The desire to be special

[Spirit_Gurl]

I think that the reason we all 'need' to be special and be ourselves is bcause it defines you from the rest of the universe, becasue each of our souls has a seperate personality, and here on earth it needs to struggle to let its true self shine.

[Rob]

When i was oooh I dunno about 10 years old I was at school one day and the teacher - a real nasty man with an excessively short temper (although perhaps we weren't the best of kids!) - well he was having a good old shout at us all. He was saying along the lines of "none of you are special!! Don't any of you think you are special, because you are not!!!".
I came home fuming to my mum about this and said "he's wrong - of course he is - EVERYONE is special" - it just seemed so obvious at the time. Didn't even occur to me that people might want to compare their special-ness. Why should we?
But, like everyone else, years later the desire to get one up on other people, the whole thing about making sure you are right and other people are wrong, and all the rest of that ego-tosh set in. Must have been the violent swings of confusing emotions that is puberty I guess! Shame, it would be nice to be able to go back to being so completely innocent. Then again, I do hold true to the thought that everyone is essentially still like that underneath the many layers of crap. People act like children all the time, overgrown and misled children, but kids none the less - it really doesnt seem to decrease with age either! (thanks God hehehe). But, I think that the most stable and fully matured children, can be found in the spiritual communities. Introspection and meditation being the pillars of mental health etc etc yadda yadda. Eventually, the need to be more than other people (because of insecurity in who we are supposed to be? - eg...special), seems to drop away over time (in the process of it for me, maybe one day....).
So yah, if anyone is any more special than anyone else, its people like you lot []
love and light heh
Rob

[Bad Moon Rising]

This has been a great thread. I have read it several times and each time I get more out of it. I went to the link http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/shadow.html and I saved it in my favorites. I just started reading it. From what I've read so far it is very interesting.
Not so sure about what other people think .. but my momma & daddy think I'm special.[]

[Athios]

"Always remember you're special... Just like everyone else."  []

[timeless]

There seems to be a deep desire born into each of us to be seen as special.  We rank ourselves intellectually, spiritually, physically and see ourselves as better or worse in this world.

What seems to be lacking is seeing how we serve this world -- immersing ourselves in the big scheme of things and trying to see how we are either making things better or worse.  Are we really helping?  What did I do to help someone near me today?  These questions are so very important for they shift us away for seeing ourselves as a special island.  They help shift us out of I vs. them another form of the dreaded us and them that I go on and on and on about. Sorry.

When we are born we immediately start defining who we are:
By how we are treated.
By our parents.
By the objects, opinions, people around us, nationalities, religion.
By our careers.
These are all strong attachments that help us see ourselves as 'this is me'.  

Rapid change helps us not to define ourselves by our careers these days.  But there are so many more attachments to deal with.  How do we break them?  

I find travel and immersing myself into another society helps break nationality, religious and opinion attachments.  AS long as I do not just trade opinions, religion and national attachments.  We seem to do that though sometimes.  

I find getting out in the rugged outdoors with only rashins helps.  Really roughing it.  I use to do this a lot and would feel like I was walking out of the wilderness a new person.  Nature seems to help humble us too.  But this is an almost forgotten thing to do.  We are so disconnected from nature these days it is not funny.  After all there is so much to fear in the dark forest. I did not let limes disease keep me indoors.  I doubt west nile will either.

I found having a child really brought to full awareness the issues and attachments of childhood.  But one has to be willing to really look at all this carefully.  Teach your child that they are always loved...it is just that some of their behaviour is not acceptable. Show unconditional love but prepare your child for a very conditional world is a tricky task.  

Good friends who let us know when we need to come down to earth, or need to be more thoughtful of others etc.

Meditation but many are well acquainted with this. And it does not work for everyone...hence the above list.

If we move away from I and them and us and them attitude and start breaking our attachments several things will happen.  We can see things more objectively.  We can look at various sides of an issue without feeling threatened and come to a greater understanding of All. We can increasingly overcome our fears and see our selves as part of the whole, the All, the One.  Instead of special islands or groups of islands that must prove themselves worthy of being in the ocean of life.  We are already special...no need to attach to anything to define that we are.  

Regards,
timeless[]