Psychological Slavery

In this lesson we will study the psychological slavery.
Let us see the following text extracted from the book “The Revolution of the Dialect”, by Samael Aun Weor, which explains this issue pretty well:

“Psychological slavery destroys interaction. Psychological dependence on someone is slavery.
If our manner of thinking, feeling and acting depends on the manner of thinking, feeling and acting of those persons who interact with us, then we are enslaved.

We constantly receive letters from many people who are desirous of eliminating the ‘Selves’, but they complain about the wife, children, brother, family, husband, boss, etc.
Those people demand conditions in order to dissolve the ‘Selves’, they want luxuries in order to annihilate the ego, they demand magnificent conduct from those with whom they interact.

The funniest thing of all of this is that those poor people seek different subterfuges; they want to flee, abandon their home, their job, etc., supposedly to realize themselves in depth.
Poor people…, their adored torments are their bosses, naturally. These people have not yet learned to be free; their conduct depends on the conduct of others.

If we want to follow the path of chastity and aspire that our wife first be chaste, then we are failures already.
If we want to cease being drunkards but we become embarrassed when we are offered a drink because of what others will say, or because our friends could become angry, then we will never cease to be drunkards.
If we want to cease being angry, irascible, irate, furious, but as a prior condition we demand that those who interact with us be sweet and serene and that they do nothing that bothers us, then yes we are failures because they are not saints and at any moment they will put an end to our good intentions.

If we want to dissolve the ‘Selves’, we need to be free.
The one who depends on the behavior of others will not be able to dissolve the ‘Selves’. Our conduct should be our own and should not depend on anyone.
Our thoughts, feelings and actions should flow independently from the inside towards the outside.

The worst difficulties offer us the best opportunities.
In the past there existed many sages surrounded by all types of luxuries and without difficulties of any type.
Those sages, wanting to annihilate the ‘Selves’, had to create difficult situations for themselves.

In difficult situations we have formidable opportunities to study our internal and external impulses, our thoughts, feelings, actions, our reactions, volitions, etc.

Interaction is a full – length mirror where we can see ourselves as we are and not as we apparently are.
Interaction is a marvel; if we are properly attentive we can discover at each instant our most secret defects, they flourish, leap out when we least expect it.

We have known many persons who say: “I no longer have anger”, and at the least provocation they thunder and flash like lightning.
Others say: “I no longer have jealousy”, but one smile from the spouse to any good neighbor is enough for their faces to be green with jealousy.

People protest because of the difficulties that interaction offers them. They do not want to realize that those difficulties are providing them precisely the necessary opportunities for the dissolution of the ‘Selves’.
Interaction is a formidable school, the book of that school is made up of many chapters; the book of that school is the ‘I’.

We need to be really free if we really want to dissolve the ‘Selves’. The one who depends on the conduct of others is not free.
Only the one who becomes truly free knows what love is. The slave does not know what true love is.
If we are slaves of the thinking, feeling and doing of others, we will never know what love is.
Love is born in us when we put an end to psychological slavery.
We need to comprehend very profoundly, and in all the areas of the mind, that entire complicated mechanism of psychological slavery.

There are many forms of psychological slavery. It is necessary to study all those forms if we really want to dissolve the ‘Selves’.
Psychological slavery exists not only internally but also externally. Intimate, secret, occult slavery exists which we do not even remotely suspect.
The slave believes that he loves, when in reality he only fears. The slave does not know what true love is.

The woman who fears her husband believes that she adores him when truly, she only fears him.
The husband who fears his wife believes that he loves her when in reality what is happening is that he fears her.
He may fear that she may leave with someone else, or that her character may become sour, or that she may deny him sexually, etc.
The employee who fears the boss believes that he loves him, that he respects him, that he cares for his interests, etc.
No psychological slave knows what love is; psychological slavery is incompatible with love.

There are two types of conduct: the first is the one which comes from the outside to the inside and the second one is the one which goes from the inside to the outside.
The first is the result of psychological slavery and is produced by reaction: We are hit and we hit back, we are insulted and we reply with insults.

The second type of conduct is the best, that of one who is no longer a slave, that of one who no longer has anything to do with the thinking, feeling and doing of the others.
That type of conduct is independent; it is upright and just conduct.
If we are hit, we answer with blessings; if we are insulted, we keep silent; if they want to get us drunk, we do not drink even when our friends become angry, etc.

Now our readers will comprehend why psychological freedom brings that which is called love.”