Do you know why you always make the same mistakes of the past again and again?

  • 2018

The reflections of Dr. Maurice Nicoll answer this question is to say on how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past so we will refer to those to answer that question and help you get out of such an ominous and eternal spinning wheel that understand the mistakes of the past .

In this way and referring to the author mentioned above, one of his reflections is brought up which suggests that the human being is convinced again and again that the passage of time is synonymous with evolution . That is, the human being thinks that only with the passage of time evolves as a being, there is no other variable at play other than the temporal question. However, if one starts to read a little history immediately one becomes aware, says Nicoll, that wars, which are considered by the subjects as things that happen in an exceptional way are, in fact, common since Prehistory we live from war to war. Therefore, this fact of wars is not random but it is a constant element over time. This same fact alludes precisely to how little we have been able to evolve throughout the "width" of the centuries. With this, Nicoll wants us to reflect on the phrase "the level of being of a man, attracts his life . " In other words, if there is war it is clear that man has not evolved at all, but has just been stranded in the destructive and paradoxical of wars. Nicoll refers that the human being attracts what he is and not what he will be, that is, history and everything that happens in a person's life is repeated again because he is still at the same level of being for what he continues to attract, a and again, the same circumstances, the same feelings, believe the same things, and so on. As we can elucidate, nothing changes, everything remains absolutely the same.

So how to avoid repeating past mistakes?

Dr. nicoll proposes that in order for a man's personal history to change, that is, to change the circumstances presented to him, think and feel different and new things, it is necessary that there be a change in the level of being of man. In other words, a change in the level at which man naturally lives his routine life .

The author intends with his reflections that, whoever reads the latter, understands that each of us is at a certain level of being and to teach it refers to a staircase, which has many steps that extend vertically where there is people who are on steps that are above us and others who are on steps that are located below ours. This ladder, he clarifies, has nothing to do with time, the future time is not synonymous with evolution, much less being in higher levels of being, but those who are at higher levels, are at that moment in that level, the same for the lower levels. Time has nothing to do with these different levels, but it is just about levels coexisting in the now.

In this way, the work on himself that is proposed is at the very moment that constitutes the now, the present. This work on itself deals, for example, with the repression of negative emotions, self-remembering, non-identification with discomfort and fighting, not being accountable, etc. And it has to do with an action that one can perform right now on oneself. For example, Nicoll quotes, if a man who is desperate, stops for a moment and observes himself in such a situation, observes it slowly and tries to remember himself, to give himself a clash of conscience, or in other words he tries to understand the sense of his attitude, that is to say, he tries to transform himself, to transform his mechanical response to the situations that surround him, he realizes that everything has changed, his mood loses meaning and disappears. This event, Nicoll alleges, represents an instantaneous change in the level of being . In this way the author introduces the different (three) stages of a man.

Stages of man, keys to not repeat the past.

The first stage consists of the first years of life, up to three, four or five years. At birth, the human being is pure essence, essence from which he can grow and develop, and that essence is the only true thing he possesses. But that growth is limited, it cannot grow by itself after three or five years.

The second stage of man consists in the formation of that which surrounds the essence and it is precisely that which helps it to develop, this reality that surrounds the essence is the personality . The latter is a reality alien to the essence, which is acquired from life through the senses . This is how a child ceases to be the same and becomes something different from himself. In this way, the center of gravity passes from the essence to the personality, this means that the child learns to do different things through imitation and so on. So the richer the personality, the better the growth of the essence will be, so the more weakened a personality is, the less the growth of the essence will be or will not take away. out said growth.

The third stage of man has to do with that man who has developed his personality and can manage with life in his own way, with the tools he possesses and in a sufficiently reasonable manner. That is, this third stage is the kick for the development of its essence . Only from here can you develop it, from a rich and strong personality. For example, alludes to Nicoll, a man who, despite being very recognized and socially important, has a poor essence in him . This man, for example, does everything to achieve greater merits for fear of losing his reputation, but does nothing for himself, but everything he does, he does for its status, popularity etc. Suppose this man feels a very large void despite all his riquezas . You are materially satisfied, you have jewelry, house, etc., but you always feel empty . This man, says Nicoll, is approaching the third stage of development since it has reached a position in which its true part, that is to say its essence can grow and thus fill or rather replace the feeling of emptiness because of a feeling of meaning . That is why, in order for this development to take place, it must, in the words of nicoll, sacrifice its personality, that is, to carry out an investment work, a work that goes in the opposite direction to everything it has been doing.

The third stage then has to do with that moment where man feels empty, where personality no longer satisfies him and needs to find a new meaning to his existence . As Nicoll says, this third phase consists in making the personality passive so that in this way the essence can grow.

Types of learning according to each of the stages of the self

As a consequence of each of these stages there are three forms of teaching that a person can find throughout his life.

The first is that teaching that comes from the ideas of the mother, that is, the essence takes the ideas, beliefs and feelings of the mother figure and makes them their own.

Then the second form of teaching is that which incorporates throughout the world, that is, the belief system, collective memories, etc. This is how personality is formed.

The third way is when man begins to wonder, for example, what place do I occupy? Question that can be asked at the expense of personality type. Summarizing the third stage "begins at the end of the second stage, when the personality is already formed and a man has tasted life and seen how things are and feels dissatisfied and begins to look for something else, something that will make him understand better, something that will help and direct it and eventually complete it. ”

Have you felt this way sometimes? Do you feel a kind of emptiness in your life?

If so, I invite you to continue wondering and delving inside and start working on yourself.

EDITORIAL: Gisela, editor hermandadblanca.org
SOURCE: Book "Psychological comments on the teachings of Gurdieff and Ouspensky" by Dr. Maurice Nicoll

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