--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > <snip> > > > these folks have been in the mindset > > > of believing that there is something essentially > > > WRONG with them for so long that they get angry > > > when someone suggests that there is nothing wrong > > > with them, and that they might make more progress > > > if they just relax and stop beating themselves up. > > > > So what's WRONG with them is that they get angry > > when someone suggests that there is nothing wrong > > with them, right? And if they could just FIX > > this tendency, they'd make more progress? > > In my post itself, without your clever snippage, > I said only that I was fascinated by the phenomenon, > and that I found it a constant source of amusement.
I'm sorry you didn't get my point. Your comment above is a complete non sequitur. What is it you *thought* I was saying that you're denying here? And which part of what I snipped do you think makes what I wrote somehow misleading? Take a DEEEEP breath, Barry, and relax. Then try to reread what I wrote *calmly*. If you see a problem with my paraphrase of what you wrote that I quoted, explain what I got wrong. That you're "fascinated by the phenomenon" and find it a "constant source of amusement" is entirely irrelevant. > So I'd suggest that what you posted above and tried > to attribute to me is the way that YOU see things, > not how I see them. Actually I was asking you a rhetorical question. I was pointing out that what you wrote creates an infinite regress, something you've always had trouble recognizing. Let me state it more simply: You think the whole idea of "fixing" oneself is silly and recommend that one become comfortable with one's flaws. You also suggest that not being comfortable with one's flaws and feeling the need to "fix" oneself is an obstacle to one's spiritual progress, and you recommend getting over that tendency. But that is a recommendation that people with this tendency *fix themselves*, which is what you've just said they shouldn't be doing. See what I'm getting at now? And to take it a step further, if what a person criticizes in others is really their own flaws, then it follows that your criticisms of the tendency to want to "fix" oneself reflect your own tendency to want to "fix* YOURself. As well, you're quite mistaken to suggest that I believe what a person criticizes in others is really their own flaws. I've pointed out before that I think this notion is a thought-stopper, a way of deflecting criticism. It may be true in some cases, but it's by no means a general rule of thumb. Some people do have a tendency to project their own flaws onto others, but others do not.
