https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=SSvE0FNN3U0
Having done this inventory, you recognize what patterns have been at play in your life, which particular in the lexicon of the recovery, defects of character have governed you often pride, wanting to control other people’s perspective, self-pity, self-centeredness, intolerance in patients, greed, jealousy, envy, lust, sloth. That’s where you identify the seven deadly sins and how they play out in your life, essentially. Yes. And so, and you become in the step six is about becoming willing to live differently. Like saying, are you actually willing to let go of lust? Are you, or do you like lust when it comes to it? Do you like being impatient? Does it serve you in some way to be slothful? And it’s highly probable that it does. Yes. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s easy. It’s gratifying. It’s powerful. It’s pleasurable, especially in the short term. Like there’s lots of, there are reasons that people are tempted by, by the seven deadly sins. They’re tempting. They’re kind of glorious. They’re dark, glory and beauty. That’s right. They have a, that’s exactly right. They have, there’s a dark romanticism and you really see that in the deaths of celebrities around 27 is they, they fall in love with the allure of that kind of, of that romantic death. And it does them in. So the anti-libido, the dark libido, the death force. So with the, once you have diagnosed which particular defects of character have been most prominent in your path and become willing to let go of them, this, like it’s step seven is making a concerted and real effort to live without them. And this is where it kind of becomes. That’s a sacrifice there. That’s what are you willing to sacrifice in order to move forward? You have to give up something that you love and you may have to give up the thing you love the best. That’s the fundamental sacrificial motif. Sacrifice is an unattractive idea in our self, in, in our society that’s based on consuming and indulgence. And this is not something that I would lay. So this is again, perhaps you were, you and I somewhat differ is that I would not, whilst this will not change without the individual’s engagement, a kind of step one and acknowledgement that needs to be changed. This is where I say there is a social responsibility, but for whatever reason our society has become a manifestation of these darker impulses. These are the prevalent forces, at least in the kind of society I live in. I don’t know what it’s like to live in China or Libya. I’m just saying like in London, like what you’re. Too much emphasis on immediate gratification. Too much emphasis on, because immediate gratification is a tool of consumerism. This would be my argument. So like, but at this point in the program, it’s where the spirituality becomes I find personally undeniable that you have to, you have to call to something else. You have to, in a sense, lay yourself open. The idea of prayer becomes quite important. So there’s a, there’s a Jungian idea there. So the Jungian self is the thing that guides the ego through transformations. So imagine the ego, which is what you think you are. Well, the thing about the ego is that the ego can be wrong and the ego can die and be reborn. So what that indicates is that there’s something underneath the ego that can guide that process of transformation. And partly what you’re calling on when you call on this higher power is at least from a psychological perspective, it’s a decision to rely on that thing that can guide you through transformations. Yes, because surely as we said in relation to another, we are likely relating to a set of coordinates that we impose on in very common as the female, the true same would be true of the self, that we have created an impression, an egoic impression. We have constructed an artificial self, but beneath it, there is a higher self or an ulterior self. It’s often composed of, it’s often composed of things that you refuse to or weren’t willing to develop. And so when Jung talks about, for example, the incorporation of the shadow is that you’ve constructed an ego and there’s things it can do and can’t do that it’s allowed to do and isn’t allowed to do. And then there’s a shadow domain that would consist of those things that you could do, but haven’t. And some of that’s terrible, but some of it’s what you need to break free. Is there an infinite variety in the shadow or are there sort of templates there? Would you say that, you know, a common component of the shadow is last aggression? Aggression and lust are the two, because they’re the most, the two that are most civilized. Yeah, they’re the two that are most difficult to integrate into the ego because aggression destroys. And of course, lust subsumes the individual to sexual desire. It’s such a lust identified as a very powerful self. It can subsume. So I suppose that’s why a lot of theological doctrines focus on the control of lust. And there is of course, Well, it’s a disruptive force, you know, because for example, if you make a medium to long-term relationship with someone and you negotiate that, that provides you with a stable structure that can operate across your entire life. It’s good for you. It’s good for them. It’s good for your kids. It’s good for society. But then if you’re really attracted to someone momentarily, you can be driven to act on that. And every, all the rest of that can burn up. It’s not good. And so it’s no wonder that it’s viewed as a force of tremendous disruption. Now it’s also a force of tremendous life, right? Because you want to be attracted to people. You want to have that, that, that vital libido as part of, of part of what’s driving you forward, but hopefully it’s on your side and not working against you. And so, you know, if you’re successful and you’ve put yourself together and you’re disciplined, you should still be maximally sexually attractive, but it should be under your control. You’re not a, you’re not the puppet of that force anymore. It’s integrated into you. And that’s a much better way to manage it. How do you, in your understanding, how is the shadow incorporated? What rituals, what ceremonies, what behaviors successfully incorporate the shadow state in the, using the example of lust, what’s a way back in for the sort of, for lust that has been disembodied or repressed? What’s a safe way for it back in? Is there one? Well, I think part of it is to, is to admit to your desires within your own relationship, you know, cause you might say, well, I’m, I’m tired of my wife. It’s like, well, yeah, maybe, maybe you’re tired of the games that you’re intelligent enough to play with your wife, but she’s as pluripotential as you are. And so you have to admit to your desires, let’s say, and maybe you have to make them consciously manifest within your own relationship. And then, you know, and people can do that. People do that by, by dressing up or by, by playing sexually, I would say, by play exactly that play is a transformative element. And that’s, you know, and it might be that you’re uncomfortable with the idea of, of your wife as sexual play thing, because you think that a woman who’s married should be proper and preeminent should only behave sexually in a certain way, in which case, well, that becomes sterile and dull and you’re more likely to be tempted by something on the outside. For me, that’s a very obvious example of how habitualized thinking is prohibitive, even without reaching the extremes of self-destructive addictive tendencies. If I have a habit of regarding my wife as, as object A, even if that’s not objectification as we typically take it, but you know, limiting beliefs about my wife, the tools that break down addictive thought patterns could be used to create new terrains, new liberty, new play. Thank you. So like, so once you’ve done up to step seven, which is essentially step seven, you’re right. It’s a sort of sacrifice of the old self and handing over to some kind of sublime divine self. The step eight is you make a list of people that you have harmed and become willing to make amends to them. So you look back at your partner, go, God, I shouldn’t have stolen that. I shouldn’t have done that. I treated that person badly. That was wrong. I lied. So it’s moral. It becomes quite a moral. And that’s a real repentance, right? And atonement, atonement is at one meant. And if you’re carrying transgressions that you regard as transgressions now in your life, then you don’t want to carry those forward. You want to, you want to, you want to step forward in life without that moral burden, because you’ll have contempt for yourself otherwise, and you won’t take care of yourself.