"externalization is an unconscious defense mechanism, where an individual 'projects' his own internal characteristics onto the outside world, particularly onto other people. ... [an] overly argumentative [person] might instead perceive others as argumentative and himself as blameless."
Don't we also externalize moral authority? When we do something that goes against our own long-term interests, don't we tend to pretend that we're disobeying, cheating or otherwise offending someone else? Isn't this just a way of trying to avoid responsibility for behaving irrationally?
Mindfulness is about becoming CONTINUOUSLY conscious. Even when we're about to do something that goes against our own long-term interests, we should try to do so consciously, with eyes wide open. In this way, we will be conscious of the 'short-term gain, long-term pain' chain of events that we're initiating, and thus will clearly learn to make more reasonable choices in the future.
Consciously-examined, mature core values based on decreasing suffering, and increasing happiness for all, are essential to uphold, not because of some potential future punishment vs reward by an external agent, but because it's rational, observable.
The universe is like one single living creature. An individual living according to the above values is akin to a healthy cell functioning physiologically, harmoniously, while an individual who ignores these values is akin to a cancer cell causing destruction.
Being conscious and mature is living physiologically in the universe - its laws ie simply the way things work - organically integrated with how we live our lives.
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| Photo: gptan www.dpreview.com |
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