Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day24
As many of you know, I love quotes because in a few words they capture the moment we are in, the moments that have repeated themselves over and over again, and forearms us with ways to counter-act the horrific inhumanity that human beings perpetrate upon one another.
For the past few days, I have been living with and talking about Einstein’s quote: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” WOW, what a mouthful, what an apt description of this moment, just as it was at the moment he said it in defense of Bertram Russell who’s brilliance was being demeaned because of his social and moral unusual views. His views on religion, capitalism, and other societal norms would not be considered so ‘out of the box’ today, and they were then. Why Einstein said it is not as important as that he did say this and leave this to all of us as part of his legacy!
In speaking with people over the past few days, I realized that there are both the macro and micro levels to this quote. I have been thinking about how this quote is used to denigrate, explain, defend another person’s behaviors; the negativity of the “mediocre mind” and the soaring of the “great spirits”. Today, I am writing about the MICRO level because not only does another(s) do this to We the People, we the people allow our rational mind to violently oppose what our guts/souls know is the next right thing to do.
How often have any of us ‘gone along to get along’? How many times have we given up our principles and knowing in order to keep the job, the wife, the kids, …? How often have we ‘cut corners’ in order to get ahead, keep our social standing, get what we think we deserve? I know I am guilty of all of these, most prior to my recovery and, I, regretfully admit, there have been times in my recovery that I allowed my servant mind to override what my spiritual mind was telling me because I was afraid, because I convinced myself that this was for the ‘greater good’ and in many cases it was…for a while. What is at stake in every decision we make, every choice we choose, is our dignity, our longevity, our ability to “look at the man in the mirror” and not be disgusted by my decisions, by my choices. When I “go along to get along”, “cut corners” for my sake and not for the sake of heaven/another person, when I compromise my principles to ‘keep’ anything, I have lost myself, I have allowed the “violent opposition” of my own rational mind to overpower the spiritual truth that is reverberating inside of me. This battle between “violent opposition” of my rational mind servant and my intuitive/spiritual mind gift goes on all the time, yet most people are unaware of it, psychologists and psychiatrists believe they can medicate the war away, talk the war out when in reality they are helping to promote the “RATIONAL MIND’S “VIOLENT OPPOSITION”!
This is not to say that the rational mind isn’t useful and necessary-of course it is! At issue is the when, where, how we use it! As Einstein also says; “rational mind is a servant” and in modernity, since the renaissance maybe, society has elevated the rational mind to a much higher status than God does in the Bible-remember even the Israelites said “we will DO and then we will UNDERSTAND-not the other way around as is the case today.
My ‘math brain’ allows me to see way ahead of time the problems coming down the pike, it gives me solutions to material issues that come up all the time. It gives me a long-view of living in the material world that has helped me to succeed. It has also given me bad advice and when I have allowed it to take over, the chaos and evil that comes out is debilitating to everyone around me, bewildering to people, to me. It always comes out after its “violent opposition” to my soul’s solution and it sounds so rational, so correct that even after all these years, it still fools me sometimes. In Judaism we call this “violent opposition” the Yetzer HaRa-the evil inclination. Its is necessary and it is good when the energy is transformed, it is evil and very unnecessary when the energy is not transformed. I know the war, my soul has won overwhelmingly over the “violent opposition” of my “mediocre mind” and I have to be on guard all the time because it is a sneaky bastard!
ACTION STEPS:
Do a daily inventory of when your rational mind overwhelms, is in “violent opposition” to your soul’s knowing
Make a list of when your intuition was right and you followed it, when it was right and you didn’t, when it was wrong and you followed it and when it was wrong and you didn’t.
Ask yourself what the reward is from following the servant and is it worth it
Make a list of the times you did and then understood and the times you have waited to understand before taking action.
GOD BLESS, Stop Ghosting God, Stop Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark