The human animal

Hi Elliot,

Excellent observation!

There is a way to live without competition, but it's not easy. If we really want this we need to be free of the subconscious (the egos). The various drives and bits of negativity we have within, including being competitive and proud, stem from the egos.
It seems quite unlikely that humanity will make that sort of change collectively, which is sad. This means that overall there's no way for people to live together without this competition.

The good news is that we can still change ourselves. Then when we're in a group at an internal level we are free from the competition. The external world is less important than the internal. Even if externally we lose out - maybe the group shuts down our ideas, we can still have real happiness inside.

But I also find that by changing within, so that we are not being a source of competition for others, this actually changes the dynamics of a group a lot - if there's one person who isn't competing, the others may be less pressured to compete.

Just the other day I was re-listening to Belzebuub's talk on Freedom here: http://www.belzebuub.com/audio. The talk addresses this animal state we live in and how we can get out of it very nicely. You may want to have a listen if you haven't already.

Best wishes,

Mike

If I witness too much of the good old dominance/submissive thing going on, I tend to start asking the Divine to get me out of there. I am pretty averse to it. In Heaven there is no competition. I would bet on that.

What you have to have in Heaven is people (or Entities) who all know how to stop themselves before it's too late. They stop their crippling egos of competition before they come through and ruin everything.

That is an excellent observation. Reading your post made me think about the dynamics at work and other situations I'm in regularly and how I play into certain "roles". Thank you for posting this because it is yet another aspect within that deserves attention. Now, tomorrow I will be observing myself from another perspective. Thank you!
Katie

As a note, overcoming power dynamics in a group cannot happen from individual efforts alone, but must happen as a group. Another way of putting it, is that every individual action taken towards changing one's psychological state has repercussions for the group. Say, for instance, someone says something that puts someone else down, then, if you've worked on yourself and gained insight into your interactions, you might say "I am not comfortable with what you said, can we talk about it" and then this changes the structure of the argument into collaborating against group conflict. There are, of course, individuals that will hold on to their social identity in opposition to a group, often especially the ones WITH power.
-Julian

Hi Elliot,

I think it really relates to ability of each member of a group to have balance and peace inside, then there is harmony...and whatever is a situation, there is the right thing to do for everyone...
Just be in your place and let others be in their places.

That's a big challenge to be in a competitive situation and remain balance between centers, calmness inside and feeling of yourself and environment, pushing without pushing to remain a human being and cut animal within every time it comes...
That's a moment where skills are put to the test.

When in a group of people, I find interesting and useful to observe and retrospect my own behaviour, the way egos make me to strife for being a boss with power, or "obedient servant" with no responsibility...or the one who oftenly asks questions, makes jokes, says comments, talks about personal experiences or problems, makes everyone bored, feels negative and isolated, finds a ways to escape from that group, etc.,

Best wishes,

Interesting topic... well this being said have you ever noticed how the inner work and work with the divine can also affect the whole group for the better?
I'm not talking about group of gnostic students I'm talking about group of people like your friends who are ignorant of your work. I noticed that if I stay aware and pray internally while in a group it has a positive effect on group like people became trully cheerful and engage in constructive conversation. It happened to me quite a few times and it is a beautiful feeling.