I Am The Hero Of The Story of My Life

[doppelganger]

I was talking to a friend at work on Friday. He's a "born-again" Evangelical Christian and we talk frequently about religion because he fancies that he can turn me back to the dark side. Anyhow, he mentioned a sermon he heard recently that he really liked about how each of us was one of either of the two thieves crucified with Jesus - the one who professes faith and is forgiven his sins and the one who presumably is sent to Hell by the Loving God. As he mentioned this, I interjected that there where three people up there, and ask why would he "want to identify himself with anybody but Jesus" if given the choice? He looked stunned for a moment, then something clicked and he muttered the scripture about "be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect" and then "I'll have to think about that."

I've been thinking about it too. Identifying one's self with Peter in a story starring Jesus is like reading a Batman comic and dreaming of someday being Robin, or reading Superman and wanting to be Jimmy Olsen.

Why would anybody want to play the role of the bumbling sidekick in the story of their own life?

 

[Sunstone]

I suppose there are people in this world who are such slackers they would prefer to be the bumbling sidekick of their own life. That way they don't have to work hard to do their personal best.

Your point, Dopple, reminds me of a point Huston Smith made in his survey of the world's religions. I recall he points out somewhere that the message of Buddhism is the Buddha was a man just like every other man and, hence, enlightenment (or "salvation") is available to all men. In Buddhism, at least, you find a religion in which you can be the hero of your own life -- you can save yourself from dukkha.

 

[yuvgotmel]

I was talking to a friend at work on Friday. He's a "born-again" Evangelical Christian and we talk frequently about religion because he fancies that he can turn me back to the dark side. Anyhow, he mentioned a sermon he heard recently that he really liked about how each of us was one of either of the two thieves crucified with Jesus - the one who professes faith and is forgiven his sins and the one who presumably is sent to Hell by the Loving God. As he mentioned this, I interjected that there where three people up there, and ask why would he "want to identify himself with anybody but Jesus" if given the choice? He looked stunned for a moment, then something clicked and he muttered the scripture about "be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect" and then "I'll have to think about that."

I've been thinking about it too. Identifying one's self with Peter in a story starring Jesus is like reading a Batman comic and dreaming of someday being Robin, or reading Superman and wanting to be Jimmy Olsen.

Why would anybody want to play the role of the bumbling sidekick in the story of their own life?

First of all, have you used any of the information from that thread with roli in your talks with your friend? (...Just out of curiousity...)

Secondly, it is an odd thing (that you mentioned) isn't it? It's not limited to Christianity either. There does seem to be a lot of followers in religions to elevate some hope/dream while diminishing their own potential.

This link has a great video: http://www.consciousone.com/wisdomflash/WFView.cfm?PID=148

"Go With the Soul"

 

[doppelganger]

I suppose there are people in this world who are such slackers they would prefer to be the bumbling sidekick of their own life. That way they don't have to work hard to do their personal best.

I think that's a big part of it. It's much easier to take some mythology that one doesn't understand and "believe" in it, than it is to work through figuring out who one really is and coming up with one's own vision for life. Once you've done the latter, the mythology doesn't need to be "believed" because it will be lived. As long as "Jesus" is out there instead of in here it relieves the "believer" of responsibility for his or her own reality. One becomes an observer of one's own life rather than the master.

In Buddhism, at least, you find a religion in which you can be the hero of your own life -- you can save yourself from dukkha.

But that is the message in Christianity as well for anyone who wants to find themselves. "Jesus" is you. The "Christ" is within. Yet in mainstream Christianity, people settle for following orders from Peter, when the Christ is within them. They imagine themselves to be the sentenced criminals, when in fact, each of them is the judge. The imagine themselves to be creatures, when in fact they have all the power of the Creator; the Divine Logos made flesh to dwell among us.

 

[doppelganger]

First of all, have you used any of the information from that thread with roli in your talks with your friend? (...Just out of curiousity...)

No. He's quite a bit different from roli. He's much less inclined to "spellcasting" (at least with me). It's all about apologetics with this friend of mine.

Secondly, it is an odd thing (that you mentioned) isn't it? It's not limited to Christianity either. There does seem to be a lot of followers in religions to elevate some hope/dream while diminishing their own potential.

It is odd. People want to give up the power to create values in exchange for a pocketful of empty promises and useless symbols that they can't understand anyway.

We squander our inheritance. We trade our last cow for a handful of magic beans, but then lack the heart and courage to plant them, thinking it's all we have left.

 

[eudaimonia]

"Be the hero of the story of your life" is excellent advice, and is one way I think of my own spiritual path.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[PureX]

I think there are a whole lot of people who don't want to be the "hero" of their own story. I might be one of them.

The older I get the more I begin to sense that the heros and the fools are the same people. Same with the leaders and the losers. And the victims and the victimizers.

