Humans are not self-aware

[timewerx]

Yes, we are programmed to run the rat race (pace the video you posted) and told we will be happy. I think a good many realize it's a lie, too late. They already have a family, career, a home, etc., so that now others depend on them continuing the race. One can be self-aware and know they are running a losing race. But, maybe it's also true that one can know the race is a sham, and live open hearted and generous even while they continue within the programmed paradigm. Not every hermit lives alone.

Ironically the Bible, Jesus gave *hard* answers for these situations.

The New Testament Bible is actually filled with many passages that concern self-awareness.

Jesus called those who lacks self-awareness as "dead".

I don't need to elaborate what Jesus said about where our family stands against matters concerning Him. Those are very hard teachings. Even if treated in figurative terms, they are still hard teachings.

But, maybe it's also true that one can know the race is a sham, and live open hearted and generous even while they continue within the programmed paradigm. Not every hermit lives alone.

The truth about this world can only bring sorrow to those who are self-aware (Luke 6:20-22)

 

[Maria Billingsley]

noun
noun: self-awareness
conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires. - Oxford

But the truth is, you do not have control nor awareness of your feelings and desires. You are programmed to make specific response based on specific circumstances. These feelings and desires are not your own. These are imprinted on you by the collective will of our society.


What you have is an illusion that you are in control but are not. An illusion of freedom in a very big prison.

Up to a certain age, you desire to be married and have children. But this is not the only choice available to you.

You desire a good career or a good business and have plenty of money to live. But this is not the only choice available to you.

You desire a nice house, nice car, nice hobbies, travel all over the world, But this is not the only choice available to you.

To retire in old age, die seeing the kids successful and their grandchildren. But this is not the only choice available to you.

In terms of actual needs, many of those things are futile.

Those choices are NOT YOURS. They were made for you by somebody else.

They only represent a very small percent of other things you can possibly choose to do. So ask yourself, are you truly free and able to see whats happening around you?

Your self awareness and life ended in childhood. You are no longer alive. You will respond in a very predictable manner because you live according to your programming.

I respectfully disagree. If this were the case, there would be no free will to love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of Nazareth and in the end He will say "I never knew you".
Blessings

 

[timewerx]

I respectfully disagree. If this were the case, there would be no free will to love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of Nazareth

Free will is correlated to self-awareness indeed.

But free will is NO free will if someobody else made the the choices for you.

If I put an ant in a maze and seal the entrance and exit, the ant can exercise its "free will" to choose whatever path to take try to get out of the maze. But whatever path it chooses, it is never getting out.

That is not free will.

What free will looks like is the ant chewing its way out of the maze. Good things doesn't always come easy.

The Truth will set you free but first you need to find it. You can't without self-awareness and you can't have self-awareness without unlearning the programming of this world in your mind.

Only few will ever find it according to the Bible. It's literally true.

 

[Yttrium]

The Truth will set you free but first you need to find it. You can't without self-awareness and you can't have self-awareness without unlearning the programming of this world in your mind.

Well, that would certainly be nice. I'm a skeptical hermit myself, who abandoned following the typical conventions way back as a teenager. Still looking.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Free will is correlated to self-awareness indeed.

But free will is NO free will if someobody else made the the choices for you.

If I put an ant in a maze and seal the entrance and exit, the ant can exercise its "free will" to choose whatever path to take try to get out of the maze. But whatever path it chooses, it is never getting out.

That is not free will.

What free will looks like is the ant chewing its way out of the maze. Good things doesn't always come easy.

The Truth will set you free but first you need to find it. You can't without self-awareness and you can't have self-awareness without unlearning the programming of this world in your mind.

Only few will ever find it according to the Bible. It's literally true.

Thank God we are not ants!

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Thank God we are not ants!

That's funny . But consider how like ants hmans are. Check out this poem
Departmental
An ant on the tablecloth
Ran into a dormant moth
Of many times his size.
He showed not the least surprise.
His business wasn't with such.
He gave it scarcely a touch,
And was off on his duty run.
Yet if he encountered one
Of the hive's enquiry squad
Whose work is to find out God
And the nature of time and space,
He would put him onto the case.
Ants are a curious race;
One crossing with hurried tread
The body of one of their dead
Isn't given a moment's arrest-
Seems not even impressed.
But he no doubt reports to any
With whom he crosses antennae,
And they no doubt report
To the higher-up at court.
Then word goes forth in Formic:
"Death's come to Jerry McCormic,
Our selfless forager Jerry.
Will the special Janizary
Whose office it is to bury
The dead of the commissary
Go bring him home to his people.
Lay him in state on a sepal.
Wrap him for shroud in a petal.
Embalm him with ichor of nettle.
This is the word of your Queen."
And presently on the scene
Appears a solemn mortician;
And taking formal position,
With feelers calmly atwiddle,
Seizes the dead by the middle,
And heaving him high in air,
Carries him out of there.
No one stands round to stare.
It is nobody else's affair
It couldn't be called ungentle
But how thoroughly departmental

 

[Michael]

noun
noun: self-awareness
conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires. - Oxford

But the truth is, you do not have control nor awareness of your feelings and desires.

If you ever take up meditation, you'll find that you will quickly become very aware of your feelings and desires and their effect upon your meditations. Controlling them is the tricky part, but becoming 'aware' of them is hard *not* to do.

