Blueprints For Living
	The Dictator Instinct <  Previous Contents Next  >

THE ego that is LIFE appearing never fears extinction but the negative ego is haunted by its fear of death. This negative ego fights for its life with incredible tenacity.

It does this for the very reason that it is the reverse of that divine identity which rests in the secure knowledge of its own eternal life and therefore includes no struggle to perpetuate itself. You can check your stage of development by the extent of your freedom from fear.

This often unrecognized fear of extinction is so strong in very egotistic people that it develops into petty tyrants; or sometimes it drives its victims into the seats of the mighty—the dictator with his dream of world conquest ... if he can get control of the whole world surely he can perpetuate this personal ego that lives in secret dread of annihilation! This fear is so intense that it forces into prominence a Hitler, a Bonaparte, a Hannibal.

Back of their insane determination to hold in their hands the lives of all other men lies this terror deep within themselves.

The fearless man, the selfless man, is never the dictator. Washington had no desire to be king. Lincoln was humble in his greatness. Gandhi ruled millions and achieved his nation's independence by an unconquerable way of life and a fearless love for humanity seldom equaled in history. The greatest example of freedom from the negative ego was Jesus, who saw even beyond Gandhi in his understanding of non-resistance, so fully depicted in those fateful hours before the crucifixion.

We are all faced with dictator tendencies in ourselves and in others. The dictator instinct always has a scapegoat—someone else is the cause of its shortcomings (so it thinks). It blames its willfulness on childhood influences, makes allowances for its own petty tyrannies because it in turn was tyrannized over by parent or guardian. Or perhaps it was spoiled by loving but unwise parents and now craves self-indulgence and resists all discipline or self-control.

This dictator instinct, the stubborn human ego, was called "the strong man" by Jesus and he said this tyrant must be bound. In other words the indulgence of this negative ego will never free one from the tyranny of his own weakness. Intelligent control and self-discipline must "bind the strong man" before one can begin to live free from the negative ego and its fears.

The dictator instinct distrusts all forms of control for itself, but it tries to dominate others. It reverses the Golden Rule—it does to others exactly what it avoids for itself. It accuses others of its own shortcomings. It blames others for its faults. It makes heavy demands but gives little or nothing in return.

The dictator instinct thrives on appeasement. The more it is catered to the more it wants, yet it remains always unsatisfied, discontented. It may pose as ruthlessly strong and fearless. But underneath is the cowardice of hidden terror.

Sometimes it masquerades in a garb that demands sympathy. We need to know the difference between sympathy and compassion. Compassion is not blind to suffering but expresses the intelligent love that is able to see the wise course to help the development of an individual. Sympathy is a weakening dose. It supports the condition with which it sympathizes. The dictator instinct plays upon sympathy and exploits it at every turn.

It is consumed with self-pity and absorbed in self-seeking, inflated with self-importance. It is thoughtless, inconsiderate and cruel.

These are some of the flagrant aspects of mankind's basic tyrant—an individual's own negative ego.

In dealing with those controlled by any of these negative tendencies should we accord them the same treatment we give to truly noble people? If we do not recognize the negative tendencies and deal with them wisely, our pearls will be trampled under the feet of the negative ego, kicked around by its own inability to walk ahead of its present state.

There is one important point to stress here. Going back to photography, when the picture is taken it registers on the film and in order to see any forms on this film something specific must happen to it—it must be developed in an acid bath (or some other developing method). This brings out the negative picture and gets it ready for the final printing.

Let's remember that it would be impossible to get the real picture, the correct impression of the object photographed, if the method for printing the negative into the final picture was used to develop the film when it was first taken from the camera. There are orderly developing processes and they cannot be sidestepped.

As said elsewhere you would never get pictures from the roll of films if you skipped the acid bath and gave the undeveloped roll the same treatment that you would give the developed film. Just so we need to be very alert and very wise in dealing with the dictator instincts wherever they appear, in ourselves just as much as in others. The process necessary at one stage of development will not do at another. None of the steps can be avoided.

Evolution from the negative ego into the joy and fulfillment of one's true identity can be understood when compared to these steps in making a photograph. Here is the method: The basic idea exists in creative MIND and a picture (creation) must be taken (must appear); the reality in the SOURCE-MIND must take form as creation; and the developing process must go forward in the same order as in developing a simple roll of films.

