Quote Contemplation for the Depressed
For those of you struggling with hard times who think "I wish I could go back" or "I used to be a better person," and feel a sense of loss that the "old you" has died, here's your contemplation of the day!
The real issue in our culture is not possession by loa, demons or
angels, but posession by what is commonly known as personality, the
cluster of traits that we identify as ourselves and that we project in the
world aroudn us. Personality is such an acceptable and pervasive
expression of self in our society that it is frequently mistaken for self.
To the extent that we identify with the roles, mores, and expectations
of our personalities they possess us, strangling the vast array
of possibilities inherent in self. Ritual posession is one way of breaking
free from the confines fo a too deeply entrenched personality.
Possession is most alarming if we view ourselves as static, fixed
entities with an inborn mandate to resist all but superficial change.
according to this view, self is an object. The self is placed within the
same category as a car or a house, as something we own. It is frightening
to consider the possibility of a force taking our house away; in the
same manner as it is frightening to consider the loss of self. Self is seen
as an unchanging thing that we as beings possess.
An alternative perspective views self as a process. Seen in this way,
the self has an ephemeral quality and is always changing. The "mask
of the self" is at best momentary.
I have photographs of myself as a child, but I am no longer that self.
I have memories of myself before I sat down to type, but I am no
longer that self. One being can wear any number of "masks" or
"selves." It has been said that the one constant of existance is change.
The phenomenon of posession is not a special case; it is an extreme
point on the continuum of constant change.
- Sallie Ann Glassman
Now consider that all reality is just your personal memory of an instant ago; but we won't get me started on reality! I could go on for hours, since I'm not a big believer in the theory of consensus reality!
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
- Attributed to Nelson Mandela