I guess it's the taoist in me. But I tend to feel that the less I do the better man I become. The less I judge, the more clearly I understand what's going on around me. The less I "help" the more helpful I am, without even realizing it.

Sometimes time and circumstance put us in a place where we have to decide to play the hero, or not to. And when that happens, I hope I will have the courage to play the hero. But in all honesty, I also hope that time never comes. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

 

[doppelganger]

The older I get the more I begin to sense that the heros and the fools are the same people. Same with the leaders and the losers. And the victims and the victimizers.

That is all quite true. Every character in a hero story is within us. Though we choose to identify primarily with one aspect.

I guess it's the taoist in me. But I tend to feel that the less I do the better man I become. The less I judge, the more clearly I understand what's going on around me. The less I "help" the more helpful I am, without even realizing it.

But that's reading the hero story as other than mythology. The hero's journey isn't about changing the world. It's about changing one's self. We tend to read such stories as "good vs. evil," but that doesn't have to be so. The "good" and the "evil" in the story aren't the judgments of the characters or their actions. The action is mythological, it refers to the interior psychology of the reader.

 

[Willamena]

I'm not clear how a hero is being distinguished from a bumbling sidekick. Surely if the bumbling sidekick is being the best darned bumbling sidekick a bumbling sidekick can be, he is heroic in his own story?

Edit: Ah, I just read post #4. Interesting.

 

[wizanda]

Batman and Robin = Jumping Jehosaphat = list of interlinking religious books

 

[YmirGF]

It is odd. People want to give up the power to create values in exchange for a pocketful of empty promises and useless symbols that they can't understand anyway.

We squander our inheritance. We trade our last cow for a handful of magic beans, but then lack the heart and courage to plant them, thinking it's all we have left.

A magnificent post Dopp. It is so very true and is perhaps a central core in my own "message" if I have the right to call it that. Frankly we have all the aspects of personality within us, but it would seem to me that we are frightened of our own power or creativity to such an extent that we saddle ourselves with the complacent self-satisfied mediocrity of safety. We have tossed away the heroic self-image of our youth and traded it for the sensible-shoes "doubting Thomas" of adulthood all the while becoming a well-oiled little cog in the machinery of our mediocre society where everyone strives to "fit in".

Then we scratch our collective heads when people slip out of sync and "go off the deep end" because they can't handle the "gerbal wheel of life" that they have partially created by denying their own creative potential. To be fair, our society also urges and forces people to go for safe co-existence and cautions about living on the wild side, following the beat of your own drummer, all the while understanding that we are all different, almost as reflections of diversity incarnate.

I guess what I am blathering about is the need to allow people to grow in whatever direction they want to. We need to fear less and plan better. Not rigid planning, but flexible planning that grows with the individual. I dunno Dopp, we always hear about nuturing and stuff like that but it is rare when people are allowed to "do what they want" in a business environment. To top it all off our form of society is still pretty much experimental. I'm waiting for the studies that will prove that working in a stress filled environment with uncaring bosses and demanding clients is not a healthy way to live and is what causes many illnesses. Obviously most people do not have a lot of choice over such things but perhaps it is time we developed bolder more interesting business models that are "green" from the ground up and pay attention to mental health as much as they pay attention to their evil CO2 footprints.

 

[eudaimonia]

Surely if the bumbling sidekick is being the best darned bumbling sidekick a bumbling sidekick can be, he is heroic in his own story?

Absolutely!


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Scarlett Wampus]

In my own "heroic" efforts I've failed, failed and failed again. Each time I have been saved by something outside of myself that I did not expect. Looking back I realise that if I'd succeeded in the big things I had set out to do in life as I envisioned them I would've been more limited as an individual and would have missed greater opportunities that came through surviving failure. However, if I hadn't attempted to be heroic to begin, to risk failure and my own demise, then I would never have had the opportunity to change. The gain has definitely been self-knowledge. The jury is out on wisdom though.

Rise, shine, fall and die. Let it come, let it be, let it go.

 

[Willamena]

I happen to like Jimmy Olsen.

 

[Scarlett Wampus]

Secondly, it is an odd thing (that you mentioned) isn't it? It's not limited to Christianity either. There does seem to be a lot of followers in religions to elevate some hope/dream while diminishing their own potential.

Yep. Father Gerard Hughes, a Jesuit priest, said something like this to me once, "Be wary of putting God high up, above and beyond, unreachable, etc. Its easy to cut yourself off from God that way and I think people do it because they would often prefer to pacify themselves by keeping God far away than be moved to liveliness by God within them."

 

[lunamoth]

Some days the Jesus suit fits better than others (Gal 3:26). Other days I am the thief, bathed in radical grace (Luke 23:43).

added: I think that folks who think that Christianity is telling them to settle for less are not getting it. We settle for less far too often. Christ told us to settle for nothing less than authentic life, eternal life.