Meditation pretty much forces one to become aware of, and become the "observer" of one's own thoughts and feelings and desires. Self control is a whole different issue, and not necessarily the same thing as becoming "self aware".

 

[OldWiseGuy]

If you know the truth, you will realize that worldly things are stained with the blood of the innocents. Study the "Supply Chain" and see where it starts and the mathematics of economy.

Ignorance is bliss but it's the truth that saves. Truth leads to repentance.

Even the Bible says we should not love anything in this world (1 John 2:15-17)

Because the world and its works are evil (John 7:7)

Facts, hard evidence, and science supplies proof of the reality of those teachings.

MOST people will hate to acknowledge this because of their programming.

Let's look at those things in detail.

"Go to school". Most go to school but once there have many choices. Some even choose not to learn anything.

"Get a career". Millions work at mundane jobs, others build careers, and millions don't work at all.''

"Buy a house". Many choose to rent, and thousands live on the street.

"Get married". Many choose to remain single.

"Have kids". Many choose not to have kids.

"Have hobbies". Many don't have hobbies.

"Weekend routines". Weekends are for fun, rest, or whatever, or doing nothing at all.

"Have grandkids". Those who don't have kids don't have grandkids.

"Retire, and finally die". Many work until the day they die...but all die.

So you see we don't all follow 'the program', except the last part.

You might want to explore scripting instead of programming. Scripting is written for us by our families, programming is written by society.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I thought this might go a Buddhist or Advaita route in that the self we think we are is not the true Self.

 

[timewerx]

"Get married". Many choose to remain single.

You and I regularly visit the Singles section of the forums.

I'm sure you're aware many of them desire to get married one day.

Go back to my OP. I mentioned specifically about desiring to have these things, not necessarily actually having them. There are other choices but not really "Plan A" to many. You can choose to sit wherever you want inside the cage, but you're still inside the cage.

If everyone can easily afford to buy a decent house in a decent neighborhood, most people would have their own house.

Most people can only afford to desire. But even the things most people desire are not worth desiring once you realize what they're made of.

 

[timewerx]

Well, that would certainly be nice. I'm a skeptical hermit myself, who abandoned following the typical conventions way back as a teenager. Still looking.

The major flaw in religion is that most followers, they never really abandon the corrupt ways of this world and then view ancient wisdom from this corrupt perspective.

They never come to awareness of what is good from evil.

Luke 6:26
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

Luke 6:23
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

 

[Kaon]

The OP IS true, which is why humans are so easily exploited, and we repeat our history.

A select few are actually self aware, but many use this awareness to control others. Oh well.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

The OP IS true, which is why humans are so easily exploited, and we repeat our history.

A select few are actually self aware, but many use this awareness to control others. Oh well.

I use my self awareness to control myself.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

You and I regularly visit the Singles section of the forums.

I respond to threads there but I don't regularly visit that forum. More often I respond to an interesting thread title without knowing which forum it's in until later.

 

[timewerx]

The OP IS true, which is why humans are so easily exploited, and we repeat our history.

A select few are actually self aware, but many use this awareness to control others. Oh well.

People are easily controlled by fear and reward.

Jesus taught if we are motivated by those things, we will not inherit eternal life.

Many Christians still follow the wisdom of Solomon when the wisdom of Christ kept contradicting the wisdom of Solomon. Many Christians love the wisdom of Solomon for one reason - money. And money is a control element.

The purpose of the Bible is not only for teaching but also to test people.

The Bible is testing you if you have gained enough self-awareness to discern what is right and what is wrong.

The Bible even gave us specific directions of where the great deception will come but with ample programming, most Christians would fiercely reject its true meaning.

Most Christians don't realize this and the concrete evidence of this is the many denominations within Christianity, all claiming to know the way, guided by the Holy Spirit and yet bitterly disagree on many subjects.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

People are easily controlled by fear and reward.

Jesus taught if we are motivated by those things, we will not inherit eternal life.

There's a difference between controlled and motivated.

 

[Kaon]

I use my self awareness to control myself.

Perhaps, but if you can't sell everything you own now, or if you can't afford to lose it all without serious trauma or sadness then likely your control is delusion. Most philosophies and religions of the world have disconnection from the material world as a step to growing and becoming more aware. As the Word of the Most High said to the rich young man, "sell all of your possessions... then you will be 'perfect'". Part of the illusion of self awareness is the energy we put into an action, and a favorable result output. This is because our thinking is so basic that we do not demand much; most of what we look for can be accomplished by luck and circumstance. For example, subliminal control works well because it allows the vessel to believe what s/he does is their own idea. This way, there is no resistance in the programming.

Moving a mountain, for example, requires a measure of self awareness that only One Human I know has... so far. But, Peter walked on water for a few seconds until he reverted back to his original programming of the world that says humans can't walk on water. For a few seconds, Peter was actually self aware.

What seems real may be a very detailed projection.

 

[Kaon]

The major flaw in religion is that most followers, they never really abandon the corrupt ways of this world and then view ancient wisdom from this corrupt perspective.

They never come to awareness of what is good from evil.

Luke 6:26
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

Luke 6:23
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

These are built-in defense mechanisms in the programming - to discourage divergence. When people are legitimately hated for telling the truth, it is because they pose a threat to the program.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

It's rather ironic to hear people disparaging social & cultural programming from deep within the bounds of their religious indoctrination... Matthew 7:3 springs to mind

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

There are different levels of self and self knowledge.