We are all culturally conditioned to see self-pity - and its partner: guilt - as a virtue.
How could we get away from it when not even Jesus Christ could?
Or the other saints we grew up seeing and looking up at at our grandmother's house or those larger-than-life Caucasian statues at old Philippine churches.
Remember the facial expressions on these man-made marbles? They either had an expression of pain, was on the verge of ecstatic tears or wore a `pity me my lord,' `have mercy on me lord' face.
As if they are saying and wanted us to think that what they are doing is a gloriously wonderful thing and that we should do it too - if them fair-skinned and holy human-like statues could, we can too.
Even Jesus was used and words were figuratively put in his mouth when His statue was displayed in all its wounded glory at the church's center stage for us to see:
"How I sacrificed for ALL of you ungrateful people. See me and weep. See me and feel guilty because nothing you could do would make me feel better."
and we grew up believing, we grew up hearing, we grew up being told and preached that:
"We could never be good enough my lord, we are sorry my lord, forgive us. have mercy on us. We are mere mortals. We don't know any better. Punish us o lord for our insensitivity. O y O y are we such sinners!?"
And now self-righteous US is wondering why a lot of THEM people are fawning over Willie Revillame
when he is the most popular 21st century mainstream media version of our feelings of self-pity.
We pity ourselves and he plays the role of the savior who will validate our less-than beliefs and grant us a reward for feeling such. Enter Pavlov's dogs everytime we do feel pangs of pity-pain as we expect someone outside of us to make us feel better, albeit temporarily.
But we know that is unreal. Deep deep in the recesses of our hearts, we know we are also using pity and milking it to how far it could take us.
We are not stupid.
We know what we are doing.
We are using pity to our advantage to make others feel guilty. We control them the way they think they control us.
And maybe, Us and Willie or Manny P. or PCSO and the PH govt are made for each other after all?
"The unreal personality..is always for sacrificing things, for sacrificing yourself for others. It looks beautiful because you have been brought up in it. Sacrifice yourself for others - this is altruism...
Unless you are really contented with yourself, you cannot...help others toward their contentment...A person who sacrifices always becomes a sadist.
If your mother goes on talking to you and says, "I have sacrificed myself for you," she will torture you. If the husband says to the wife, "I am sacrificing," he will be a sadistic torturer. He will torture because sacrifice is just a trick to torture the other.
So those who are always sacrificing are very dangerous - potentially dangerous. Be aware of them..Enjoy yourself; be bliss-filled..when you are overflowing with your own bliss, that bliss will reach to others. But that is not a sacrifice. No one is obliged to you. No one needs to thank you. rather, you will feel grateful to others because they have been participating in your bliss..Be happy; only then can you help others to be happy."
from Osho The Book of Secrets.
How could we get away from it when not even Jesus Christ could?
Or the other saints we grew up seeing and looking up at at our grandmother's house or those larger-than-life Caucasian statues at old Philippine churches.
Remember the facial expressions on these man-made marbles? They either had an expression of pain, was on the verge of ecstatic tears or wore a `pity me my lord,' `have mercy on me lord' face.
As if they are saying and wanted us to think that what they are doing is a gloriously wonderful thing and that we should do it too - if them fair-skinned and holy human-like statues could, we can too.
Even Jesus was used and words were figuratively put in his mouth when His statue was displayed in all its wounded glory at the church's center stage for us to see:
"How I sacrificed for ALL of you ungrateful people. See me and weep. See me and feel guilty because nothing you could do would make me feel better."
and we grew up believing, we grew up hearing, we grew up being told and preached that:
"We could never be good enough my lord, we are sorry my lord, forgive us. have mercy on us. We are mere mortals. We don't know any better. Punish us o lord for our insensitivity. O y O y are we such sinners!?"
And now self-righteous US is wondering why a lot of THEM people are fawning over Willie Revillame
when he is the most popular 21st century mainstream media version of our feelings of self-pity.
We pity ourselves and he plays the role of the savior who will validate our less-than beliefs and grant us a reward for feeling such. Enter Pavlov's dogs everytime we do feel pangs of pity-pain as we expect someone outside of us to make us feel better, albeit temporarily.
But we know that is unreal. Deep deep in the recesses of our hearts, we know we are also using pity and milking it to how far it could take us.
We are not stupid.
We know what we are doing.
We are using pity to our advantage to make others feel guilty. We control them the way they think they control us.
And maybe, Us and Willie or Manny P. or PCSO and the PH govt are made for each other after all?
"The unreal personality..is always for sacrificing things, for sacrificing yourself for others. It looks beautiful because you have been brought up in it. Sacrifice yourself for others - this is altruism...
Unless you are really contented with yourself, you cannot...help others toward their contentment...A person who sacrifices always becomes a sadist.
If your mother goes on talking to you and says, "I have sacrificed myself for you," she will torture you. If the husband says to the wife, "I am sacrificing," he will be a sadistic torturer. He will torture because sacrifice is just a trick to torture the other.
So those who are always sacrificing are very dangerous - potentially dangerous. Be aware of them..Enjoy yourself; be bliss-filled..when you are overflowing with your own bliss, that bliss will reach to others. But that is not a sacrifice. No one is obliged to you. No one needs to thank you. rather, you will feel grateful to others because they have been participating in your bliss..Be happy; only then can you help others to be happy."
from Osho The Book of Secrets.
