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[Eckhart Aurelius Hughes]

"How do I know if I am being honest with myself and being self-disciplined (a.k.a. free-spirited) versus lying to myself or being a slave to bodily feelings?

Hi,

Thank you for your question!

In reality, by definition, you are always in control of your choices.

As my book explains in more detail, spiritual slavery (a.k.a. the opposite of self-discipline) is always a lie, or at least a delusion.

In other words, the idea that you lack self-control is always a lie or delusion of some kind.

Probably the most reliable sign that you aren't being honest with yourself would be if you feel like a spiritual slave, or feel like a slave in any sense of the word. That is, at least, assuming there is not literal violence being threatened against you and there is no genuine immediate threat to your life.

In other words, you can know you are almost certainly lying to yourself, namely in the sen of dishonestly pretending to be a spiritual slave, if either of the following the case:

(1) you feel like a prisoner in your body

and/or

(2) you feel like you are choosing to do something you don't want to do despite being able to choose do not do it.


If either of the above are the case, you almost certainly are lying to yourself by pretending to be a spiritual slave instead of a free spirit.

By extension, if you use any of the misery-inducing words (e.g. should, must do, have to, trying, etc.), then that is very reliable sign that you are almost certainly not being honest with yourself and are behaving like a miserable spiritual slave, which is a misery-inducing act that you would be putting on for yourself.

For example, anyone who says to themself any of the following things is almost certainly a self-deceiving liar who is miserably pretending to be an unfortunate spiritual slave:


"I'm hungry, so I have to eat this junk food."

"I'm stressed, so I must have some comfort food."

"I had a rough day, so I need a drink."

"I shouldn't be smoking this cigarette that I am choosing to smoke."

"I am trying to not cheat on my spouse, but I am failing."

"I am trying to not drink this beer, but I am failing."

"I have to do this thing I am choosing to do."

"I must do this thing I am doing voluntarily."


Hopefully, it is clear that the above kind of things are inherently and inescapably an impossible paradox, meaning spiritual slavery is always a lie or delusion.

The human mind tends to take very simply truths (e.g. "I am choosing to do X.") and twist and over-complicate into a confusing mess of equivocal gibberish and outright contradictions, all as a way to gaslight itself, often as a way to rationalize and excuse it's baser desires and urges, which often themselves reduce simply to the desire for unchangeable things to be different than they unchangeably are.

For example, the human body can desire for 2 + 2 to stop equaling 5, even though that is impossible. If so, the brain will tend to go haywire and create a whole mess of nonsense ideas out of cognitive dissonance and such to deal with its unfulfillable desire and refusal to accept reality, all instead of simply accepting that it is what it is.

So that final symptom that you are lying to yourself is that things seem complicated, confusing, unclear. For example, if you are being or feeling very indecisive about something or in general, that is an almost certain sign you are lying to yourself in some way.

As wise people say, the truth will set you free.


With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes

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