Recognition

Understood something on Friday.

The boss annoyed me enormously on Wednesday when he totally ignored a document I have been developing for 7 years and simply started again his way. Complex situation.

It finally got to me on Friday and there was a lot of anger under the surface. It frustrates and angers me when people simply blank you especally when you think that they should not.

Now it makes sense. My father, my sister, the boss, myself to note a few suffer from the same problem. We seek recognition from others.

Karma is a law that is never wrong. I know that I am bad a giving people recogntion, not that I donn't take people seriously but I use recognition as a power tool. I know the boss desires my recognition of his authority (afterall why do many people become bosses?) and so I know by not giving it it gets him back. There is the rub... he's simply learned uses the same tool back.

So here is the score.

We give and take recognition until someone we would like to recognise us blanks us. This hurts so we learn that recognition is an insecure thing. Think of pop stars. They require the recognition of their fans to be famous and so their whole sitution rests in the hands of their fans... quite out of control and insecure (or so we think). The turn then is inward to seek a situation that is secure... a self recognising security. The hope of course is that when we have that self recognising security we are free from others and it falls to us to dish out the recognition which is power.

Now while self-security is a good thing (and I wonder if this is the goal of the yogic who in the Bhagavad Gita celebrates the joy of solitude etc) the use of it as a power against others is clearly an evil thing. When we have self security we should give it. That way we will receive it also.

But if we are interested in using self security in a powerful manner it means that behind the veil we are actually not secure yet and dream of a day when we can be free from the vulnerability of seeking recognition. So it can't ever be used powerful reasons cos such thoughts go with the territory of security anyway.

Another view of this is that vulnerability and seeking recognition is not actually a weakness. If we are able to see through the short term and see the long view we will see that to create recognition we need only give it. The law of karma is so secure that we should never hesitate to give recognition in all situations even when we are hurt because we know that it is the only way to create recognition. Until that Law is understood we will leave in fear of the power that others can wield over us simply by the choice to phone, write, talk to us, ackowledge us.

So it's simple while I think the boss is an idiot (I feel like Dr Evil's son in Austin Powers) I simply need to see that he could very well think the same of me and that by not giving him the recognition he requires as a human being he won't give it back either.

Once this issue of recognition is sorted and we realise that it is fair playing field where everyone has currency and we exchange it - the rich ones being the ones who invest the most - we see all humans at root as equally sensitive and valuable souls seeking the recognition of others (often completely unawares of and rejecting themselves).

So the resolution here is easy. If I wish to ease the load of my suffering at not be recognised I need to look in the mirror and give a little respect as the song almost goes (to you not me). I need to accept personal unconditional vulnerability so I can let down the shields and give freely.

Now its an interesting point that the short route to the yogic is catastrophic. If we simply retreat from the world in seach of inner elightenment we will not resolve this first issue of letting down the barriers. You can't enlighten behind barriers. The self is entirely conditioned by the surrounding world. Live in fear or with a feeling of insecurity of the outside world and other people and we shut the boarders to trade and we starve. Self suficiency is not what the enlightened soul is about. Quite the opposite. It is realising that it is completely dependent upon others - parents, food, water, sunlight all other things - and it views ths with no anxiety of fear of personal inecurity because firstly it knows that it only needs to give to receive, and secondly on the deepest leve it does not exist separate from these "other" things anyway. The wise will see how can we be anxious of what we already are. To us selves (and countries) with tight boarders controls, trade restrictions and anxieties about others ... we have a long way to go to realise that.