old models, - then we know for sure that error influences us.
True, solid, integrated insight never produces this kind of tensed emotion. True insight always produces sovereignty instead of arrogance, - inspiration instead of fanaticism, - openness instead of the fortress-mentality of flawed ideas.
We neutralize this mechanism by opening our life to new influences. This means
- to give up the aggression with which we impulsively oppose new, uncomfortable ideas
- to really make the effort to review and discard worn-out and limiting beliefs and
- to become aware how much the clinging to old concepts restricts our scope of life
even if all this makes us feel uncomfortable, takes energy and might require a complete re-thinking of the world.
| Error Manifests Differently On Different Stages | [TOP] |
While focusing on STAGE 1 and 2
our life can be totally misdirected by error and its consequences. These are the only two stages where all intensities and variations of this challenge can influence us.
In STAGE 3
we experience a strange mixture of error and clear perception of reality. While in this state of ambivalence we are incapable of acting. With unseeing eyes we look at nothing in particular and mainly feel indecision whether to succumb to error or to raise the energy to regain clear comprehension and inner growth.
As soon as this fragile equilibrium gets disturbed and a tendency towards clear understanding or dense emotions emerges, we either regain STAGE 4 or fall down to STAGE 1.
This ambivalence hardly ever lasts longer than two to three minutes.
Up to STAGE 6
our awareness may sporadically get clouded by error-driven emotions. The higher the stage we focus on, the clearer we perceive what causes these emotions within us and the easier it becomes to neutralize them.
|
- We cannot fundamentally eradicate error by thoroughly checking all facts and data. As effective this might be in partial areas, as little does it help us to break from comprehensive error-driven concepts.
We eliminate error fundamentally by expanding continuously. This sharpens our intuition to such high degree that we instantly identify error - even if the person presenting it is utterly convinced of its truth.
- It currently is fashionable to psychologically scrutinize the past to find out what's wrong with our present. Yet this at best re-arranges our known patterns of behavior. It fails to open insights how to access higher dimensions.
- We never proceed to new levels of insight if we expect or demand that these new levels agree with old concepts we are familiar with.
Next: - CHALLENGE 3 - Joy of Life
Author: Hermann Kuhn
Book-Title: 'Unlimited Horizons'
ISBN: 978-3-9811466-9-1
Copyright 2008 Crosswind Publishing, Wunstorf, Germany
Available in pdf-format at DOWNLOADS
www.unlimited-horizons.de |
| Challenges How to dissolve Challenges |
Copyright Policy - Contributions - Imprint - Privacy Policy/AGB - Disclaimer