Sticks and Stones
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. That is quite the esoteric saying if you truly understand it's meaning.
In today's world, names appear to hurt everyone. However, the deeper question that needs to be asked is - "do or can they really?"
If you are capable of psychologically harming me with "names" or "name calling", then wouldn't it mean that my entire well-being is determined by someone or something outside of myself? If so, where does true self command of oneself come into play in that?
There can be no true self command if my happiness and well being is determined by what you say or do. Plain and Simple. The truth is, we give our lives away when we agree to allow names and name calling to so-call harm us.
I like to look at it this way. We are all a part of the same one consciousness. Every aspect of that consciousness is in each and every one of us in one degree or another. That might not necessarily seem like a "pleasant" thing to consider, but it's neither pleasant nor unpleasant. It's simply a fact. It's part of a grand spiritual law.
If someone says to me "Terri, you are so incredibly ignorant", even though Terri may not like to hear such a statement, I have an understanding that Terri's nature IS ignorant in many things and in many ways. As such, that statement is actually true about Terri. In truth, any statement is true about Terri in one degree or another. That's simply a fact.
My last post was called "Resist Not Evil." Well, the same thing applies here. "Resist Not Names or Name Calling" Meaning, allow what comes up inside you when someone calls you a name or accuses you of being something that isn't what you consider "good or pleasant." Allow that feeling to pass through you without throwing it back onto the "name-caller."
Work entirely inwardly, watching the parts of you that wants to throw it back onto them. That is the definition of having true self command, which is taking responsibility for negativity that has arisen inside of you, instead of pushing it away or throwing it back onto the deliverer. It is what it means to have your own life. It is what it means to help heal the world. It is the true meaning of sacrifice. It is the true meaning of loving your neighbor as yourself.
It is the meaning behind the phrase names will never hurt me, because names can only psychologically do harm if what is being said is resisted. And that so-called "harm" doesn't really harm anything real at all. There is simply an image we have of ourselves that feels threatened by the remark. The name-calling threatens that image and that is the pain that we feel in that moment. So, all and all, when we don't agree to throw it back onto to the name caller in the moment, we are agreeing to let that false image of ourselves die in that moment - which is really the whole purpose of our lives - to die to the unconscious images that we have of ourselves.
A true individual cannot be shaken.
We always have the final say, and as such, when there is an unconscious agreement to allow the name to harm us, we have played a part in that so-called harm. It's all up to each and every one of us, and I hope that you can see the truth of that fact.
Childhood is full of name-calling. Consider how different it could be for your child if they understood that anything that anyone says about them is really true about them in one way or another. Help them dig within themselves to find out that truth for themselves.
And, as well, how different that unwanted moment could be if your child knew the importance of suffering themselves for the sake of their neighbor, for the sake of Love. Because all the world has done, to date, is simply resist or throw back the unwanted pain in that moment onto the name caller.
I'm not saying that this is easy, but no true sacrifice is or ever has been.
We have become such wimps, and I mean that wholeheartedly. Where is the warrior that we were intended to be?
That warrior is hiding behind our current preference to be a wimp because, you see, being a wimp and throwing stones back onto others is the easy way.
The easy way causes more unconscious suffering and pain. It creates more of the name-caller that will in fact call again. The hard way, the suffering of ourselves, heals. Choose wisely.
"As surely as open skies can't be overcome by any cloud that may pass through them, neither can our True Nature be overwhelmed by any "dark" moment of life, regardless the shadow it seems to cast over it." -- Guy Finley
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