[A]  The human being has an intricate mechanism for growth and survival. It is built of different components that interact.  Or they seem to interact to meet specific objectives.  (Perhaps it is just one machine that does it all, but I wouldn’t know about that.)

We live in the world; so, perception is the most important asset.  Learning from perception is also important, so there must be a memory factor to make some meaning out of the previous, (perhaps it’s the biggest mystery.)   But please don’t claim memory is a computer RAM chip full of ones and zeros.

Of course, energy is introduced and waste eliminated, and temperature is controlled, plus we interact with our surroundings.  Much of perception is devoted to safety, as is learning devoted to safety.  All perception enters on two fronts, images and feelings.  Feeling is received by the body, and images are received by the mind, and (I think) both images and feelings are almost always interpreted with a language overlay.  First and foremost, this is for sustenance and safety.  The safety factor has an alarm system, and that is called “bad-feeling”, most often fear, aggression, defense, well; fight, flight or freeze. It’s a contraction in the body.

Perception has two components, that of sensation, and then interpretation from previous “like experiences”.  We don’t know which component predominates.  Previous experiences are not any kind of a “gold-standard”, and they were interpreted from a more immature standpoint.

1. THAT LEAVES US WITH THE WAY IN WHICH WE RUN OURSELVES IN THIS MOMENT.

Surely, it is full of glitches, inconsistencies and incomplete visions.  We have a multitude of HANG-UPS.  But yet we forge ahead believing we are complete, and worthy of leadership, listening to, and emulation.  Shouldn’t we always be working on improving how we operate on a personal level?  Do we have any choices?  In what ways can we increase our options?  Do we say that, There Is No Alternative?  Do we just compare, and say we are better than the others?  Is our level of “Bad-Feeling” constantly in an alarm state?    What is our steady-state of tension level?  Have we become deadened to that in order to survive?

WOW, danger on the move.

2.  The second realm of engagement is with our fellow human being, our relationships.  How do they work out for us?  Is it only a special breed of people that we can associate with?   Do we leave them quickly if they say or do the wrong thing?  What is our irritation level?  (Why don’t they just do it like this?  It would be so easy for them.)  Start with the spouse and the children, the parents and extended relatives, the working colleagues.  How about the employer or bosses, or the community officials?

How smoothly do your relationships work?  What are the options for bettering them?  What do you tell yourself about the other.   Do you notice all their “defects”, or do you just concentrate on their qualities?  Are your relationships expanding, or contracting?

We have a multitude of HANG-UPS.  Shouldn’t we always be working on improving how we operate on the interpersonal level?

3.  As we gain maturity in realm one and realm two, maybe we could judge and comment better on level three, which are the interactions between separate enthnicities.  International relations.  Looking out, there is a lot that we see and want to reject as misdirected.    How did those circumstances go so far astray?  Could it be that realm one and two are so distorted in ourselves and others?  And they are the building blocks of our action and of judging foreigners?

What do we know about geo-politics that is not hearsay?  Even if we were an advisor or a decision maker, we are now retired for many years, (or we wouldn’t be talking this way).  People yearn to hear our stories.  Are we armchair politicians or armchair generals, outfighting all the ongoing battles, the ones fought by the incompetent armies?  We are a compiler of second-hand stories.  Well, at least here they are different than the main stream rhetoric.

And what role do all our hang-ups and inconsistencies from realm one and two play in our opinion?  I am not saying to avoid, because I like to be informed too.  But please work on all three levels simultaneously, and see what you learn by doing so.

Thanks