I’ve noticed that after I’ve written a post it takes about two or three days before most people have had a chance to read it and comment.  Sometimes there’s comments up earlier, but I don’t like to reply to them too soon.  

By the nature of the format of this blog I do most of the speaking.  And so to reply to a comment too quickly, may mean that I inhibit someone else from commenting.  It’s like if you’re in a group talking and the one who speaks the most says something, with some people, it can guide the conversation in a certain direction.  So I like to hang back and see if there anyone’s got any different ideas before replying.

photo credit: christophercarfi

However, after the last post heroes, heroic actions and stress free living, there is so much to say that I need add it all into a post.  All of the comments worked towards developing a much more refined sense of awareness.

Ruth kicked thing off by delineating between my definition of hero and hers.  I actually think that we mean the same thing, but the references that we are using mean different things to us.  Let me explain.

My definition of a hero was, someone who lived perfectly at the heroic standard.  I defined my Hero’s as Buddha, Jesus and Lao Tsu.  And I think that is where the misunderstanding comes in.  The standard story for these people is a mythologised idea that they were perfect Saints.

I absolutely do not believe that any of these three were born any different from us.  It’s clear in the story of the Buddha that his was a journey to enlightenment.  Where he was born in abundance, rejected materialism, almost to the point of death and then came into balance with the ‘middle way’.  I think that religion, certainly in the case of Jesus, has created an ‘idol’ which as Roland points out creates an image that we can’t live up to and so disempowers us.

photo credit: xmatt 

Jesus was a great man, but my understanding and so the base I refer to,is that his greatness was achieved and not bestowed.  I don’t believe in the immaculate conception, resurrection or other supernatural tales except in a metaphorical sense.  Having read speeches that he was reported to have made, I believe Christianity to be a social/political organisation based on a limited understanding of what he meant.

You see, when you strive for acceptance and popularity, you have to lower your standards to the lowest common denominator to be understood.  And so I think concepts and principles were dumbed down by the Church, to be made understandable for the general population at that time who were for the most part illiterate and had very primitive levels of understanding of the world.    

So to come back to Ruth’s point, I don’t believe in the idea of Sainthood.  I don’t think anyone ever has been unstained.  However I do think some people attain a level of growth and maturity, so that they remain almost perfectly pure from that moment onwards.  And so I think we agree on the standard, but obviously disagree on our judgement of who’s attained that level.  Which is obviously a factor of personal bias.

I’d like to think that Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama were as pure as their public image suggests.  But personally I just don’t believe that someone can be motivated to be so heavily involved in such political arenas and remain completely unstained.  But that’s a symptom of my personal distaste and distrust of politics.

photo credit: mrpattersonsir

However I do recognise each of them to have been heroic.   Each has a cause greater than themselves, that they have worked tirelessly and selflessly towards.  And as Michelle says just the conscious effort to ‘mostly’ live heroically is worthy of our deepest respect. 

However I still feel Hero, if it is to have meaning for me, means consistently heroic.  I’m just reminded of a scene in Devil’s Advocate that captures the essence of ego management. 

To give you some context, the first video shows how Keanu Reeves’s choice, influenced by pandering to his need to win over his ethics led him to a devastating outcome.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOfUGixqV0A[/youtube]

Then he has just been given a second chance to go back to the original scene, the forked path that began his descent, after seeing the consequences of falling for the temptation and rejects Al Pacino’s temptation and walks away only to fall at the second hurdle.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGXvj2BjZLA[/youtube] 

Life is much like Al Pacino (in that film anyway), where when we avoid falling for one and then just turns around and tricks us again with a different weakness.  Which is why when we jump to any other beat than the one inside us, we might as well walk across a minefield.

Brian pointed out that it’s all under our control, it’s our choices and so we can be heroic if we consistently live with integrity.  And that’s what it’s all about.  Bringing our inner and outer worlds together until we live in a unified and non-dualistic way.

Anything other than this is slower, ineffective and unproductive in getting to a happier life.  Osh made the excellent point that we need not just the intellectual or technical skills to do what we are doing, but also the emotional motivation and readiness.

Productivity has for too long been seen as being acquired by following prescribed systems and procedures when actually it is really about matching tasks with the emotional states that produce the greatest readiness to complete them.

However tools and techniques, especially the Getting Things Dome methodology, can work in helping to manage emotional states.  You just have to remember that it’s the emotional state that is the priority and not the task. 

Stress management is really about managing your emotional state.  Which is about ego management.  Putting aside our desire for minor gratification in order for the bigger goals in life.  It’s sacrificing temporary desires for eternal peace.  

This is much like how a pilot flies a plane.  It gets blown off-course a little, so you compensate.  Then it goes too far to the other side, so you guide it back.  In the same way, you naturally dip emotionally and so you need to top up or re-energise yourself.  

This is why the false idolisation of  ’hero’s’ has been so harmful.  Because people are trying to live up to external standards, when internally they are miles apart from those levels.  So what happens is that they wear themselves out trying to be saintly and exhaust themselves emotionally and so get bitter and depressed and so either lash out or in subtle and silent ways take their vengeance.

So now I’ve shared my thoughts, what do you think?

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