Section: A) - Syllabus 3

Matias Linder posted 3 years ago, 1 Responses
I find it difficult to understand the above statement. My interpretation of it is that people can affirm their personalities when liberating themselves from their prejudices over doctrines and moralities they do not understand. If this interpretation of the statement is correct, to some degree, I would not necessarily agree to it. I think people affirm their personalities whatever their beliefs are. Taking a couple of opposing examples, I think that both Donald Trump and the Dalai Lama affirm their personalities rather assertively. One, in a very egocentric way, openly expressing his prejudices, while the other one, in a very ego-less way, highlighting the relativeness of everything in life.
Personally, I adhere to the morality of the value of liberating oneself of prejudices. In my own life experience, when trying to implement this liberation in my life, I have felt greater doubts not only on my constituent beliefs, but, to a lesser degree, on my current beliefs. I believe that this process has initially led me to a milder expression of my personality, which now, as I grow in maturity, is shifting to greater levels of affirmation and assertiveness.

Dear Matias,

thank you for your perspective. Yes, I think you understood the statement in the correct way. At this point, I would like to add that only each individual by its own will know if a personality was identified and / or expressed in any specific way.

You mentioned Donald Trump and the Dalai Lama. Sure, both of them seem to be very different, but please remember, both of them have ‘a job to do’. One person is the president of a country and the other person is a spiritual leader. Both of them need to follow specific expectations. On the one side, such might be financial or business related supporters who enabled the election to the presidency, and on the other side there are millions of followers who have conscious or unconscious expectations towards their spiritual leader.

What a persons shows to the outside world, may not always be in harmony with the true personality. But this is a possible conflict that the person has to solve for its own. I, personally, could never work in something where I have to do things that are not in line with my concepts. Even though, this is something that I had to learn. When I was younger, I wanted to find a job, gain money, serve my family. But the work that I did was not relevant to me and I could not live my creativity, and of course I had no positive or any transformative impact to society.

So, I also set myself free. Only this fight took years, and many others are still in process.

I hope this reflection helped you.

BR, Daniel