Hi abstract,
abstract said:
every addiction should be avoided? i am not a saint, but neither is anyone else. every person on this planet is addicted to pleasure for the self, that is why we are here in the first place, to learn from these types of things.
But isn't the point to move on? At a certain moment, one can distance oneself from the voice that justifies addictive or other negative behaviour by saying "Well, I am learning something from it." It is a very common voice! Geez, I have used that one more than once! ;)
and in the future i will keep the culture issues in mind. however i did state that it was a joke not to be taken seriously in any form or fashion. and do not forget, in some alternate reality, we are all a bunch of preying mantis's who eat little children,
Do you see that in the bolded phrase you are trying to justify yourself?
Yes, you did say it was a joke, but humour can be very revealing. It can be defensive. It can be cutting. It can be a deflection. It can be many things.
so don't think you're better than me,
Why would you think that anyone here thinks they are better than you? Might that reaction be part of how you have learned to protect yourself as you were growing up? And as such it is part of your false personality? A part that we all need to learn to identify and then overcome in order to allow our essence to shine?
i'm a unique individual like everyone else, and my wants and needs are going to be different from someone else,
Of course. But that can also become a justification to hang on to parts of ourselves that we might be better off letting go of.
i am where i am because that's where i am,
Of course. We're all where we are.
don't consider this an attack on your character,
Why would we consider anything you said so far as an attack?
Could it be that it is a basic programme in you to see others as attacking you? That you are very afraid of being attack, are even feeling a bit under attack, and so such feelings were active and present in you as you wrote this?
It is one of the most common defence mechanisms. I have it really bad myself. Hopefully you'll learn, as you participate more on the forum, that no one here is attacking -- at least not the members who have been here awhile. The moderators deal with people who come with the aim of attacking and making trouble.
You do not need to be on the defensive.
i appreciate the honest critisicm, it helps me evaluate what i know.
Yes, but it can also help us see ourselves, which is a greater gift than the simple evaluation of what we know.
Well, you are the one who is interpreting the above as arguing. I don't see it that way, and I doubt the others do either.
i believe this benefits us a great deal because we get to communicate what we learn with each other and learn more lessons in less time, and learning is fun!
This seems to me to be deflection. That is, you move from your own feelings that are provoked by this exchange, from focusing on abstract himself, to focusing on the benefits to everyone from communicating. Certain feelings have been provoked in you by the exchange. You have become defensive and uncomfortable. Rather than looking at those feelings and where they come from, you side-step. You deflect this chance to see yourself and your programmes.
Now, this is very normal. It is our default way of responding in situations like this. Hopefully as you spend more time here and see that no one is here to attack you, you may be able to stop the deflection. That is the goal of the forum. To help us all see ourselves as others see us, as we really are, not as we think we are. We are trying, each of us, to see the defence mechanisms we have constructed, the programmes we run, these walls we hide behind to feel safe.
So welcome to the Work, abstract! :)
As you said, learning is fun!