Date: 11-18-2024
Source: The Hero Within - Carol S. Pearson
Tags: individuation self-trust identity
”When people have not developed much sense of a separate, autonomous self, they basically are run by what they think to be the opinions of others.”
- pg. 70 of The Hero Within - Carol S. Pearson
Ego transcendence requires an ego to transcend.
Conditioning runs far deeper than we are conscious of, and so much of our programming limits and hinders our development. There are many reasons for remaining subservient to our “tribe”. For most of human history, this allegiance has meant survival. However it’s only once we break away from the tribe and develop autonomy that we begin to live as free and sovereign human beings. As long as we live through lenses of the opinions of others, we are not free. We are slaves to an illusion. Even if we could accurately perceive what other’s believe about us, it would be slavery to live in accordance with their opinions of us, but the fact is that we can never truly know what others think of us, so to live in accordance with our perception of their opinions is preposterous.