I chose to be here
So in the last post I took on the objection that "victims are everywhere" from a christian worldview. Now admittedly, one might say that my point of view isn't exactly orthodox, given that most christians today are utterly steeped in the mentality of victim consciousness. While this may be true, I have tried to offer a critique of the victim consciousness with language that a christian person might understand, as an invitation to move past what I would consider to be a highly distorted set of perceptions, which are far from the teachings of Christ recorded in the gospels. The basic shift is to see Jesus not as a victim, but as a master, and then to see those others in our world so commonly classed as victims instead as temples of the spirit in whom the living Christ dwells, masters in disguise and forgetting. In our service to these annointed ones, our proper identification of their light enables that light to shine more brightly, so that our various ministries might help people step more boldly into themselves and their gifts. Rather than colluding with "victims" by "saving" them, we discover masters all around us and seek to master ourselves through our service to them.
My reply to the objection that "victims are everywhere" need not remain limited to commonly recognized tenets of establishment christianity. My belief system is actually a bit broader than that. So for those reading along who can deal with christian stuff, but don't want to go past it, this next section may be more challenging. For those whose worldviews are not based on canonical christian scriptures exclusively, or at all, this may be the part you were waiting to hear. Either way, I'll repeat that none of this should be taken on my word, but tried on, to see what kind of new experiences you may create for yourselves. Ideas are important for forming experience, but they should never be considered sufficient to replace experience or the knowledge that flows from studying the cause and effect structures of your own experiences.
It may be much easier for me to move beyond the victim consciousness because I believe that my own consciousness preceded my coming-in-to-form as the person known as Gil :-) If I am conjured from the mind of the source of all--and I believe that I am--("the source of all" being my lately favorite means of referring to the much abused "God"), then "who I am" in truth pre-existed before this "form-named-Gil" was formed. Inherent in the extension of the divine light into this form-named-Gil is the divine purpose. The divine "will-pleasure" is expressed in my being here.
My being here is neither an accident nor an accumulation of accidents and prodigious "natural" selection. My being here is a choice, and expresses an intent and purpose, and that choice and purpose come with a divine seal of approval from the source of all, apart from whose blessing I would not exist, as Gil, or otherwise. (The same reasoning, of course, I apply to all of us, and you may apply to yourselves who join in this thought experiment.) Who I am and my purpose in being here are rooted in the free expression of the divine "will-pleasure," and at point of origin, my will and the divine will are one. I can, in fact, only exist as a function of that very real "agreement" of the divine will and who-I-am as Gil. I am here neither as a punishment, nor by accident, but by choice and agreement and contract. My very form is a gift granted to fulfill the terms of the agreement to maximum potential. This is true whether I live to be 102 or am aborted in the womb. It is true whether I stick my talents under a rock for the duration of my life or I utterly fulfill the potential inherent in my gifts. It is true whether I distort my self perception or clarify it. It is true whether I choose the path of a monster or a saint. It is true whether I murder or am slain. It is true whether I choose to believe myself or another to be a victim. It is true if I develop in the consciousness of self mastery and apply myself to service with all my heart. Every human life represents an agreement to a form (body) of divine design, and a set of circumstances in which to explore the lessons of life. Our being here represents a choice made from our union with the divine "will-pleasure." When our will remains united with the will of the source of all, the "mysteries" of the twists and turns of our life pathways are revealed. When in our forgetting we allow ourselves to be seduced by the will of the "lower self," or march about presenting ourselves through some idealized mask-self, the splitting off of our self from ourself leaves us seeing the world from a victims eye, where everything is "happening to us," and our struggle in bondage ensues. When I remember that I chose to be here, my lame claim to victimhood evaporates, and I am free to develop in self mastery and service.
My reply to the objection that "victims are everywhere" need not remain limited to commonly recognized tenets of establishment christianity. My belief system is actually a bit broader than that. So for those reading along who can deal with christian stuff, but don't want to go past it, this next section may be more challenging. For those whose worldviews are not based on canonical christian scriptures exclusively, or at all, this may be the part you were waiting to hear. Either way, I'll repeat that none of this should be taken on my word, but tried on, to see what kind of new experiences you may create for yourselves. Ideas are important for forming experience, but they should never be considered sufficient to replace experience or the knowledge that flows from studying the cause and effect structures of your own experiences.
It may be much easier for me to move beyond the victim consciousness because I believe that my own consciousness preceded my coming-in-to-form as the person known as Gil :-) If I am conjured from the mind of the source of all--and I believe that I am--("the source of all" being my lately favorite means of referring to the much abused "God"), then "who I am" in truth pre-existed before this "form-named-Gil" was formed. Inherent in the extension of the divine light into this form-named-Gil is the divine purpose. The divine "will-pleasure" is expressed in my being here.
