Re: Being mysterious. Posted by Betsy on January 22, 1999 at 19:06:16:
In Reply to: Being mysterious. posted by John (re Jeff; Sally on January 21, 1999 at 18:27:38:
This made me think of something I have seen both in myself and others--which is the tendency, when starting a new approach, to have a slightly smug or superior feeling about it. I think I grew up with the idea that one of the automatic rewards of trying to do things well was that you got to feel superior to those who weren't doing it the same way.
One of the things I like about the awareness approach is that it sort of rules out personal superiority--because you see that others are invested with essences that have their own strengths, even if different from yours.
Back to the difficult Board president I referred to earlier (by the way, I am feeling quite liberated now that I have resigned)--one of the things that had begun to bother many of us in that project was her tendency to believe, and promote the belief, that she had found "The Way." This was supposed to justify the most manipulative sorts of approaches to people who might have money or be willing to help--because "we knew" better than they did what they should be doing with themselves.
Somehow in my recent work I have begun to lose the ability or desire to make that assumption, no matter how happy I am with any current view of things. I think awareness is a big key to that shift for me.
Betsy
Archived 22 Mar 99