You and Me – Alienation or Collaboration?

Jun 18
2011

Shib Shakti, a long- time spiritual friend from India, wrote:

… we are programmed, in our families, from the very onset of our senses – It’s ‘my’ mom, it’s ‘my’ dad, it’s ‘my house’, that’s ‘your’ pen, that’s ‘your’ toy…. and this way we are programmed to alienate ourselves from ‘others’, though we could be taught instead that everything outside us is also part of ourselves

What a fascinating topic!

You/Me Scarcity Mentality

If I hear Shib correctly, he is speaking about that aspect of you/me mentality that operates from scarcity. There is not enough to go around. I have to protect myself and hoard all the physical resources I can. If you win, I lose. This mentality creates conflict.

There are, however, other aspects of you/me mentality.

You/Me Uniqueness Mentality

Each of us on this planet is unique. Each of us has different genes, different cultural experiences, different parental experiences, different education, different skills. These differences are the gifts we have to give to the planet. It is vital for each of us to respect our own uniqueness in order to be able to grow to our full potential. This requires distinguishing you from me and getting clear on exactly what gifts and skills each of us has to offer.

You/Me Stewardship Mentality

US - Figure/Ground Ambigram by John Langdon, www.johnlangdon.net. Used by permission.

 

A third aspect of you/me mentality, related to Uniqueness Mentality is stewardship.

There are clearly some people who are better qualified to manage certain resources than others. For example, if I want to fly to New Delhi, I am far better served when the plane is piloted by an experienced pilot than a five year old child. If I need food, I am far better served by a farmer than an accountant. If I want joy and curiosity in my life, perhaps I am best served by the five-year old.

Stewardship emanates, not from scarcity thinking, conflict and disrespect, but from abundance thinking, collaboration and mutual respect. It is a you/me relationship that allows you and me to align into us. It allows me to serve you and you to serve me. We all win.

Are there other aspects of you/me mentality? I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can comment below.

4 Responses to “You and Me – Alienation or Collaboration?”

  1. elizabeth says:

    How sure are we that our thoughts are our own…They are not..All that we know , we adapt and swear by been from outside sources..From our family, books , spiritual masters and media…Only way to know oneself is to dive within and find out for ourselves who we really are..

    All who enter and exit from our lives are merely to provide clues in our quest to find our true self..

  2. janet says:

    Thanks, Elizabeth. Your comment is so accurate.

    Words divide. The flow of experience unifies. When we allow ourselves to relax into that flow and become part of it, our words become, not monolithic rocks, but vehicles for creativity and transformation.

  3. P K Mukherjee says:

    The root of all the avoidable man-made exploitative systems in this planet is our perception of this world split into ‘yours’ and ‘mine’. Based on this phenomenon of ‘yours’ and ‘mine’… “we are programmed, in our families, from the very onset of our senses. It’s ‘my’ mom, its ‘my’ dad, its ‘my house’, thats ‘your’ pen, thats ‘your’ toy…. and this way we are programmed to alienate ourselves from ‘others’, though we could be taught instead that everything outside us are also part of ourselves…”
    ..we are deliberately not programmed to think that way.. also as a part of the exploitative system… and afterwards, when we try to come to our senses about integration with the rest of the whole, we cant really do so due to our mindset with the concept of ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ embedded so deep down in our perception….

    In fact, this thought is linked with the ancient bliss of oneness with the universe that man was once capable of perceiving – not so much through writings, not so much through verses from holymen […maybe to some extent, through suggestions from artists (not sellers of today!!)] but in their own BEINGS… One can find evidence of such heights of human perception about the universe – e.g. in these two lines in the oldest script – the ‘Wrik_Beda’ (popular spelling is Rig-Veda) which i hold in highest esteem -(in Sanskrit) –
    “PoornamAdah PoornamIdam PoornatPoornamUdachyate, PoornasyaPoornamAdaya PoornamEbAbasishyate”
    – which when heard or translated, loses the FEEL of it – still, we don’t have any better means to communicate – it roughly means – “That (the universe) is full, This (small ‘i’ ) is full too – take away the whole (fullness) from the whole – what remains is THE WHOLE ….!!!!

    We, after excelling in materialistic ‘knowledge’, have also excelled in confining ourselves within the confines of this planet only – while we all belong to the BIG ‘I’ …. 🙂 .. THE WHOLE.

  4. Elise Westerlund says:

    Brilliant content. For me Religious beliefs are the wonderful surprise and additionally the actual bane. Spiritual techniques are the important thing on the other hand, Various religions ended up authored by world controllers to influence the particular people. All of our beliefs usually are corrupted virtually all the particular way around the vatican.

Leave a Reply