Sunday Musings - June 4, 2023
The art of emptying oneself
Once again, I am indebted to Sean Iling’s podcast “The Gray Area”; the recent episode during which he and Professor Robert Zaretsky discuss the philosophy of Simone Weil. As often happens he and Dr Zaretsky tickled my mind about several issues, but today I am focused on the art of emptying oneself.
The Christian Bible in Philippians 2:7 suggests that Christ emptied himself before his earthy journey. In Philippians 2: 12-13 in some translations the writer talks about the need to empty ourselves to serve others.
Sean Illing and Dr. Zaretsky discuss emptying oneself as a method Simone Weil practiced when preparing herself to attend to or listen to another person. Most of us find it very difficult to truly hear anothe. When another is attempting to communicate, we frequently are:
· Formulating our response which is often to communicate why they are wrong.
o Tuning them out.
o Hearing only the words and not what is beneath the words or other forms of communication.
Shutting off our opinions or our “truth” to truly hear another may be one of the most difficult things we can attempt to do. In the 12-step program it is often suggested that recovery demands that one let go of one’s ego. To let go of one’s ego one must:
o Accept that as a human one has only one’s perceptions and/or what one was previously told was the truth about oneself and the world.
o Accept that as a human, as the late Louise Hay would say, “we are perfect in our imperfection.”
Simone Weil might have said our worth is contained in our willingness to open ourselves to the process of becoming (my words).
Father Greg Boyle and others have posited we access or experience our worth in our willingness to return ourselves to ourselves.
A wise teacher told me when I was 31 that “You need to learn to be a man. At the age of 31 you could not possibly know anything about what it means to be a man.” He was, of course, right. He invited me to sit with him daily when he carved wooden art to listen to stories about what it meant to live in harmony with Mother Nature and other humans.
Sadly, our ability to empty ourselves and, thus, our openness to hearing another is often impeded by our fear that we are not enough; that we must be smarter then, richer than, more muscled than, have more degrees than, he more titled than, or be more culturally attractive then our perception of others. It may be most of us spend much of our time and energy hiding who we truly are. Another way of saying this is that we avoid emptying ourselves - letting go of our ego - because we are too fearful of being adversely judged or rejected if we are intellectually and emotionally naked.
As I was listening to Dr. Zaretsky he often used and explained the French words which Simone Weil would have used. His point was not to demonstrate he is fluent in French but to elucidate his choice of translation. If I was writing an academic journal article, I might be advised to use French or other non-English words to make it appear that I am more educated than I am. Although I have been exposed to some other languages in undergraduate and graduate school, I am not fluent in any language other than English and often not nearly as fluent in English as I would like when I am attempting to speak or write. It is easy to fall into the academic trap of pretending that I know more than I know as if my professional and personal worth is dependent of that ruse.
Emptying oneself or letting go of one’s ego is necessary if one is to truly hear or be with another; if one is to truly understand the pain of others; the pain which often lies beneath anger or other shields.
Jesus is alleged to have said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5). Is the teacher Jesus saying that those who know they do not know; who do not pretend to know; whose ego is not inflated by false beliefs about their humanness are, paradoxically, the wisest or most spiritual? Perhaps.
It has not escaped me that I have just written 751 words about emptying oneself!
Written June 4, 2023
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
The art of emptying oneself
Once again, I am indebted to Sean Iling’s podcast “The Gray Area”; the recent episode during which he and Professor Robert Zaretsky discuss the philosophy of Simone Weil. As often happens he and Dr Zaretsky tickled my mind about several issues, but today I am focused on the art of emptying oneself.
The Christian Bible in Philippians 2:7 suggests that Christ emptied himself before his earthy journey. In Philippians 2: 12-13 in some translations the writer talks about the need to empty ourselves to serve others.
Sean Illing and Dr. Zaretsky discuss emptying oneself as a method Simone Weil practiced when preparing herself to attend to or listen to another person. Most of us find it very difficult to truly hear anothe. When another is attempting to communicate, we frequently are:
· Formulating our response which is often to communicate why they are wrong.
o Tuning them out.
o Hearing only the words and not what is beneath the words or other forms of communication.
Shutting off our opinions or our “truth” to truly hear another may be one of the most difficult things we can attempt to do. In the 12-step program it is often suggested that recovery demands that one let go of one’s ego. To let go of one’s ego one must:
o Accept that as a human one has only one’s perceptions and/or what one was previously told was the truth about oneself and the world.
o Accept that as a human, as the late Louise Hay would say, “we are perfect in our imperfection.”
Simone Weil might have said our worth is contained in our willingness to open ourselves to the process of becoming (my words).
Father Greg Boyle and others have posited we access or experience our worth in our willingness to return ourselves to ourselves.
A wise teacher told me when I was 31 that “You need to learn to be a man. At the age of 31 you could not possibly know anything about what it means to be a man.” He was, of course, right. He invited me to sit with him daily when he carved wooden art to listen to stories about what it meant to live in harmony with Mother Nature and other humans.
Sadly, our ability to empty ourselves and, thus, our openness to hearing another is often impeded by our fear that we are not enough; that we must be smarter then, richer than, more muscled than, have more degrees than, he more titled than, or be more culturally attractive then our perception of others. It may be most of us spend much of our time and energy hiding who we truly are. Another way of saying this is that we avoid emptying ourselves - letting go of our ego - because we are too fearful of being adversely judged or rejected if we are intellectually and emotionally naked.
As I was listening to Dr. Zaretsky he often used and explained the French words which Simone Weil would have used. His point was not to demonstrate he is fluent in French but to elucidate his choice of translation. If I was writing an academic journal article, I might be advised to use French or other non-English words to make it appear that I am more educated than I am. Although I have been exposed to some other languages in undergraduate and graduate school, I am not fluent in any language other than English and often not nearly as fluent in English as I would like when I am attempting to speak or write. It is easy to fall into the academic trap of pretending that I know more than I know as if my professional and personal worth is dependent of that ruse.
Emptying oneself or letting go of one’s ego is necessary if one is to truly hear or be with another; if one is to truly understand the pain of others; the pain which often lies beneath anger or other shields.
Jesus is alleged to have said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5). Is the teacher Jesus saying that those who know they do not know; who do not pretend to know; whose ego is not inflated by false beliefs about their humanness are, paradoxically, the wisest or most spiritual? Perhaps.
It has not escaped me that I have just written 751 words about emptying oneself!
Written June 4, 2023
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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