The Truth Wants to Set You Free!

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

- Buddha

Some of the beliefs that were conditioned into you when you were young and the cement was still wet are no longer valid; yet they retain their ability to evoke maladaptive emotional states and behaviors. Ironically, the bad outcomes that result from buying into these beliefs reinforce the belief's influence [see self-cofirmatory bias].

The Buddha's advice to avoid attachments to be open to what nature is trying to teach you even if it is not what you expected or wanted, is what you might tell a child.  In domains of low self-efficacy, even otherwise competent adults revert to the mentality of childhood.  Children are self-focused and attached to outcomes. They react emotionally when they don't get what they expect or think they deserve. The mentality of adulthood is characterized by a dispassionate, problem-solving mind set, which is open to learning the lessons of cause-and-effect that pertain to your addictive trap.

At the theoretical level, the scientific method is flexible in its openness to new facts and ideas. At the procedural level, it is rigid; a good scientist adheres, without exception, to good scientific process. You can be confident that (s)he followed the procedures exactly as described in the publication’s method section. The Enlightened Path requires adherence to good process: Honor your commitments exactly as described and without exception! Be aware of this responsibility when you compose your plan. Do not look for or accept loopholes!

On the Enlightened Path, whatever happens is nature’s way of teaching you the principles of cause-and-effect. Performance errors that in the past would have triggered ruminative self-focus, are instead used in the service of personal growth by increasing your understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. Following the Enlightened Path requires that you perform as intended without exception . . . except when there are exceptions. 

Rather than react to unexpected and unpleasant data with self-focused rumination, you are to use the information to develop a more accurate appreciation of the relevant cause-and-effect principles that influence your subjective experience. The truth wants to set you free!

The Developmental Passage

Dramatic growth has occurred at specific milestones in your development across the life span.  At each there was a challenge, a rite of passage, which you personally experienced as you moved on to the next stage. 

Learning to get around on your own: An early experience of mastery

You began totally dependent on your parents.  You have progressed through a variety of stages to reach your current level of development.  Each passage involved challenges that seemed insurmountable at the time. 

Consider how as an infant you first learned to walk.  Perhaps reaching up to a chair or table and pulling yourself upright, on your own two feet for the first time.  Feeling that sense of mastery and excitement, struggle and accomplishment.  And then, perhaps sometime later, taking that very first step - and falling.  But getting up again and taking another first step - and falling.  And so many steps and so many falls and failures.  But always finding within yourself the determination to persevere, to endure all those falls, and hurts, and failures.  And always learning from experience and progressing in ability until you eventually you were able to walk, and run, and skip without having to consciously think about it at all. 

You persevered because at that time you were not yet weighed down by fears of failure.  Somehow as an infant you knew instinctively that struggle and failure are a natural part of life and growth.You knew that it is not avoidance of failure that leads to mastery and growth.  Rather it is perseverance, willingness to take risks, and learning from failures that produce competence and success.

You have already mastered the task of getting around by yourself.  You can go where you want to go, without depending on someone else to take you.  Now you face a more advanced challenge: To decide where you want to go, and then getting yourself to do what it takes to get there. 

Your mission is to get the puppy — the experiential beast that you inhabit —  to follow its path of greatest advantage. Doing so requires that you know what you want [see appreciatting your Core Motivation], and that you are able to do the right thing despite local conditions that would motivate you to defect. This will require that you access the courage and frustration tolerance that you demonstrated when you were much younger.

An Exquisite Irony > >
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