Monkey Mind

The world is roughly half full of psychopaths harassing the other half. Not just at work: in families, among friends, everywhere.

This applies to the outside of our skulls – i.e. society – as well as the inside – i.e. how we treat ourselves, how we perceive everything, in particular ourselves.

The way to deal with the psychopaths out there is to see them for what they are, step out of their game (run like hell if necessary), and always follow your first impulse (“heart” or “inner compass”) instead of the rationalizations you learned. We learn by example, and most examples held up are psychopaths. This applies to all aspects of society, including spirituality and religion, philosophy and counselling.

Now you are thinking, “this is paranoid bullshit”, but remember the moment of recognition just before you thought that? That was your inner compass, your heart, whatever you want to call it. The thought “this is paranoid bullshit” is what the psychopaths will have you think. They don’t have this inner compass, so they don’t even know what this means, and for them, the rationalization is all that happens. They have no doubt. But that doubt is your way to safety.

Now you are thinking, “this piece of writing is messing with my mind, my world-view, this is manipulative”. I have no vested interest in you. If you read this and I never hear from you, that’s the best thing to happen actually.

The way to deal with your acquired psychopath inside yourself is again, to see it for what it is and step out of its game. You can’t run like hell in this case, so it’s a bit different, and confronting yourself and taking responsibility for your first impulse is hard – remember when you read the page I linked above, and you recognized yourself, and you thought, “oh shit, am I a psychopath myself?” You aren’t, but you have been learning from them all your life, and have started to emulate them to some extent, and to identify with their game. Let me repeat this: who you think you are (what you identify with) is actually just your stake in a dysfunctional, psychopathic game which you can never, ever win. Again, follow your inner compass instead of the rationalizations, do what you immediately recognize as the right thing instead of what you then think you have to do instead, even if the reasons seem convincing. If you need to convince yourself against your first impulse, don’t do it.

This is all the law and the prophets. This is the one taste of the Dharma. This is true Will. This is the meek inheriting the world. This is the true and simple meaning of “righteousness” (and how that word has been twisted and taken away from us and turned into a baton to crush any resistance and doubt). This is the road to happiness and out of the chaos and confusion and constant fear (of being exposed as inadequate, weak, not quite good enough, to be pitied) which is the baseline of the human condition.

You can use a short phrase to remember this moment of clarity you are having now. Whenever you are confused and miserable because you have no clue why the situation you’re in is so shitty, say to yourself, you’re fighting it, let go. Use your own words to express your intention to stop identifying with what you were made to believe is at stake – it’s at stake only within the psychopaths game of manipulation.

Took me some time to realize this – all my life, in fact.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Florian