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Originally Posted by DavidDavidDavid  Nikki: As I alluded to previously, I think the term "personal development" is illusory to begin with -- like when advertisers say there's a "free" toy in each Cracker Jack or something (nothing's "free" there; it's included in the price of the product already).
"Personal development" is often taken to mean "bettering oneself"...but that "self" is illusory...how can you better something that's illusory? It's just switching one color of curtain for another within the prison of one's own mind.
Most people really don't know themselves...what they know is their own egos, their brain's self-projected reflections...the brain is a pattern-generating machine, you see...all the brain does is generate patterns, like how all the heart does is contract, contract, contract...that's why we naturally see familiar shapes in random cloud formations, etc. -- our brains are always looking to connect the dots...evolutionarily, this was a great thing in terms of survival, of course, but now that many of us are out of such literal fight-or-flight environments, the ego, like the body's innate propensity to store fat, has become a huge problem threatening the destruction of the species....
Just some thoughts to consider -- read some Krishnamurti, Erich Fromm, Viktor Frankl, and Marcus Aurelius for the "philosophical context" to my remarks...it would be way out of the scope of this thread to expound on them, sorry...one more tantalizing morsel: which comes first, the thinker or the thinking process?
Your answer to that question will demonstrate your beliefs about a "self" that exists...that question points to the very crux of the matter concerning so-called "personal development"...remember that scene from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" where the Jack Nicholson character says to all his fellow inmates something along the lines of, what's the matter with you?? You've got no problems, you're all okay! So one is shy, another talks to himself, etc. -- that's normal! Perfectly normal!
(Don't recall the scene exactly but that's the gist of it.) |
I get the philosophical context, don't worry.
About "which comes first, the thinker or the thinking process?"
I would dare to say they both came together, hell they didn't even came, they just are.
about
: "Most people really don't know themselves".
Do you know your self? Or do you THINK you know your self?
"the brain is a pattern-generating machine, you see...all the brain does is generate patterns, like how all the heart does is contract, contract, contract...that's why we naturally see familiar shapes in random cloud formations, etc. -- our brains are always looking to connect the dots...evolutionarily, this was a great thing in terms of survival, of course, but now that many of us are out of such literal fight-or-flight environments, the ego, like the body's innate propensity to store fat, has become a huge problem threatening the destruction of the species...."
While this is a little true, instead of seeing the ego as a treath, you can see it as a tool. .
"Your answer to that question will demonstrate your beliefs about a "self" that exists...that question points to the very crux of the matter concerning so-called "personal development""
The answer to this question is just my ego talking to yours. Nothing more nothing less.
footnote
If you think that spiritual about personal development, then there was no need for it, because our "self" is allready perfect. Yet everybody is searching and developing their skills.