A recent Peace Quote: “It is the anonymous ‘they,’ the enigmatic ‘they’ who are in charge. Who is ‘they’? I don’t know. Nobody knows. Not even ‘they’ themselves.” — Joseph Heller
The night before that Peace Quote came out, a conversation in group at the Monastery about communication took us to a discussion of our relationship with “authority figures” and how we deal with them. Of course, we’re conditioned to believe that authority figures are “those people out there with power over us,” people we’re meant to “fear and obey” as they have the ability to “hurt” us—bosses, teachers, police officers, judges. But that clearly was not the real story.
Jen said, “It seems to me that the ‘authority figure’ in my head is making me afraid of it. I’m afraid to say or do anything that will upset the judgmental, punishing voice in my head. Doesn’t that make the ego voice in conditioned mind the real authority figure?”
Yes. That authority in the head convinces me that I must do whatever it says, so as not to upset it, and a big part of the way it exerts its control is to convince me I must not say or do anything that will upset you. What we’re not allowed to see is that “not to upset you” means not to upset the judgmental, punishing voice in my head or the hateful voice in your head, primarily so it won’t use you to come after me!
Sheesh!
So, we’re all going through life walking on egg shells for fear we will upset a nasty voice in our head or in someone else’s head?
And no one realizes that’s what’s going on?
“It is the anonymous ‘they,’ the enigmatic ‘they’ who are in charge. Who is ‘they’? I don’t know. Nobody knows. Not even ‘they’ themselves.”
Perhaps we’ve solved the puzzle?
Gasshō,
Ch