vanity, thy name is freak!

8/9/2019 Vanity, Thy Name is Freak!

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Vanity, Thy Nam e is Freak!

This article also appears at www.22cplus.blogspot.com

I confess I’m not above having a giggle at the sheer mindboggling idiocy of human vanity. We humans do like to puff ourselves up, preening ourselves and strutting aroundlike peacocks. Even I’ve been known to do it. It’s called my workout. In my defense,however, I have done away with the short shorts that I wore with pride as a youngerman (just quietly).

Plastic surgery is probably the ultimate expression of vanity. I almost put a picture of Michael (you know which one) at the top of this post, but felt so bad about the image I

By Mar cus T. Anthony (PhD)

Ema il: m indfutures at gmail dot com



found I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I used a more flattering example - KylieMinigue. Still, you probably saw the pictures of twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, whoattended the Cannes film festival recently. I confess I’d never heard of these guys till yesterday, but apparently they had a hit sci-fi show back in the 80s. Looks like theseguys watched a few too many episodes of their own show, as they appear to havemorphed into ETs themselves, courtesy of the surgeon’s knife.

This is what they looked like when they were heartthrobs in the 80s.

And this is the magical transformation.



Chinese President Hu Jinatau (mid 60s)

China's former Pr esident Jian Zemin (in his mid 80s)

OK, let’s not be too hypocritical. Although it varies in expression and degree fromperson to person, vanity is a normal human experience, and stems from the ego’s fear of impermanence, which in turn emerges from an over-identification with the body. It’s nouse trying to pretend that this vanity doesn’t exist within us. The ego doesn’t respond well to being shamed and beaten.

Nonetheless, it is important for our futures, both as individuals and as a collectivespecies, that we do no regress too far into the superficiality of vanity. Vanity and ego canserve us - as long as we do not become too caught up in its attachment to form. Lookinggood has benefits in our society, and we all know what they are.

The key to transcendence of vanity is to catch thought as it emerges from the mind. When we look at our reflection, or think about the way we look, a judgment will begin to

surface. This takes just a frication of a second, but it can be witnessed. All then has to dois assert the will, and make a decision not to allow the thought to progress. If this is notdone, the thought becomes emotionalised, achieving physiological “substance”, and likea snowball rolling down hill, quickly gets out of control. Once the limbic system andamygdale kick in, you are not just dealing with the "thought", but the body and physical brain as well.



If this witnessing of thought is done regularly and with self-discipline, the projections of the mind begin to lose their power. This includes its attachments to things, and its judgments (including g judgment of physical appearance of self and others).

The other problem with the over-identification with the body is that it prevents us from

seeing that we are spiritual beings, and that the mind is not dependent upon physicalform. The modern world’s infatuation with the material, which emerged from thescientific enlightenment, makes it particularly difficult to see past this delusion.

In the end the decision to explore a deeper understanding of what it means to be humanand conscious requires a leap of faith, as both the mass media and science are clouded by this false premise of materialism, the exaltation of surfaces. Even though it can befrustrating to deal with a world that has been drawn int0 the ego’s inability to see beyond form, another way of looking at the situation is to realise how wonderful it is to break free of the stranglehold of mass delusion. To see a present - and a future - beyondthe dominant constructs of the society you live in represents an act of rebellion, and like

all rebellion it takes courage to enact. Yet this is a rebellion which does not need to be violent. For the freeing from the delusion of the material permits both a greater love forself and others, even despite our physical imperfections.

Finally, in contrast to the images shown at the beginning of this post, allow me topresent the images of two of my favourite spiritual teachers.

There is a beauty, like Wisdom, which lies beyond form.



Leonard Jacobson

David R. Hawkins

Marcus T. Anthony

* * *

Have you ever felt you had a greater calling, but been unable to put your finger on what it is?

Marcus T. Anthony’s Sage of Synchronicity isnow available. Find out more about the book at

www.sageofsynchronicity.weebly.com

Marcus T. Anthony’s blog about the future: www.22cplus.blogspot.com

vanity, thy name is freak!

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