Human Beings Cannot be Reduced to what They Know or Remember
- Ego will help you to recognize, remove, and replace your ego: a.k.a. self-esteem.
“Thinking-knowing about thinking-knowing about thinking-knowing is the endless trap and problem. You cannot fix this snake eating its own tail. You must leave it.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
- Read for the best understanding of human nature.
You Are a Being, Not Self-Esteem Images or Concepts of Experiences
- Because You Are Not Your Knowledge or Knowing.
- Because You Are Not the Experiences of Your Knowledge or Knowing.
- Because You Are Not Your Experiences of Knowing or Remembering.
10 Parts of a Human Being
- Most people will agree that they are being at least ALL of the following 10 ways ALL of the time: heart, soul, mind, body, senses, sensations, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and memories.
- However, most people are trained to judge themselves as their good or bad experiences of knowing and remembering to feed their ego more self-images and self-concepts.
- Correct this error by asking yourself the following 10 questions whenever you rate yourself for having or being any experience of knowing or remembering.
10 Questions to Challenge Self-Esteem’s Labeling of People
- Is my HEART that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Is my SOUL that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Is my MIND that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Is my BODY that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Are ALL my SENSES that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Are ALL my SENSATIONS that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Are ALL my THOUGHTS that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Are ALL my FEELINGS that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Are ALL my BEHAVIORS that experience of knowing or remembering?
- Are ALL my MEMORIES that experience of knowing or remembering?
The Answer Is “No”
- You can easily answer “No!” to each question; therefore, you are not the experience of knowing or remembering you judged or rated yourself to be.
- Obviously, since you are being heart, soul, mind, body, senses, sensations, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and memories at ALL times—you CANNOT also be just one or even a few of them or some experiences of your knowing or remembering at any one time.
- You can only be ALL that you are at any one time.
- To think that you are less than what you are is an obvious error and mistake that serves only ego by its new name of self-esteem.
For Example
- If someone calls you a name—that cannot make you anything.
- You can never become someone’s opinion of you because you are so much more than mere descriptions, images, concepts, labels, names, or thoughts about your experiences.
- To prove this to yourself, remember a time when you or someone else labeled you as “stupid” for having misinformation or for knowing something wrong.
- Now, ask yourself if that was or is true—by remembering the 10 parts you always are and by asking if each one of those 10 parts is stupid just because you experienced or had a stupid or wrong thought and so were mislabeled as stupid.
- The answer is “NO!,” you are not stupid even if what you thought was stupid.
- You CANNOT be a stupid thought!
- You CANNOT be stupid!
People Are Not Names
- Now you know the truth that to label people or to call people names is just to lie.
- We can accurately label experiences, but not people, not human beings!
People Are Not Self-Images
- You are not your knowledge or thoughts right or wrong.
- You are not your opinions of your knowledge or thoughts.
- You are not other people’s opinions of your knowledge or thoughts.
- You are not your self-images or self-concepts about or as your knowledge or thoughts.
- You are not other people’s self-images or self-concepts for you as your knowledge or thoughts.
- Read for the best understanding of human nature.
Quotations from Various Sources
Listed Alphabetically
“I often marvel how it is that though each man loves himself beyond all else, he should yet value his own opinion of himself less than that of others.” —Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 A.D.
“It is my contention that the promotion of ‘self-esteem’ has done demonstrably more harm than good, and that the prudent individual will resist the arrogant and childish temptation to ‘esteem himself.’“ —David Mills, Overcoming “Self-Esteem” Why Our Compulsive Drive for “Self-Esteem” Is Anxiety-Provoking, Socially Inhibiting, and Self-Sabotaging
“It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.” —Claude Bernard
“Perfection does not consist in macerating or killing the body, but in killing our perverse self-will.” —Catherine of Siena
“Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it’s conditional.” —Albert Ellis, Ph.D., the most famous and influential living psychologist in the world, Psychology Today, February, 2001, page 72, in the interview, “The Prince of Reason,” with the famous psychologist Robert Epstein, Ph.D.
“Self-esteem steals souls.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
“The assumption being that if high-risk children could be made to ‘feel good about themselves,’ these epidemics could be mitigated. … This prescription, unfortunately, has proven to be yet another in a long list of nouveau homilies that haven’t lived up to their promises.” —John Rosemond, Plan To Build Self-Esteem Backfires, August 1996 syndicated newspaper column regarding research done at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Virginia
“The first step man takes in self-confidence, removes him so far from the confidence he ought to have in God.” —Marguerite of Navarre
“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” —Voltaire
“The societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm.” —Roy F. Baumeister, Joseph M. Boden, and Laura Smart, Psychological Review, February 1996
“There is little reason to believe self-esteem leads to academic achievement or is even necessary for academic success. It is therefore crucial to delegitimize the education establishment’s mindless glorification of self-esteem.” —Nina H. Shokraii, “The Self-Esteem Fraud: Feel-Good Education Does not Lead to Academic Success,” USA Today Magazine, January 1998
“Thinking-knowing about thinking-knowing about thinking-knowing is the endless trap and problem. You cannot fix this snake eating its own tail. You must leave it.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
“Thinking-knowing is the problem about the problem of thinking-knowing.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
“What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca, 4 B.C. ? to 65 A.D.
“You are an intricate mechanism, but comparison, judgment, identification prevent comprehension.” —J. Krishnamurti, The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti, Volume IV, page 2
“You never exist quite so much as when you are not thinking.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher
- Read and discover how CBT, REBT, & Stoicism evolved into one system: STPHFR.
- Read for the best understanding of human nature.
6 Groups of Topics Menu
- 1. Pages by Topic
- 2. Fast-Facts by Topic
- 3. Quotations by Topic
- 4. Poems by Topic
- 5. Scripture by Topic
- 6. Websites by Topic
- Read and discover how CBT, REBT, & Stoicism evolved into one system: STPHFR.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Read for the best understanding of human nature.
9 Skills & Topics Menu
- 1. Anger Skills & Topics
- 2. Blame Skills & Topics
- 3. Communication Skills & Topics
- 4. Coping Skills & Topics
- 5. Counseling Skills & Topics
- 6. Praying Skills & Topics
- 7. Recovery Skills & Topics
- 8. Responsibility Skills & Topics
- 9. Thinking Skills & Topics
- Read and discover how CBT, REBT, & Stoicism evolved into one system: STPHFR.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Read for the best understanding of human nature.