Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00467)

Hi Sufilight
I, for one, enjoy being confronted, providing the confrontation has context, it forces me to re-look at my accepted belief system and sometimes I may re-think it, or sometimes just sit back on my haunches.
Either way, without confrontation on spiritual matters, we never learn to think for ourselves.

Regards
Cass

"M. Sufilight" <global-theosophy@stofanet.dk> wrote:
Hallo all,



Here is a short story on irrelevant emailing...hostility and the like...
:-)



CONFRONTATION AND SUPPORT



One could ask what I think about people who confront me. 

Confrontation as a form of behaviour can best be understood by looking at it in conjunction with its opposite support: support. People Who want to confront someone, and also those who have a strong desire to support anyone, very often do so because they have a desire for self-assertion which is not finding any other Outlet. 

It is for this reason that people who imagine that they are gentle, relaxed or benign feel a need to confront or support. It is most usually a matter of the underlying aggressiveness finding An 'acceptable' outlet. This is well known to ancient as well as modern psychologists; though less well understood by other people, if they look at the apparent reason for support or opposition, not at the mainspring of it. 

The problem of making this clear is not eased by the fact that, Since the desire to oppose, for instance, is so strong (it is an Appette seeking satisfaction) one can generally not reason with the sufferer.
Vanity and self-importance, if denied other outlets or if Suppressed and not correctly refined to vanishing-point, will further fuel this desire to attack or support. 
The phenomenon is strongly marked in religious circles Where the teaching has not acted correctly upon the individual or the group. People who, for reasons of misapplied modesty training have been denied self-expression in a way which will Provide socially acceptable outlets, are especially prone to this ailment. Is also occurs throughout history (with a wide geographical Distribution) among those who feel that they have been rejected by a source of authority. 

Theosophical teachers who have been unable to accept particular pupils have often been targets for this behaviour: it is a version of the 'sour grapes' behaviour of the fable in such instances. It is usually more harmful to whoever suffers from it than for the target, because the misapplied emotion activates all kinds of desires for power, envy and eventually results in unbalance. Such unbalanced people, oddly enough, often influence others quite strongly until they start to crack up. This gives us the emotional cults which most people now know about. 

This problem is one reason why Theosophical teaching tries to allow self-expression while the lements of vanity are being refined. 


Morten Sufilight 







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