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Some of my students are starting to see that if they didn’t have the self-concern: The ITCH, they would react to life differently, they would be less upset, they would have a life, maybe, worth living.
So how does this work?
When you are in reality, things are as they are. A is A.It is what it is.
Ayn Rand was widely hated for this statement, but of course if you live like A should be B, then you would hate her, instead of looking to see: is A really A? What have I used to hijack A with and what is the trigger?
The questions intelligent people would ask.
But you say: everyone is intelligent? We could argue about that if intelligence were a yes/no quality, but it isn’t. Intelligence is anywhere from zero to the sky…
The average intelligence of humanity is very low… compared to what the brain could produce.
Sand we have this huge brain, and we only use a tiny fragment of its power, because of this issue: we are not living in reality.
The Matrix could be said to be a dreamworld… an artificial world where everything is about you. People do and say things to offend you, to slight you, to help you, to not help you, to destroy you, to invalidate you, to make you look bad, etc.
I used to live in the Matrix, full time, and I was always pissed.
Now I only live there part time, and when I notice, I move out.
My signal to notice I am in the Matrix is that I think what is happening is personal. A feel personally offended.
By the internet, by politics, by my computer, my website, my clients, my customers, my students, my neighbors… personally offended.
So what do I do? I notice it first… and then I snap out of it.
You have no way to see that you live in the Matrix, because you have never ventured outside of it.
For you A is never A. At best A is hell yeah A… at worst: A should be something else.
You are not who or how you should be. Things people are not how they should be. Things don’t go the way they should go.
One upset after the other.
The husband decides that he wants to live longer. So he goes for advice to his rabbi.
The rabbi advises him to do this every day: get up, have breakfast, kiss his wife, go to work, go home, kiss his wife, eat dinner, go to sleep.
The husband asks: if I do that, will I live long? To which the rabbi answers: I don’t know. I only know that it will feel very very long.
Our troubles come 90% from our interactions with others. Husbands, wives, children, mostly.
So this joke is about that:
A man tells a Rabbi: ‘I have a strong desire to live to eternity’
‘Get married,’ replies the Rabbi.
‘It’s that simple? Would that allow me to live forever?’
‘Not really, but the desire will disappear.’
These two jokes tell the whole truth about the human condition, about the Matrix.
Things look as if they could make A not A… as if they could make A into B… your boring life, your desire to live long into a happy one.
- Or would make people respect you
- Or would make you, instantly, a successful businessman
- Maybe it would make your daughter, suddenly, change into a conscientious you lady
- Or would make you important, like you were for your mother
- Or would make people care about your driveway as much as you do
and the delusions can fill pages after pages after pages.
All desires to make A into B.
But in reality A is A… and your actions need to be consistent with that. But, of course, they aren’t. They are, instead, reactions to the personal offense or slight… fully and totally inappropriate.
This is why you MUST become masterful in the ITCH, because unless you do, you’ll continue living in the Matrix, unhappy, unfulfilled, slighted, angry, disappointed, and powerless.
And if you are a chicken, a yellow belly, your future is already written.
Not pretty.
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