Self-deception

"Humanity’s ability to deceive itself is very remarkable and has attained a great extent, with tragic and unnecessary consequences."

"You cannot have a fanciful, romantic view of life in the Universe if you are to understand it and prepare for it accordingly. You must have wisdom and sobriety. You must be without self-deception in this matter."

"Many people in the face of this simply capitulate and go back into their compromised state where they will not feel what they feel. They will not know what they know. They will just try to make the best of the situation. Perhaps they will be philosophical regarding it and say, “Well, wherever God wants me to be, I will be,” as if God is the source of their problems. Or they will try to make a situation that is not working look better than it is by highlighting its benefits and its potentials and so forth.

These are all forms of self-deception, of course, but one of the reasons that people take this form of action, which is not in their best interests, is to avoid dealing with what they will feel within themselves. They are afraid of their own feelings. Having never really built a deep relationship with themselves, now they are afraid of what is inside of them—afraid of anger, afraid of grief, afraid of feeling out of control. And this, of course, is the source of much mental illness and human incapacity."

"Many years ago I came upon a small plain book from India containing interviews with a little known teacher, Sri Nisagadtta, who stated, 'The pursuit of happiness is the root of all evil.' This of course really shocked me, and I spent years walking around it wondering how the pursuit of happiness would be related to evil? Later with NMG teachings such at the Wisdom II teaching on Honesty began to shed real light on this troubling and mysterious question. Pursuing happiness is a subjective approach to life where all that makes you happy is thought to be desirable and good and all that makes you unhappy is thought to be undesirable and to be avoided. Yet in truth, our growth and wisdom are mostly born of dealing with facing undesirable things within ourselves and others and solving difficult problems in life Facing the reality of Separation requires facing all these things. Refusing to do so is at the core of dishonesty and self deception. Growing up, if possible, requires outgrowing trying to make Separation work, trying to get what you want in life as your main objective to the denial and rejection/neglect of all other things."

See Also

Honesty

Self-talk

Further Study

• Discerning False Messengers (March 21, 2000)

• Building the Foundation for a New Life: Self Confidence

• Steps to Knowledge, Step 5:"I believe what I want to believe."