Tag: ego

This is the world’s greatest blog post

Posted on by philipdodson

It could be…or it might not be.

It is all a personal opinion. It will depend on your view.

Opinions are formed by our ego and they are temporary mental forms, that we attach to, and then they have to be defended at all costs, in many cases, quite literally by some crazy ego-maniacs.

This is the challenge with attachment, it becomes personal. We label everything as ‘my ‘x”. For example, once ‘the car’ becomes ‘my car’, rather than just ‘the car’ then it is an extension of ourselves and so if someone scratches it, it is felt like we’ve been scratched.

The same is true with opinions, once we attach to them and the ego is involved, then it is seen by the mind as a matter of life and death. The ego is fragile and to be wrong is a threat to its very existence.

It really does not matter whether or not this is the world’s greatest blog post or not, it does not matter if you like it or not. What matters to me is that I enjoy the doing, I enjoy writing this, in this moment and it brings me joy. If it brings something to others, well that is an added piece of joy for me.

Anything else is for other people’s minds and views and my view is simply that, a view that matters not.

This is a path that will lead to peace and no pressure or burden of expectation

Theirs is much better

Posted on by philipdodson

Others work, whether it’s cooking, running, jumping, art, singing, dancing, writing, music…the list could go on, and on, and on, is better than mine.

When we compare ourselves to others, we always pick are a person we perceive to be better than us, then in a self-deprecating style, we say ‘theirs is better than mine’.

This hiding behind criticising ourself serves two purposes, one is an attention-seeking attempt, hoping that another will say ‘oh, don’t be silly, your ‘x’ is amazing’, this helps reassure our fragile ego, and the second, is a total protection of our fragile ego, by eliminating the risk of ridicule for claiming that our work ‘is the best’. We do not dare to step into the spotlight for fear of judgement or failure.

The fact is, all of it stems from the mind, and attachment to our ego and the story of ‘poor little me’.

Our work is neither the best nor the worst, these are just judgements of the mind and collective mind.

Our work just is. It only needs to be better or worse to serve the story and to allow us to feel inferior or superior. Others work is the same, neither good nor bad. All of this judgement cycle just leads to internal suffering, which then leads to suffering for others too.

Be happy in the doing of the work, enjoy the moment and be content with what is, seek pleasure from creating what we love in our soul not what we judge in our mind.

Of course, it’s lovely, of course, it’s amazing, of course, it’s beautiful. It is whatever we tell ourselves it is and it does not matter.

We are all our own biggest critic as a defence mechanism, instead, we could choose to be our own and other people’s biggest fans. Do from the soul and not criticise from the mind.

Love our work, love other people’s work too. It ends suffering and judegement.