Superiority Issues

[Socrates]

Two years deep in this personal development journey and after improving my life on all domains I've got an issue, I feel superior to other people. On the one hand it is justified because when I am self-actualizing they are consumed in mass culture but on the other hand, i have cultivated a bias towards them and it limits my interactions with them and their worth. This also has magnified after going vegan during those years especially when seeing how ignorant people are and how consumed they are in the culture, meaning they are not able to make decisions for themselves. This is probably an ego thing but the average person is so close-minded, indoctrinated, ignorant that I really don't have any respect for them really. That doesn't mean I want anything bad for them but they are not worth my time anyway because we can't communicate, they are trapped in their paradigm-lock and there is nothing positive that can come out of that.

[Girzo]

Ok, you feel superior, but why do you consider that as an issue in the first place. How does that limit you?

[Spiral]

@Girzo It's a problem because you treat people differently, generally in a degrading way. You struggle to create relationships with people because they to you are just pesky peasants. Among other things.  

@Socrates It's a phase it will go away

[Annie]

@Socrates  I understand you for the most part (though I don't get what going vegan has to do with anything). However, remember you also started small on this journey and not everyone you encounter and feel superior over has had the same chances as you in their lives. Each one has to travel their own road carrying their own load so don't feel disrespect for them. If you were in their shoes would you still be in the same place of knowledge you are in now?

[Visitor]

1 hour ago, Socrates said:

... i have cultivated a bias towards them and it limits my interactions with them and their worth.

.... meaning they are not able to make decisions for themselves. This is probably an ego thing but the average person is so close-minded, indoctrinated, ignorant that

I really don't have any respect for them really. ...

1) The ego is claiming your improvement and has labelled itself as superior. To uphold that self acclaimed status, it creates biases (stories of self-favoritism) for itself.

2) Were you never in the same boat.

3) Every person has the potential to improve. Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. There will always be somebody more actualized than yourself. Do you expect them to not have any respect for those less actualized like yourself. I am sure you do not hope so, or else there won't be anybody to help you along when you need it, or ask it.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Visitor

[Leo Gura]

@Socrates How can one fragment of reality be superior to another if all is ONE?

Contemplate!

Become deeply conscious that your position is simply untrue.

[Joseph Maynor]

@Socrates You can both be and not be superior.  Practically speaking, you can be superior, but existentially speaking you can't be.

So, you can cling to the belief that you are superior, but just hold it loosely, and don't assume it is part of your identity.  

Just because you are enlightened doesn't mean practical good and bad go out the window.  But just realize that even being a good, excellent, or virtuous human is a perspective on reality, an illusion at bottom.  Reality is the perspectiveless perspective.

But we half-live in the illusion, so thus the paradox: Be superior but don't be superior.  Ain't nothin' wrong with realizing you are smarter or better than other people.  Just don't cling too hard to that belief and don't assume it is part of your identity.  Your identity is nothing (or no-thing) existentially.

You don't exist existentially, and neither do other people.  All reality is one existentially.  

Edited August 8, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[elias]

On 07/08/2017 at 0:38 PM, Socrates said:

Two years deep in this personal development journey and after improving my life on all domains I've got an issue, I feel superior to other people. On the one hand it is justified because when I am self-actualizing they are consumed in mass culture but on the other hand, i have cultivated a bias towards them and it limits my interactions with them and their worth. This also has magnified after going vegan during those years especially when seeing how ignorant people are and how consumed they are in the culture, meaning they are not able to make decisions for themselves. This is probably an ego thing but the average person is so close-minded, indoctrinated, ignorant that I really don't have any respect for them really. That doesn't mean I want anything bad for them but they are not worth my time anyway because we can't communicate, they are trapped in their paradigm-lock and there is nothing positive that can come out of that.

I can resonate with that kind of feeling.,

until I discoverd that I by myself are also not perfect and that I am a lot projecting and mirroring.

 

in the end it was me who had this kind of thoughts and feelings.

[elias]

" When you are offended at any man´s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger." Epictetus 

[WaterfallMachine]

I heard a story that had to do with this lesson.

The main character was a boy with powers to move even heavy objects with his mind and exorcise powerful spirits. His brother often admired him for his special gift and people seeking to match his effortless psychic power envied him deeply.  He wasn't satisfied though. He had those powers but otherwise, he was just a normal teenager who wasn't popular, wasn't good at sports and didn't have high grades.

His master told him something like this when he was young. "You have those powers, but it doesn't make you superior. It's like any other talent a person has. It's like someone good in math. In gymnastics. In piano. And so on. You're equal to everyone else because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses." Take them out of their field and environment — and they can't adapt as well someone else could.

Now switch psychic powers with the skills you've learned in personal development — and you'll have something similar.

The show is called Mob Psycho 100 by the way — it explores the themes of superiority in multiple angles. It got me out of that line of thinking in such a deep humility by the end of the last episode.

Edited August 10, 2017 by WaterfallMachine