DAY 51 OF 100DAYS SELF-REINVENTION SERIES -No Two Persons Have the Same President
"As long as you think that the cause of your problem is "out there,” as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you're suffering in paradise."
— Byron Katie
I first heard the words ‘no two persons have the same president’ from the legendary Byron Katie. But I should have known this all along, considering the number of studies I have done on the subject of life as an internal experience, mistaken for an external one. It would have saved me the countless hours I expended on arguing about my president with other people.
When I listened to Byron Katie and studied how she expanded further on this theme, it dawned on me that this was the same thread in my article, ’can't change your leader, change how you follow’. As I wrote in this article, the picture of the leader you have in your office, church, or wherever is a mental construct you created. If the leader were to have a fixed personality, everyone working in the organization would have the same description of him. The fact that we don't all have the exact description of him is evidence that we are not all describing the same person. Like Byron Katie’s assertion that we do not all have the same president, some people have a problem with who their president is while others are happy with theirs, even though both are citizens of the same country. How is your president?
The science that life is a mental construct has profound applications that go a long way in improving the quality of our lives. As is evident from this saying, no two people have the same father or mother; nor work in the same company or live in the same city. Do you like your parents, company, or city that you created inside? There is nothing wrong with the fact that people don’t have the same president or work in the same organization; the challenge occurs when we think our mental construct is reality. This company in our head is not out there. This company is our unique creation. In what way is this relevant, you might ask? The way you will relate to a bad boss is probably going to be different from a good boss. What about the realization that none of these bosses exist in absolute terms, but rather, they are both a product of our imaginations or creations? Hopefully, this knowledge that you can create either will alter your work experience. Don't you think so?
In a recording of Byron Katie that I watched, a man told her that, in his opinion, the president was arrogant. I presumed he meant the United States president, and at that time, it was Donald Trump. As Katie was responding to him that it was ‘his’ president that was, someone else in the audience was renouncing this description. That was an instant confirmation that, in absolute terms, the president was neither arrogant nor humble, but rather, both individuals had separate concepts of their president.
In what way will we change once we realize our mental agony is of our own making? As a parent, what shift will occur when we realize our unending complaints about our children were just our mental creations? What about the child who hurts because his mental construction of his father hurts him? I
don't know about you, but for me, this will be a huge transformation and an end to mental suffering. The self-inflicted emotional stress about whether a child is doing what they ought to do will cease immediately. The unending internal conversations about bad situations in your life and the inability to get out of bed and enjoy your day fades into the past. Think about all the mindless judgments you have made about that friend or colleague, only for you to realize they were figments of your imagination.
Personally, once I discovered this, I changed all the painful fabrications to those I could live with. So, I created new children, fathers, mothers, friends, colleagues, bosses, presidents, etc. Feel free to go ahead and do the same thing too. We’ll take another look at Byron Katie’s quote again.
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"As long as you think that the cause of your problem is "out there,” as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you're suffering in paradise."
—? Byron Katie
As an undergraduate, what would you do differently once you find out that your dislike for the Chemistry 208 lecturer and subsequent aversion for the subject was all your creation? I bet you will want to create a new Chemistry 208 lecturer who inspires you to be the best in the course. The good news is that it is all in your power. You can create whatever image of any personality that will aid in the advancement of your goal. So, what is your goal? The decision is yours, always!
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"Don't believe everything you think."
—? Byron Katie
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