I Have the Right!
I live in bubble awareness where being right confers a sense of having the right to place expectations on others.
Insistence upon exercising my right validates my belief that I’m living as a separate entity. As separate, I place a level of importance on my needs that others should meet. That level of importance takes the value of others with the intention of declaring them as my own. The more service others give me, the greater my perceived value.
I want to believe I have the right to be served without serving. Taking what I value from others – as though it were mine to take – gives me a sense of authority. As I see it, that authority gives me implicit permission to choose and judge the way others should serve me.
In my bubble, authority means “the right to have, do, and be what I want.” This and my sense of separation gives me a feeling of power over you. That assumed power validates itself. My concept of rights stems from the fear associated with survival – where the strong survive and the powerful prey upon the weak.
When I judge that I have been adequately served, I feel whole. I feel unwhole when I judge that I have been inadequately served. In this way, I experience my internal self-judgement as an externalized projection, in which I see service in terms of competition between opposing states of mind.
I Sustain the Right
In my separateness, I perceive I must exert my will over that of others to survive. To satisfy this constant sustaining of needs and demands of the will, I expect others to serve me. This creates an emptiness I can’t fill on my own and so I assume power over those I need to serve me.
Recognizing I have needs is my reminder of my choice to defend separation. In separation I can compete and win even when I appear to be losing. By making my opponent appear weaker than me.
When I DO something, it’s right and/or justified. When you DO the same thing, it’s questionable or somehow wrong. Check it out –
| When I… | I’m… | When you do the same thing, you’re… |
| pass a test… | smart! | lucky or you cheated. |
| say it… | witty. | offensive! |
| slip and fall… | embarrassed. | a klutz! |
| spend money… | thrifty. | excessive. |
| tell a falsehood… | realistic. | a liar! |
| feel hurt… | justified. | a drama queen! |
This way of thinking maintains my superior view of life. Serving my needs is what’s most important.
I Re-serve the Right
As need dictates my reasons and my rights, I justify the struggle others must face to fulfill those needs. I provide them a service in exchange for their fulfillment of my needs by setting up a belief in the dominance of my demands. This makes one pause and wonder who is really serving who?
Perspective makes a difference. When I view the workers in a beehive as slaves to the queen, I maximize the value the queen plays in the benefit to the colony. When I view the queen as the slave to the colony, I maximize the value of the workers. This based on how I view myself in relation to others.
In any system there are interdependent, complementary “serve” and “be served” characteristics. By changing perspective to one of equal service to one another, the slave concept disappears.
A tiny shift in perspective results in a huge shift in perception.
