Superiority
Superiority is a mind myth, an illusion.
It seems darn real because you experience it every time you compare yourself with someone else. You register a sensation in your body that your mind labels inferior or superior. It’s all quite natural but the truth is you made it up.
Modern day, spiritual, regular guy, Jerry Stocking teaches something he calls “References.” The references are stages of growth we operate out of and each one of these stages contains a set of dichotomies.
For example, in the “Comparative” stage we encounter the dichotomy of “Inferior/Superior.” The dichotomy lives on a horizontal plane or continuum where “Superior” lives on one end and “Inferior” lives on the other. You reference yourself to another by where you currently are on that plane. Let’s pretend that you judge yourself as 60% superior. That means when interacting with others, you would act out that percentage. This happens automatically as a result of conditioning. You don’t have to think about it. It automatically happens, even with people who claim they don’t judge themselves or others.
For a more detailed and more precise explanation of “References,” I recommend that you sign up for one of Jerry’s courses. You can find him at http://jerrystocking.com
One of the terrific exercises Jerry has you do is mentally and/or physically move yourself to a different point on the continuum and notice how it feels in your body. Let’s say you are sensing yourself as 75% superior. He asks you to slide yourself down to 10% superior and then up to 90% and notice how each position feels. After the new percentage registers in your body, Jerry points out that you affected your point of reference by making up a new one. He further points out that you made up your original point of reference as well, you just didn’t know it.
All of this serves as a backdrop to a phrase that recently popped into my mind – “Superiorly Inferior.”
It seems like a contradiction, but it’s more of a signpost that one part of the dichotomy causes the other. It’s the ultimate “Push-Pull.” There is no superior without inferior or vice versa. It’s really true for any dichotomy but let’s stick with this one.
Since it’s easier to judge others, I would like you to imagine someone whom you deem is superior to you. Next, think of someone you are more superior than. Please don’t confuse this with a person being more or less skilled at something than you. This is just a noticing of the sensation you feel in your body when encountering either one of these people. Now I want you to notice the effect your position has on the other person and how they relate to you.
Let’s pretend that you are more superior to them, notice that you have trouble connecting with them. Your supposed strength has caused a weakness. You are superiorly inferior. The opposite is also accurate. If you judge yourself as inferior, you are inferiorly superior. That means you are better than them at being inferior, and this also causes a disconnect.
The point of this is that our made up myths make up the bulk of our perceptions. These perceptions give us the pseudo-reality we call our life. We have made up the life we are living. We have scripted, lighted, scored, directed, acted, and post produced our Superior/Inferior movie.
The good news is we can make another movie. The plot of this one has us completely remove the dichotomy of “Superior/Inferior” from the story line and see where it takes us. What happens in the movie of our life when we remove the myths? What’s left when there are no more warring factions? The answer is your life in its purest form.
Life in its purest form makes no judgements or assessments. It just flows into what we do. If we have it flow through the filter of “Superior/Inferior,” we spend most of our existence saying “No” to life because we are too busy saying “Yes” to our limitations.
Here’s an invitation. The next time you are feeling either inferior or superior to another, notice the effect it’s having on the interaction. This momentary awareness begins the process of dissolving the dichotomy so that a real life connection can be made.
Our effort to be superior homogenizes reality and deprives us of the connections of life, which leaves us with an inferiority complex.
All the best,
John
http://GrasshopperNotes.com/blog
http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan
http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301
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