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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's search for meaning... a journey that has
many roads; many paths - some rewarding, some strewn with fool's gold.
A continuing thread in this quest seems to be the seeker looking for
understanding from sources outside himself: the new guru, divine
revelations, whatever.
Cognitive awareness,
self-awareness, if you will is THE defining characteristic of Man. If
nothing else, a being usually knows he exists as an individual entity.
He is unique and has his own interpretation of the universe the way he
perceives it to be. This interpretation will always be there no matter
what new concepts are grasped, new insights gained.
An
individual's life is a component thing - made up of many different
interests and relationships: a job, friends, family, different groups
to which he belongs or is affiliated. These may blend, enhance or
detract from one another, but they are definitely separate parts of the
pattern of his existence.
A being has many viewpoints relating to these various
activities and interests. A viewpoint is simply the way a person views
and evaluates any part of his life. in Idenics, these viewpoints are
called identities. Simply stated, an identity is a separate self
created by the being, consisting of emotions, beliefs, ideas and
evaluations, to carry out some primary goal or purpose. Easy to see
examples of this might be a "husband" or "wife" identity - or a
job-related identity such as "real estate agent", "taxi driver", or
"bank president". Apparently, there is the basic being, the "I", which
experiences life, via these identities, shifting in and out of them
automatically, without much thought. The following is a simple example
of a person going form one identity to another: A computer salesman
comes home to the wife and kids and shifts into his "husband/father"
identity. It would be inappropriate if all he did was to continue to
try to sell his family computers. Selling computers is the primary goal
or purpose of his "salesman" identity, not his "husband/parent"
identity.
But why all this talk about identities?
What does it have to do with personal growth? People, whether they are
seeking greater self-awareness or not, usually have things about
themselves that they don't like - conditions that they have but don't
want, yet can't seem to get rid of. These unwanted conditions such as
"I have a bad temper", "I procrastinate all the time", "I'm so confused
about personal goals", keep people from being happy, let alone reaching
more enlightened states. One of the main discoveries in Idenics is that
these unwanted conditions are the property of identities, and by
addressing these identities the unwanted conditions can be easily
resolved.
Having identities is not in itself
aberrative to the individual. The assumption of identities as in the
above example does not cause the person difficulty. But the unknowing
assumption of certain identities that one gets stuck in and believes
are really him, do cause an individual all sorts of trouble.
Let
us liken an identity to a suit of armor. The person knows he's not the
armor. He gets in it, it limits his movement, but it can be useful in
certain circumstances. But what if he thinks he is this suit of armor?
What if there was no separation between him and it? It might work fine
in battle, but what if he tries swimming in it? He'd sink, of course.
Now he won't go near the water because he believes he's got this
unresolvable condition.
The above analogy may be a bit simplistic, but it does serve
in explaining a point. People are 'sunk' by identities they think they
are and can't get out of. Unaware of identities, a person may believe
he's limited and he's got unwanted conditions. A myriad of reasons and
explanations will be invented for undesirable situations that may make
sense, but don't resolve the conditions.
The idea
of identities is not new. Many names have been given to them and lots
of explanations of how they come to be. Many schools of thought mention
identities and have for hundreds of years, perhaps for thousands. But
much about identities, how and why they are formed, their
characteristics and make-up, their relationship to Man's problems, how
they're dealt with, and their relative importance in Man's search for
self-actualization was not known prior to Idenics.
Idenics
is essentially an evolutionary step in the development of a system for
self improvement and awareness. It is a new system, not just a rehash
of some earlier subject. if you have been involved in other methods of
personal development you have probably acquired certain basic
information that you use and is true for you. Likewise, there are
probably things that you found unworkable and false. Idenics will bring
about no conflict on either account. It should, in fact, reinforce
what's true for you and answer any questions you may have as to why
other things are unworkable. Even thought Idenics is a new subject it
will align to earlier knowledge. This is because, as with all new
developments, it has evolved out of earlier knowledge and experience.
The
purpose of Idenics is to help the being regain control over viewpoints
he assumes to play the game of life. Self-actualization? Finding out
who you are may be as simple as finding out who you are not.
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