This is highly significant. There are many spiritual teachings today which declare that God is GOOD and is ALL; and that no matter what one faces, the recognition or the understanding declaration of the presence of God is all that is necessary to bring about immediate and permanent healing, either physical, mental, or in human relations. Sometimes this is so.

But if the negative does not quickly yield to this vision and instead resists it, the one who has seen and felt God's presence should not be fooled into thinking that the "acid bath" should be avoided. There is the longing in a truly unselfish and loving person to shield others from suffering, to make the way pleasant for the humanity they love. But sometimes this is the most cruel thing they can do.

We have to reap the consequences of our own negative thoughts and acts—we really reap their benefits, for there is only one way to let go of this inner tyrant and that is by getting fed up with it!

Sometimes this ego poses as evil and hateful, sometimes as pathetic and helpless, sometimes as imposed upon and martyred; but always these are the results of negative thinking. The answer is not found by averting necessary experiences. Nor is it in trying with the human intellect to fix up the negatives, either the bad ones or the so-called good ones. TAMPERING WITH THE NEGATIVE PERPETUATES THE NEGATIVE.

This does not mean to draw aside in selfish isolation or callous indifference. There is something to do about every negative impression that comes to us. We can hold it up to the light of our knowledge that GOOD is ALL, see right through it until we feel the God-presence, the GOOD identity, the GOOD condition. We know that this will be the final state of what now faces us in its negative stage, so we can await this development with serenity... .

But we won't make the mistake of treating that negative as if it were already in the divine positive condition. Having the MIND that is LOVE as well as INTELLIGENCE, we see the truly kind things to do, we give and share in even greater measure than the intellect can comprehend. But we will have the impartial wisdom not to avert the experiences necessary for each individual to become aware of his well-integrated happy and true SELFHOOD.

In the field of mental healing, spiritual or psychiatric, there is great temptation to help unwisely. Take the spiritual healer: he is frequently requested and expected to do the spiritual thinking for his patient. At first this seems to work very well, healings usually occur, financial problems are solved, personal difficulties are ironed out; life gets easier for the one who has "a good practitioner" or "strong spiritual healer."

More and more reliance is placed on the healer's work, less and less on one's own living the Christly life in daily affairs. After a while some failures come and maybe the healer is changed. Then again there is apt to be success in achieving physical ease and more of "the good things of life." But sooner or later come more failures, unless one has learned to live moment by moment the Truth he believes.

The one who turns constantly to another for help is standing still in a dark stage of undeveloped spirituality. He can say the words or read spiritual truths, he can quote his spiritual guide or teacher, so surely all is well. But why the mounting mistakes and unsolved problems?

The answer is clear: No one can do the living for another. No one can release another from his negative ego and so free him from his basic fear, the fear of extinction. The developing process is "an inside job." No mediator will do the trick. No mediator will give salvation to another. The belief of needing a mediator gets in the way, gets between the individual and his awareness of the SOURCE-CONSCIOUSNESS that is his true consciousness, his very life and being.

Through the acid baths of our own negative experiences we grow to the ability to go forward out of this stage. Through the very hardships we suffer, even the so-called sins we commit, this developing process goes on. And at some time, here or somewhere (and it will always be "here" to oneself) come the moments of that FEELING, the SOURCE-CONSCIOUSNESS.

After that begins the "printing process"—the negative is being reversed and the true positive thinking and living (the right picture that shows the very nature and being of God) is coming into view as one's real present identity and life. Eventually we look back and see that everything which has happened was GOOD appearing, for even the most dreadful things that ever took place were forcing us to really find God—to find God as our very own divine MIND and BEING.

The friends who were not friends, the heartaches, the loneliness, the sickness and suffering of our bodies, the failures when success seemed so right and so needed, all were steadily leading spiritual dullness out of itself into faith and hope and beyond these to TRUTH ITSELF.

In this light comes the FEELING that one knows is God, one's very life and substance. In this strong yet tender LIGHT one begins to see the meaning of all things and the clear and sure unfoldment of the Plan and Purpose of GOOD. Now one is Self-assured of an eternal individual destiny that must and will be fulfilled ... and the fear of extinction is gone forever.