Human Potential Energy

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
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This will be my last post for some time,

I thought I would throw something up in the air… he he he.

Every human being has limitations and every living being has potentials (this applies to all substances).

Every human being also has an identity construct and this construct is formed from many parts.
Part of this construct is how a person incorporates their limitations and their potentialities into their construct.

A confident person will always have a greater emphasis on the potentialities within their construct and a lesser emphasis on the limitations within their construct.
An arrogant person, a person who feels guilt, or a person who feels judgement tends to place more emphasis on the limitations within their construct.

There is no difference between the two persons as both have potentialities and both have limitations.
The only difference is what they choose to focus on (they both have limitations and potentials).

If we focus on our limitations and on who we currently are - then we are self imposing limitations upon ourselves.
Focus on our potentialities and we open the doors to possibilities - we gain confidence and healthy pride.

Pride in who we can become rather than pride in who we are.
Pride in who we can become is not a function of the ego.

When a child sees their sport hero at a live game the child is inspired and when playing that sport takes on the characteristic of their hero. The child imagines themselves with the qualities of their hero and this opens the doors to possibilities for the child. It inspires the child as the child focus on what they can become and not who they currently are.

When we grow up we begin to identify with our limitations and we rapidly become discouraged and lose confidence. We then seek to blame others or society.

Maybe this is what it means to become more like children.
Questions:
What are your unique potentialities as a human being?
What are your limitations as a human being?
Which do you focus on more?

Any genuine spiritual path, psychological treatment and humanistic movements encourage us to identify with our potentials while at the same time using our limitations to achieve those potentials.

:text-worthless:

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butterfly-in-cocoon.jpg

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Very nice Arcturus Rising… It describes it well.

What would this caterpilla be crying out to the world?

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How is arrogance tied to limitation? I’m just curious.

I’m pretty arrogant, but I feel like I have limitless potential.

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I have met plenty of arrogant people (and I am included as one of these).

If we look at what arrogance is - it is generally founded on the good qualities that we think we have (same as pride). We focus on these qualities exclusively, then exaggerate them, then think we can conquer the world with them. Arrogance is based and founded in who we are rather than who we can be.
As an extreme example – I see that I have arms. I focus on these and think how amazing I am. I think that if I flap these amazing arms fast enough then I can fly - as I am good and have these great abilities. I then jump off of the tallest building I can find and flap my arms as hard as I can – I hit the concrete hard but all the time I was thinking I have limitless potential.

Believing that we have a unique potential rests in the notion that we have limitations.
If we relate to the potentials we gain confidence and if we relate to our limitations then we become arrogant and lose confidence.

Reading between the lines - an arrogant person (I am included in this) does not have confidence. We only appear to have confidence to ourselves (other people see us flapping our arms like a lunatic and are waiting for us to fall to the ground).

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I feel like I disagree this this, but I’m not perfect. Perhaps I’m mistaken.

I don’t really have a problem with arrogant people myself if the information they present is interesting. Why should I care if they think the world of themselves?

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Welcome to the not perfect club Old Gobbo.
And I thought it was only me in it.
Cheers
Robert0

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Poor thing. It might be saying - “Slow down so I can catch up. And then we can fly together. Or not” Either way, I WILL fly - with you or without you." :laughing:

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I would assume that is probably what it is saying.
I would also assume that it is asking not to be judged as it knows its own potential but others see it as ugly, useless, and annoying.
It probably keeps getting told that it is an ugly bug that will it will not amount to anything - it may even believe this after a while.
It probably keeps getting told “what you believe in is wrong”.
But it knows more than this - it knows its potential to fly (even though it is hard to imagine)
But this potential is a dream as it has not yet become true.
If it gets squashed before it becomes a butterfly is this dream wasted?
It has the freedom to dream about whatever it wishes to dream about - even if it does not come true and even if there is no possibility for it to become true.

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I would say that I hold both equally, but regard neither as imperative.
I’ve tried to articulate this in brevity in the past and always fail, but I’ll try again.

Firstly, I’m a humanist. Nothing tops human for me because I am human and I’ll be damned if I can find anything better in which I can experience than this temporal motion.

That understood, I hold human potential in grand magnitude because I have anthropological volumes of our capacity as well as modern measurements of our systems at the same time.
In short, wow…we are capable of some amazing feats, and we seem quite apt at pressing the boundary of our capacity further quite often.

I’m also an idealist in that I hold things in the ideal form and desire to push for that ideal.

However, at the same time, not only am I a pragmatist, but I’m also adherent to what I call, transpertinence.
What I mean by that is that the matter of what matters is not a concern.

I have very large ambitions and strong conviction to pursue them, but at the same time I do not concern over if fruition is ever achieved or when.

If things come to be, great.
If not, great.

And this is because the experience is the part that I’m in it for.
However, part of the experience is in striving; so there must be the ideal to strive for and not just and idle lax of only “riding the wave”.

In illustration, I suppose I could say that I ambition to get on some outstanding rides at the park without concern over what the rides are exactly, but whatever I do end up with I will be thrilled with because…dammit…I’m at the frickin park man! I won a golden ticket to life as a human!

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I think that sometimes our arrogance may place too brilliant a light that we shine on ourselves and because of this we become sort of blinded or blind sighted to our own faults. If we cannot peer into and see our own limitations, we cannot see ourselves in our entirety.

Best to also see those beautiful shaded areas that are a part of us. A perfect balance for us to see within ourselves.

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We, in general, have the tendencies to notice other people’s arrogance and faults all too easily. We accuse others of having pride, we point out other peoples faults, and we think other people are arrogant. We have the sadistic pleasure in telling them that they are wrong and we even enjoy (more than anything) telling others that they are being judgemental. The world in this case is a perfect mirror that reflects our own attitudes and feelings.

From a self improvement and spiritual perspective there is nothing more beneficial than being surrounded by people who we think are arrogant as this is telling us more about us rather than others. What better training ground is there for self improvement?

On the flip side, if we have no desire for self improvement then we can continue finding faults in others and tell them they are proud/arrogant.

Do we have the potential to live in a world free from arrogant people?
Only if we see that we have arrogance.

Recognising that we have arrogance is different to saying we are an arrogant person.
I may have money but that does not make me a money person - it makes me a person who has money.

The possessor and the possessed are not the same entity.