The blind hero

By: theintrovertedtree
Inner search, Waiting and Here, , Leave a Comment on The blind hero

I have often wondered about Odysseus’ last words to Penelope before he left for Troy. How would the ultimate hero say farewell, how to explain the necessity to leave? It may be easier to use the excuse of duty than to explain the powerful attraction of the other side of the world, calling his name.…

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Unknowing fear

By: theintrovertedtree
Books, Inner search, Philosophy, Psychology, Second half of life, , 4 Comments on Unknowing fear

I love routine because it makes me feel safe. Life should be in order, so that I can predict what is going to happen at any time. Yet, an admonitory voice inside warned me: “Stop presuming you know what life should be like, just not to be in fear.” Fear of the unknown, I guessed.…

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The selves on the shelf

By: theintrovertedtree
Inner search, Psychology, , 1 Comment on The selves on the shelf

I am looking at old pictures. I see the child I was. I look at him in the picture and I perceive him as a separate person, i.e., not me. However, when I evoke the emotions and sensations that I felt back then, stored on one of those shelves in my memory, it feels immediate,…

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The space we take

By: theintrovertedtree
Books, Inner search, Second half of life, , 4 Comments on The space we take

Prompted by this excellent post by Andrew (thank you!), I read Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. The book navigates a succession of inner thoughts, feelings, states of mind in six disparate characters described with empathic but also stark accuracy, sometimes using mental images that may seem unrelated to a situation, but which provide such a precise…

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Mirror musings

By: theintrovertedtree
Inner search, Liminality, Psychology, Unconscious, , , 2 Comments on Mirror musings

Projections are my favourite psychological phenomenon. The transfer of part of our unconscious content to another being. That transfer of energy occurs from one part of our mind to another part of our mind. It is not really externalised. The external ‘hook’ does not demand projection, it mostly remains unaware. The part of our mind…

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Little gods

By: theintrovertedtree
Inner search, Philosophy, Unconscious, , , , 1 Comment on Little gods

It seems to me that most gods in the different mythologies are quite childish. If they don’t get their way, they release their wrath. I am guessing they never got ‘no’ for an answer. What did they want all that power for? They were bored and lacked a purpose. I wonder if they created men…

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The lingering question

By: theintrovertedtree
Inner search, Philosophy, Waiting and Here, , 2 Comments on The lingering question

We spend our lives asking ourselves who we are while, at the same time, we try to become someone else through every single action that moves us from here to there, as if ‘there’ were any different from ‘here’. Asking myself who I am used to lead me to a brick wall that seemed to…

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The desireless self

By: theintrovertedtree
Inner search, Philosophy, Waiting and Here, , , 3 Comments on The desireless self

Ask yourself, “What is the real motive behind everything I do, think, want?” You’ll see that your real desire is to be desireless. Your real desire is peace. Jean Klein, The Ease of Being The main aim of each want is to end the want itself. To be desireless, as Klein says. Once we get…

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The watching neighbour

By: theintrovertedtree
Inner search, Psychology, Unconscious, , , 2 Comments on The watching neighbour

One of the most repeated sentences in my school was “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. As a child I always thought the difficult part was to love others, taking for granted that I would always love myself. With time I realised that loving oneself was the toughest half of the sentence and an…

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