Did You Ever Wonder About the Difference Between Accepting Our Nature and Embracing the Outcomes of Our Conditioning?
It has been a while since I was thinking of getting this out. Seeing one of my favorite movies of all time again was the trigger!
I was at my Swedish friend’s place in late 2019. They were at the office and I was getting ready to go out for an appointment. Meanwhile, I was listening to some music playing randomly.
I heard someone introducing the rehearsal of a song in such an attractive way that I couldn’t resist the temptation to stop everything and watch it. The song’s name was This is me from the masterpiece The Greatest Showman.
It was the first time I heard it. I was sitting at the table when I suddenly felt the urge to stand up. I danced, sang, and cried so loudly that I was expecting the police to knock at the door by the time I calmed down.
You might be tempted to ask a question at this point, in all likelihood, and it would be legitimate: “What does this song have to do with the topic introduced by the title?”
To answer your interrogation, let me first share with you a small part of the song’s lyrics:
When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
Gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me
I am wondering whether you heard of the Kintsugi Japanese art before. It is impressive to me given how similar it is to the human experience. The principle is simple:
Repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.
If we are humble and honest enough, we would all admit openly we are all broken to some extent. How is Kintsugi similar to the human experience, you’re asking?
It seems to me that the lacquer would be the unique human endowment we call self-awareness, while the powder of gold, silver, or platinum could be:
Our honesty to admit to ourselves how twisted our subconscious program is,
Our openness to challenge our ingrained limiting beliefs that we have been taking for the absolute truth,
Our bravery to stay long enough with the seemingly unbearable pain of unbecoming the filter***,
Our consistency in committing to re-writing the program in alignment with our natural constitution — the universal principles — through making use of our critical thinking skills effectively,
The healthy relationships that we start building progressively while reconnecting with our true selves. Those real friends have the power to hug our souls and heal our deepest scars effortlessly merely by being who they are.
At some moment of the rehearsal, Kiala grabbed Hugh’s hand. If you are anything like me, you can’t be witness to that vulnerable moment and stop your tears from flowing like a river! They modeled the kind of friendship I’m referring to!
In summary, being broken doesn’t make you any less worthy, should you be armed with the ingredients above. What is so special about this song is that it is celebrating the nature of human beings, including the bruises!
In contrast, embracing the outcomes of your conditioning is equivalent to living in the shadow of who you really are. It empowers the filter and the unhealthy ego.
It keeps your soul trapped while believing the lies about who you are. Simply put, it is dangerous to your sanity!
Many imposters love confusing you and getting you to think your persona is who you were meant to be (ask the True Self). You would hear them say unfailingly, “you gotta love your demons! They’re part of who you are and it won’t do you any favor to resist it!”
The truth is it only serves their sick agenda. Many gurus are extremely smart troubled souls. They rely on positive affirmations to nurture their grandiosity narrative and are almost remorseless no matter how much harm they may inflict.
Appealingly, they also know that emotionally imbalanced good people have the tendency to self-doubt and self-loathing and exploit it remorselessly.
By telling them how great they already are and that they merely need their mentor to guide their enlightenment path, the cycle can be endless. Please don’t allow them to win!
***Un(become) meaning: getting rid of all the lifetime of conditioning constructs and going back to the original being; moving from the personality sphere to the character arena!
Powerful message here (as always) my friend!