Self-Honesty.com
Thank you Jo-Jay for mentioning the word self-honesty at the Garden Of Friends!
It feels good to me, it carries the perfume of bravery, clarity and peace.
🕊️
Friends, please send me some ‘stuff’ to post here,
(preferably in a practical, non-dogmatic language?) …
No need for perfection!
Peace,
Holger@Self-Honesty.com
PS:
If Elon can fly to Mars then we should be able to uncover the gift of being alive.
Being open about what you expect versus what you find is one of the most useful things you can do.
Not Living on Borrowed Truth
- Your own findings, not second-hand ideas: Insight doesn’t come from repeating what we’ve read, watched, or been told. Phrases like “there is no self” or “all is awareness” mean little until you’ve seen them for yourself.
- No pretending: Claiming to understand something that isn’t really clear to you doesn’t help. Be a little skeptical of your own assumptions, and check them against what you actually experience.
Looking at the Territory, Not the Map
- Check your direct experience: Notice what’s actually here (sensations, sounds, sights) before the mind adds its labels.
- See labels for what they are: Look closely at “my body” or “myself,” and you may find shifting sensations and passing thoughts rather than a solid thing in charge. The label is the map; looking shows you the territory.
Admitting When It Feels Flat
- Report what you actually find: Looking honestly is often not dramatic. It can feel flat, boring, or empty.
- Skip the fancy words: Name those feelings plainly instead of dressing them up as bliss or grace. Being open about what you expected versus what you found is one of the most useful things you can do.
Noticing the Self-Improvement Trap
- Watch for the project: It’s easy to turn honesty into one more way to upgrade yourself: more awake, more spiritual, more evolved.
- Let the stories go: The mind loves to cook up deep-sounding theories about how to live. Simple noticing tends to cut right through them.
Being Your Own Teacher
- Answer your own questions: You don’t need anyone’s approval to trust what you see.
- Recover a child’s trust: As kids, many of us learned to doubt our own eyes and go along with what others said. Undoing that means trusting your own quiet, wordless noticing of what’s here right now.
Holger@MultiContextual.com, standing on the shoulders of giants.
“Newton didn’t invent the metaphor. It goes back at least to the 12th-century thinker Bernard of Chartres, whose idea was recorded by John of Salisbury: we are like dwarfs perched on giants’ shoulders, able to see farther—not because we are taller or have better eyesight, but because their stature lifts us higher.
The expression combines gratitude with a view of how progress works: surpassing earlier thinkers does not necessarily mean being more gifted than they were; it can mean having their accomplishments as your starting point.”