Do you ever feel Superior?

[hades]

Do you ever drive around and just observe people? Watching them go about their daily lives, so mechanically and systematically, everything by the clock, following some guideline, a road, or a signal, or a light....green is go, red is stop...

They all seem pretty mindless, wandering around...perhaps thinking about trivial issues....everything is so mundane and repititive...I assume most of them are oblivious to the rest of the world...do they even question or think about reality, truth, meaning, the universe etc?? I doubt it.

I might not have all the right answers yet, I might follow a similar routine, but I think I have the right questions and the desire to figure all this shit out and that makes me feel superior....and if that makes me a bad person, then I don't wanna be good.

[Jason]

Yeah I have similar thoughts(although I don't drive, and think I'm probably superior to those wasting their time and money to support a car). But superior relative to what measure? Superior in terms of thinking more about philosophical things then yes, but on the flip side that makes you/me inferior in the length of time we think about "mundane" things. I try not to forget that people don't choose to be born the way they are, neither us more philosophical types or the mundanes.

What is the psychological mechanism which leads to one feeling superior? Is it possibly that one has doubt in the value and correctness of living a more philosophically aware life, and thus needs to try to bury this doubt and insecurity with feelings of superiority? After all it does seem that society as a whole is not too welcoming of such minds.

I don't really understand when you say that this makes you a bad person: bad for whom? Some ultimate moral authority? Society? God? I decide if I am bad or not.

[Diebert van Rhijn]

I might not have all the right answers yet, I might follow a similar routine, but I think I have the right questions and the desire to figure all this shit out and that makes me feel superior....and if that makes me a bad person, then I don't wanna be good.

Superior exactly in what? Observing?

The routine people could claim to be superior in fitting in, receiving the blessings of their relative ease of mind when relying on habits, and the rewards of the herd for being so nice and predictable.

So what's your reward outside the short lived mental state?

[sschaula]

I do sometimes feel superior. To answer Rhett's question to hades - my reward is the personal freedom that goes along with it.

[Nick]

Most people are living in fear of something/anything, reulting from their ignorance. They aren't intelligent enough to realize that these fears are all that keeps them going. Being politically correct is something the herd does to make sure these fears aren't spoken about, unless it is in a comedic manner. I get a sense of being superior because I can think logically and sincerely about anything without fear.

[MKFaizi]

I do not feel superior. To an outside observer, I probably look no different from what ya'll call the mundanes -- going to the grocery store, putting gas in the car -- all that mundane crap. I do not wear a sourcerer's cap. I don't have a beard. I am pretty mundane looking, I reckon.

But I think. I think all the time. I think while I am putting groceries in my car. I think while I am working. I think while I am speaking with patients -- though I do not share my thoughts with them. I have this forum for that. I would not waste my time speaking of philosophy with my patients or co-workers. They are pretty simple people. That is not a BAD thing. It's just a fact.

In life, I never come in contact with any person who could possibly be interested in philosophy or enlightenment. I do not expect that.

I don't think my interest in enlightenment has anything to do with superiority though it does separate me from the community. I live here but I am not part of it.

Except for being surrounded by Christians, I enjoy the solitude. The Christians normally do not bother me that much -- just once in a while, the idiocy gets to me. But, hell, this is the United States.

I seldom am disturbed by what happens to patients. I am not disturbed when a person acts like he has cancer and we find out that he has cancer. That's expected. I am disturbed when a fifty year old man looks like he is having a heart attack but, no matter the effort on the part of myself and my doctor, he is told that there is nothing wrong with his heart and he suddenly dies.

That shit pisses me off. No one should die without a diagnosis.

I believe in perfection. Still attached to that.

Faizi

[Jason]

I do not feel superior. To an outside observer, I probably look no different from what ya'll call the mundanes -- going to the grocery store, putting gas in the car -- all that mundane crap. I do not wear a sourcerer's cap. I don't have a beard. I am pretty mundane looking, I reckon.

Good point and the sorcerer's cap bit gave me a chuckle. Obviously I am making uncertain assumptions about what other people are thinking about, but my experience of talking with and listening to people suggests that most people spend most or all of their time thinking about very mundane things like relationships, appointments, work, money, shopping, houses etc.

[unknown]

when you able to separate from you from your human entity , you will become

You see things in different context.

[MKFaizi]

Yes, Jason, most people are thinking about the usual crap -- work, relationships, appointments and so on. Even on a somewhat "higher" plane, they are thinking about "how I am so great because I am a Buddhist or because I listen to the Beatles or because I have read U.G. Krishnamurti or because I am an atheist -- whatever -- I am so superior."

I am not convinced that you can readily see what is on the inside from what is on the outside.

For instance, a beautiful woman -- an amazingly beautiful woman -- stands out from the norm. She is noticeable and separate from the mundane. She is extraordinary. She wears a "sorcerer's cap." She has a "beard."

But just because she is noticeable does not make her a thinker.

By appearance, anyone can stand out from the more mundane crowd. One can have green hair or one can dress in an outlandish manner.

Attracting attention to oneself in this way is very womanly. A thinker does not want attention brought about from appearance or even from outlandish proclamation.

If a thinker wants attention at all, it is from other thinkers or those who have potential for thought. To me, the few is far preferable to the minions.

Where I find fault with Jesus.

Faizi

[Jamesh]

When I have feelings of superiority, which occurs more or less only in relation to philosophy and decision making, it progresses to feelings of inferiority.

I try and be wary of feelings of superiority, because they enhance one's ego and lead to inflexibility. Attacks on one's viewpoints become attacks on one's ego, and this induces emotional irrationality and limits imagination.

