Meditation: Arrogance is ignorance of dependency
TYPE: Dependence
PURPOSE: This Audio-visual Meditation reminds us that “self” and “will” are merely the bouquet of biologic. As T. K. Seung is fond of saying,
The brain does not serve the mind. Rather, the mind must serve the brain.
CONTEXT:
Ego feels aloof in that the only things that matter to it are motions that can be intended. The parts of the world under its control: intentional thinking and imagining, some neural firings, and voluntary muscle contractions, including speech. Strongly dualists cults, such as contemporary Law of Attraction enthusiasts and Scientologists, believe that the intending self has total magickal reach, it just doesn’t see it.
The ego is the organism’s outermost layer of executive function. As I have mentioned elsewhere, the noosphere arose as an alarmist unified coordinator. It’s interest is in survival—that is, power. Power is a demon—that is, it is not the total microcosm. Today, we would call it infantile. It only admires when it itself can control. It takes its own world as the total world. It cares most for itself, its family, its group, and its class. Its vanity makes it uninterested in the trans-human infrastructure that supports it.
MAN: We’re only running on impulse engines now. Ordinarily, we use the warp engines exclusively.
SCOTT: Well, I suppose, lassie, that even our impulse engines must seem fast compared to your nuclear propulsion units.
ELAAN: We are interested in how the ship is used in combat, not in what drives it. Engines are for mechanics and menials.
SCOTT: Menials? Without engines, there’d be no fighting or …
KIRK: Mister Scott! I wish you had told me you wanted a tour of the engineering department.
ELAAN: Do we not have the freedom of this ship? We have granted your crew the permission not to kneel in our presence. What else do you want?
KIRK: Courtesy. Remember?
ELAAN: Courtesy is not for inferiors.
KIRK: Courtesy is for everyone around here, and you’ll find you won’t be able to exist on Troyius without it. Mister Scott, our Chief Engineer, has shown you his engineering department. That’s a courtesy. You respond by saying thank you.
(The diminutive firecracker stalks away with her bodyguards.)
SPOCK [OC]: Bridge to Captain.
KIRK: Kirk here.
SPOCK [OC]: That sensor ghost is moving closer.
KIRK: On my way.
METHOD: Pay attention to the dialogue. Realize that arrogance is the result of ignorance—ignorance about the invisible infrastructure that supports you.
TIMESTAMP: 12:15