Self-Delusion: Going Over The Edge and Breaking Your Arse like a Jackass

I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness or satisfaction. The Dalai Lama

 

Taking the "High" Road

What happens when you allow yourself to be taken "higher" than you feel comfortable being. And I do not mean lofty ideals to aspire to but more in the line of being pushed or allowing yourself to be persuaded that you can do "it".

The "it" being something outside of your experience that you never considered or gave any significant thought to because you knew it was dangerous and/or life-threatening.
In the Caribbean, they have a saying:

Friends will take you but they won't bring you back.

Lifted By "Talk"
Through constant repetition and insistent badgering, you allow yourself to be buoyed along and "lifted"  by the other person's enthusiasm about their "lofty" ideas, inviting you to come along for the ride.

You allow the talk to wear down your natural resistance aided and abetted by your passive listening because... you are unclear about your own path.

So you depend on being bolstered by their "talk" to achieve the result which they desire. That person of course has his or her own agenda and does not have your interests and well-being in mind or heart.

The selfishness must be discovered and understood before it can be removed. It is powerless to remove itself, neither will it pass away of itself.  Darkness ceases only when light is introduced; so ignorance can only be dispersed by Knowledge; selfishness by Love. James Allen

"Breaking" Your Arse

You discover this later on after you almost "break your arse" as they say here in the Caribbean, like a jackass. Or perhaps after you take the fall.

The less interrogative you are the more embroiled you become in this person's far-fetched plans and the longer it takes to unsnare yourself from their selfish coils.

To understand how you could have been so easily led, read of Eckhart Tolle's
Living in Presence With Your Pain Body.

When men, lost in the devious ways of error and self, have forgotten the "heavenly birth," ... they set up artificial standards by which to judge one another. James Allen

Going Over The Edge

Your so-called friend(s) will commiserate with you after you fall, gently chiding you for not taking care and of course, accepting no responsibility for their part in your predicament.

Incredible as it may seem, they will encourage you to try again; that way they don't have to make any effort to get off their own arses and get a life.

But why should they anyway; they have a jackass to ride – you!

As destabilising as these experiences are, they form part of your soul's journey and the disenchantment and aridity are akin to Judith Rich's Crossing the spiritual desert.

I experienced being hoisted almost over the edge a few years ago when I did not know what the hell to do with my life. I was traversing my own spiritual desert at the time, and a snippet of conversation I heard recently brought it all back.

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. The Buddha

What Awaits Below?

Here's hoping you see the light before you jump off the precipice with nary a scratch since you allowed yourself to be persuaded that it was possible. Even though common sense and a natural sense of self-preservation told you that you would be out of mind to even consider it!
But you did all the same knowing that nothing but the yawning, black maw of death awaited you below.
I can attest that lack of self-esteem – no compassion for self – is the root cause of this problem.
Some people go over the edge and die physically and/or spiritually or both. Others save themselves in the nick of time and then there are those who just will not go there.
Which are you?

Do comment and share your experiences about "going over the edge" at someone else's behest, and if you avoided it, how you did it and what you learned about yourself in the process.