[Jason]

I am not convinced that you can readily see what is on the inside from what is on the outside.
Faizi

Some aspects of appearance would lead me to believe that a person is likely to have a certain psychological reason for having that appearance. A person who wears extremely expensive clothes/watch/jewellery is more likely to be status oriented and materialistic. A person with green hair, mohawk and safety pins through their top is more likely to be calling out for attention and consider themselves rebellious. Things like these suggest to me that they are likely to have certain psychological makeups that tend to some greater or lesser degree to obstruct deeper philisophical thought. Then again people can be complex and contradictory creatures so you never can tell for sure.

For instance, a beautiful woman -- an amazingly beautiful woman -- stands out from the norm. She is noticeable and separate from the mundane. She is extraordinary. She wears a "sorcerer's cap." She has a "beard."

But just because she is noticeable does not make her a thinker.

By appearance, anyone can stand out from the more mundane crowd. One can have green hair or one can dress in an outlandish manner.
Faizi

Well I'm not just focusing on apperances that stand out, but rather what any appearance, whether common or standing out, suggests about a person.

For example, with myself: a week or two of unshaven stubble, unironed/cheap and comfortable clothes, unbrushed hair, no aftershave, no jewellery, no hair products, cheap fabric wallet, cheap digital watch etc, and you wouldn't see me buying anything but those clothes or products either. Such an appearance can stand out in certain situations, yet I consider myself a thinker. My appearance does say something about my underlying values and psychology.

Attracting attention to oneself in this way is very womanly. A thinker does not want attention brought about from appearance or even from outlandish proclamation.

If a thinker wants attention at all, it is from other thinkers or those who have potential for thought. To me, the few is far preferable to the minions.

Faizi

I am and was a thinker, yet especially when I was younger and perhaps more optimistic I generally thought that disseminating what I thought were intelligent views to almost anyone and everyone(the minions) was a wortwhile pursuit. This did bring attention to myself, but that was not the primary goal. Now I am probably a bit less optimistic and tend to think that it is a waste of time with some people, they are probably incapable or unwilling to even really listen to, let alone consider some ideas. I also tend to weigh up the benefit to myself rather than righteously and idealistically attempting to rouse peoples mind for the "greater good" as I saw it.

[Nick]

I would hate it if I had the same thought process as most of my friends, family, and 99% of humans on this planet did.

[sschaula]

Actually you probably wouldn't.

[Dan Rowden]

There's a distinction to be made between feeling superior and feeling different.

Feeling superior doesn't actually make you any different at all.


Dan Rowden

[DHodges]

So what if you are superior?

Congratulations. You are the smartest peanut in the turd. Whoop-dee-doo.

[sschaula]

Dan,

If a person feels superior, does it mean they're automatically not superior? Does someone need to dumb down the truth for the sake of not sounding too proud or arrogant? I don't think so. People seem to follow this modesty rule way too often.

What's wrong with being superior to a mindless piece of flesh? What can be wrong with FEELING superior?

I understand it may be one of those pitfalls towards enlightenment, and that various texts say an enlightened person has some sort of modesty...but I don't mindlessly follow the various texts, and I am not scared of pitfalls (knowing the truth).

It may be scary to admit that you're better than most of the herd, but it's probably true of most everyone on this forum.

[Nick]

Actually you probably wouldn't.

You are probably right.

[Rhett]

.

There's a distinction to be made between feeling superior and feeling different.

Feeling superior doesn't actually make you any different at all.

On top of that i also see a difference between feeling superior and (merely) cognising that one is superior. The feeling is ego-based and therefore reveals one is not particularly superior.

.

[Rhett]

.

To answer Rhett's question to hades - my reward is the personal freedom that goes along with it.

That question was actually posed by Diebert.

.

[sschaula]

Ah, my bad.

I don't really see how feeling automatically makes it egotistical. Does an egoless person not feel anything?

[Nick]

Ah, my bad.

I don't really see how feeling automatically makes it egotistical. Does an egoless person not feel anything?

No they wouldn't feel anything, but someone like me whos ego is still alive and well, feels things quite often. That's why I said that I sometimes have a sense of being superior compared to most people. My ego likes that sense, but if I had no ego then there would be nothing there to even notice that sense.

[sschaula]

Maybe you're right, but then again, how would you know. You have an ego and you don't know what it's like to be egoless.

[DHodges]

It's possible to note that you have a certain (mental) superiority over another person without having an emotional reaction to that fact, just like you don't need to emotionally react to the fact that someone is taller or shorter than you. It's just a fact.

[Nick]

Maybe you're right, but then again, how would you know. You have an ego and you don't know what it's like to be egoless.

Well think about it, we don't experience emotions through a body part or some outside force. Your emotions are based on what your ego senses as positive or negative. Take away the ego and what else is left for you to indulge in emotions with? That is how I know emotions or "feelings" are eliminated when the ego is no longer present.

[Jason]

Maybe you're right, but then again, how would you know. You have an ego and you don't know what it's like to be egoless.

Well think about it, we don't experience emotions through a body part or some outside force. Your emotions are based on what your ego senses as positive or negative. Take away the ego and what else is left for you to indulge in emotions with? That is how I know emotions or "feelings" are eliminated when the ego is no longer present.

I'm not sure it's so cut and dried. Firstly I think emotions are experienced at least partly through body parts, especially the stomach, chest and throat areas. Are they created by the body parts? Not usually. But I can think of almost instantaneous emotional reactions such as instant shock/terror from loud bangs or someone jumping out in front of you from nowhere, or instant blind anger originating from physical pain(getting a facial hair pulled does this to me). These emotional reactions are so sudden it makes me wonder if the ego(which is apparently based on mental function and would probably take a while longer to process the situation) is responsible. Perhaps I'm defining things as emotions that you wouldn't call emotions. Perhaps the ego integrates more complex viewpoints in such a way that a person can react in an instant without needing to reprocess the situation through the ego?