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%SEEK FIND ROOT UNHAPPY DISHONEST VIOLENCE SELF JOY 900524

     If we honestly seek we shall find the roots  of   our
unhappy violence and disintegration in our dishonesty with
self and others  about our perceptions of our experiences,
emotions,  thoughts, communications and behaviors.   If we
do not honestly seek,   we shall continue to be unhappy in
our violent disintegrations.

     We cannot be honest with others unless we are  honest
with   ourselves   about   our   experiences,    emotions,
perceptions,  thoughts, communications and behaviors.   If
we are not honest, we lack integrity and joy.

     The community  whose  members are  not  honest   with
themselves and others lacks communal integrity and joy; no
matter  what other powers,  sophistication  and  technical
advantages it may have.

     For us to enjoy personal and communal integrity it is
essential  that  we elicit from each other that  which  is
honestly  real in each other as regards our:  experiences,
emotions,   perceptions,   thoughts,   communications  and
behaviors.

     When that which is real in us is repressed within us,
through fear of honest disclosure;  the pressure within us
to  disclose  that which is real within us builds up,  and
finds   violent  ways  of  breaking  out  in   destructive
confusion and acting-out-behaviors.

     Liberal education is the process of honest educement;
the  eliciting of honest revelations of that which is real
within us.

     Real education is the elicitation of honesty  through
the  gift of security which is the freedom to be  honestly
vulnerable.    Real  education is  liberation  because  it
occurs  within  secure contexts where we may  be  honestly
secure; rather than dishonestly defensive.

     Real  education  does not occur in highly  controlled
contexts  because the imposition of external controls  and
expectations occasions dishonesty with and in others;  and
with and in self---and so again with endless echoes.

     Attempts to achieve satisfaction through   successful
control of  self and others leads to  dis-integration  and
dis-satisfaction because such efforts occasion dishonesty.

     We  cannot  honestly  control  perceptions  of   our:
experiences,   emotions,   thoughts,   communications  and
behaviors;   although we may honestly influence them  all.
When we try to control what cannot be honestly  controlled
we often achieve an impression of control by pretending to
achieve  what we seek to achieve.   Others may help us  in
our  pretentious  behavior by pretending to be more  fully
controlled  than  they  really are.   In  both  cases  the
apparent achievement is the fruit of dishonesty; it is not
real, and leads to personal and communal disintegration.

     We are sick if we cannot be honest with ourselves and
others about our desires, fears, pleasures, pains,  hopes,
and aspirations.  Many of our sicknesses are rooted in our
not  being   free  to  be honest.   Our   addictions   are
dishonest efforts to compensate for our lack of freedom to
be open and honest with our selves and with each other. We
cannot honestly say no to our dishonest fixes;  just as we
have not honestly said no to dishonest demands which  have
lead  us to repress open and honest expressions of who  we
really feel ourselves to be.

     We  cannot honestly promote each other's pleasure  if
we cannot be honest about what gives us pleasure and pain.
Others  cannot promote our pleasure if we cannot  honestly
tell  them what really pleases us,  and what really  pains
us.  If our lives are full of pretense, we are bound to be
pretentiously  confused;   while trying to pretend  to  be
pleased.    We  are all very trying and unhappy;   but  we
cannot be honest about that either.

     We cannot be real and honest when we are  trying   to
conform  to  external  definitions of who  we  should  be.
Objective  definitions  of who we should be are  bound  to
lead us into dishonesty,  as they are not descriptions  of
who we really are with all our unique "imperfections".

     "Spiritual objectivity" is no better than   "material
objectivity."    "Spiritual  objectivity"  is a  dishonest
mirror image of "material objectivity."   It appears to be
in another better world,  but the image is where we cannot
be  in touch with it,  since it is a virtual image  behind
the  mirror of our dishonest desires.   In that mirror  we
see ourselves dishonestly as we pretend we would be if  we
were  perfected according to some external  definition  of
who  we  think we should be.   Our thoughts  are  confused
because  we have confused our emotions  through  dishonest
representations of ourselves.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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