Sadly, sometimes Christians take this passage from Paul's Epistles to mean that we should stop thinking, abandon reason, or even become suspect of scientifically derived knowledge:

16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become "fools" so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness" [a]; 20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." [b] 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas [c] or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

This passage does not mean to become credulous and naive. I think this passage describes the conflict between power politics and love politics.

 

[doppelganger]

added: I think that folks who think that Christianity is telling them to settle for less are not getting it. We settle for less far too often. Christ told us to settle for nothing less than authentic life, eternal life.

Excellent, Luna. Yes, we simply scratch the hero off the list of who we can identify with because it's considered blasphemous. Of course we are also the "bad guy" and the "bumbling sidekick" too. By reading mythology as other than mythology, we foreclose its path, to aspire to be the hero, who takes the journey of self discovery and thereby redeems the world (that applies to you "Taoists", too).

The journey of Spider-man isn't killing the bad guys. It's discovering who he is and claiming his power and his personal responsibility for his power. After all, the "bad guys" are always a part of the hero's own self - things of his own creation (Lex Luthor, The Joker, Venom, Sandman, Judas Iscariot, etc.).

 

[yuvgotmel]

Doppelganger,

Yesterday, when I read your thread, I was reminded of the "Go With the Soul" inspirational Flash video. Today, I replayed it several times for myself and copied the words on notepad while it was playing. The author of "Conversations with God" is the voice on the Flash video. You'll probably notice elements of what you've been asking about in this thread. I hope you don't mind the long post, but something about this thread caused me to think of this again.

http://www.consciousone.com/wisdomflash/WFView.cfm?PID=148

Make your Entire Life a Conversation with God

“Conversations with God, Book One”
by Neale Donald Walsch

the JOURNEY

The most difficult thing for people to do
is hear their own
SOUL.

Go with the soul.

Notice that so few do.
Notice that so few do.

Frustration and anxiety
comes from not listening
to one's soul

Learn
what is the soul's desire
- and go with that.

Go with the soul.
Go with the soul.

What the soul is after
is...
The highest feeling of love you can imagine.

This is the soul's desire.
This is its' purpose.

You judge yourself for wanting to laugh,
wanting to cry,
wanting to win,
wanting to lose
for wanting to experience joy and love
-- especially do you judge yourself for that.

Somewhere you've came across the idea
that to deny yourself joy,
is Godly.

Denial,
you've told yourself,
is goodness.

All your life
you have spent convincing yourself
that you are bad,
Not only that you are bad,
but the things you want are bad.
Sex is bad. Money is bad. Joy is bad. Power is bad.
And having a lot is bad,
A lot of anything...

You've even created religions
that tell you that you are born in sin
That you are sinners at birth
in order to convince yourselves of your own evil.

Yet if I told you that you are born of God.
That you are Gods and Goddesses at birth,
pure love

Do you grasp its' implication?

To tell you this,
I am performing a miracle right now.
For not only am I speaking to you,
but to each person who is listening to these words.

To each of them
am I now speaking.

I know who everyone of them is,
I know now who will find their way to these words.

And I know that ...
just as with all my other communications,

some will be able to hear,
some will be able to only listen
some will hear nothing.

My promise to you is
to always give you what you ask.

Your promise
is to ask.

Ask Ask Ask Ask
Ask Ask Ask Ask

Here's where you get hung-up.
You can accept His son,
offspring likeness,
but you recoil it being called
His Equal.

It is too much to accept.
Too much bigness, too much wonderment,
too much responsibility.

For if you are God's equal,
that means nothing is being done to you
but everything is being created by you.

There can be no more victims,
no more villains --
Only outcomes of your thought.

Thought Thought Thought Thought
Thought Thought Thought Thought

You are a three fold being.

Thought Word and action
Thought Word and action
Thought Word and action
Thought Word and action
Thought Word and action

Body. Mind. Spirit.
Energy. Matter. Anti-matter.
Mind. Heart. Soul.
Past. Present. Future.
The physical. The non-physical. The metaphysical.
Conscious. Subconscious. Superconscious.
Id. Ego. Super ego.
Here. There. Space Between.
Father. Son. Holy Spirit.
Her offspring. Its' likeness. His equal.

This is the holy trinity
and it has been called by many names.

That which you are,
I am.​

 

[Katzpur]

Why would anybody want to play the role of the bumbling sidekick in the story of their own life?

Mormons don't play the role of the bumbling sidekick in our own lives. We play the role of "gods and goddesses in embryo."

 

[doppelganger]

Mormons don't play the role of the bumbling sidekick in our own lives. We play the role of "gods and goddesses in embryo."

Why "in embryo"? You have your full creative power right now.