My being here is neither an accident nor an accumulation of accidents and prodigious "natural" selection. My being here is a choice, and expresses an intent and purpose, and that choice and purpose come with a divine seal of approval from the source of all, apart from whose blessing I would not exist, as Gil, or otherwise. (The same reasoning, of course, I apply to all of us, and you may apply to yourselves who join in this thought experiment.) Who I am and my purpose in being here are rooted in the free expression of the divine "will-pleasure," and at point of origin, my will and the divine will are one. I can, in fact, only exist as a function of that very real "agreement" of the divine will and who-I-am as Gil. I am here neither as a punishment, nor by accident, but by choice and agreement and contract. My very form is a gift granted to fulfill the terms of the agreement to maximum potential. This is true whether I live to be 102 or am aborted in the womb. It is true whether I stick my talents under a rock for the duration of my life or I utterly fulfill the potential inherent in my gifts. It is true whether I distort my self perception or clarify it. It is true whether I choose the path of a monster or a saint. It is true whether I murder or am slain. It is true whether I choose to believe myself or another to be a victim. It is true if I develop in the consciousness of self mastery and apply myself to service with all my heart. Every human life represents an agreement to a form (body) of divine design, and a set of circumstances in which to explore the lessons of life. Our being here represents a choice made from our union with the divine "will-pleasure." When our will remains united with the will of the source of all, the "mysteries" of the twists and turns of our life pathways are revealed. When in our forgetting we allow ourselves to be seduced by the will of the "lower self," or march about presenting ourselves through some idealized mask-self, the splitting off of our self from ourself leaves us seeing the world from a victims eye, where everything is "happening to us," and our struggle in bondage ensues. When I remember that I chose to be here, my lame claim to victimhood evaporates, and I am free to develop in self mastery and service.
posted by Gil :-) at 8:36 PM
2 Comments:
Hello, Uncle. I'm enjoying reading all of this a great deal, and find myself even agreeing with some of it.
Here you talk about "choosing" to be here...that is to say that each individual makes a conscious decision to inhabit a body and become a part of this physical world. Only through the mutual will of each individual and the "source of all" does a physical life begin. Let me first say that I agree with your comments about the problems of the "we're all victims" society. That said, the philosopher in me begs to point something out. Saying that each human life on this planet is a freely chosen existence and therefore no individual is fundamentally a victim works fine in this physical realm, and no further. The 'blame god' mentality, though, is easily extended beyond life on this planet. I may have chosen to be here, on Earth, and accept all the personal responsibility for my life here, but the existence of my consciousness--that which fundamentally makes me me--was not something I had a hand in deciding. Unless my soul is entirely self-created, self-defined, and self-sustained, there is always someone to fall victim to--namely, the "source of all." In my version of the thought experiment, the choice of physical life is no longer a free one since each individual soul can claim to be a victim of creation. It may sound ludicrous, but the victim mentality knows no boundaries, as you have made quite explicit.
Hello my friend and Nephew, I am tickled to know you've stopped by here, and happy to have my feet held to the fire by so fine a mind. Certainly the victim mentality can justify its penchant for blaming even beyond this realm of the physical, and will happily blame the source of all for creating its consciousness in the first place. In fact, "blaming god" is the great trump card of the victim mentality. What better savior to knock from hi/r pedestal than "God." There is a certain abundance of negative satisfaction for a person living out of the victim consciousness in socking it to the source of all.
I would say, though, that the fact that one can extend the ramifications of the victim consciousness to the Nth degree has no impact at all on it's truth value. The victim consciousness is a false consciousness, whether the victim is blaming the source of all in the physical, psychical, noetical, worlds, or beyond. You actually put the truth rather nicely in your comments when you said "unless my soul is entirely self-created, self-defined, and self-sustained, there is always someone to fall victim to--namely, the "source of all."
So here's the skinny from the perspective of the consciousness of self mastery. My soul is indeed entirely self-created, self-defined, and self-sustained. My soul is utterly divine, and not other than the source of all. My will is one in truth. In the same way that a swirling vortex in a pool of water has an identity without being other than the pool, so is my soul a movement of the divine. While it is true as you say that the victim-consciousness knows no boundaries in it's willingness to extend the ramifications of its worldview, the possibility always remains for its perception to be corrected, because of who I am. Even if the vortex should grow confused and off balance and cry out "I am other," its fundamental identity remains unchanged.
Pretty much all esoteric/mystical traditions of which I am aware reach this same conclusion. Religions, however, being staunch supporters of the victim mentality, oppose it brutally. PLENTY of folks have been censored, crushed, crucified, stoned and burned over the millenia for saying it out loud, teaching it, even for just experiencing it! In the stronghold of the victim, this conclusion is the ultimate threat to its position, and it will attempt to keep that truth hidden in order to maintain itself. Thanks for helping to bring it out in the light again!
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