(Inspired by Jordan Peterson) We are different from animals in that we can have ideas. Animals don’t seem to have ideas, they are slaves to their nature and do not exhibit free will, they don’t get an idea and manifest it in the world like creating a constitution, starting a bakery, committing one’s life to reducing suffering in the world, or even following the ideas that make it OK to lie, or rape, and pillage.
Ideas seem to be alive and have force to become something in the world. Ideas are alive. For this reason Carl Jung said that we do not have ideas, ideas have us! People take on ideas and make them happen in the world, they can try out a new way of doing things and different ways of seeing the world.
So, ideas are powerful forces that we can either control or be controlled by. Rather, we have freewill to enter or exit a relationship with (or possession by) an idea. We can also let an an idea die so that we don’t have to, or we can let an idea kill us, or convince us to kill someone else. Just look around, we see this happening to people all around the world, all throughout history. What is cool is that we can give ourselves to a good idea!
So, there is a difference between “me”, the conscious thinking “me” that is unchanging, the part of me that can have ideas (or be had by them), and the ideas themselves. This is an epiphany for me! This has real import. I think it means that some of my behaviors, some of my habits that I do not like are the result of ideas that “have me,” I can choose to give up those ideas, to discard them and let them die. Just because I have held an idea for a long time does not mean it is “me.”
There is a “me” and it is made up of the animal drives and instincts that I was born with, my nature so to speak, and then there is the consciousness part of “me” that engages with ideas and creates things in the world. Then there is my history, the trail that I have left in life. That is not “me” either, it is just a record of my experience and choices. This is clarity.
The 365 Commitment is a set of ideas that you can choose to take on to make good things happen in the world. Underlying the 365 Commitment is the truth (the bargain with reality) that if we have a clear goal, discipline ourselves, delay gratification, and make sacrifices required, then our future (and the future of those we love) will be better. The 365 Commitment is a process for activating this truth.
So, think about the ideas you have or the ideas that have you. Let the ones that are not serving you or “the good” die. Take on the one’s that make your life better.
Sort of gives a new meaning to Paul McCartney’s song “Live and Let Die.”
Ben Wagner (165)
Member The 365 Commitment
