‘Shores of Normandy’ – Gustave Courbet, 1866 – WikiArt
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“To know that your Self has not changed,
this illustration itself is enough.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
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There is no ameliorating emptiness, developing the unborn, aggrandising what is, and expecting the timeless to be anything more or different than what it is. Being leaves no room for improvement because it is not a thing, it is not a result, a something that has a cause. How do you improve the non-objective? How does the infinite progress? How do you make better a self that is absent as self — as something different or separate from experience? So self-improvement is a misunderstanding and a form of violence. It is an imposition, a belief that we squeeze to fit our idea of reality, an objection to the innate perfection of what is. It is mind-made, a product, a progeny of conditioning. It is designed for the continuation of our belief in being a self or entity that can be objectively defined. And remember this: every object, every ‘thing presented to the mind’ — as Latin word ‘objectum’ stands for — is in fact nothing but something thrown in the way of your knowing who you are. This is the meaning of Latin ‘obicere’ — ‘ob-‘: ‘in the way of’ and ‘jacere’: ‘to throw’. The self that you believe yourself to be, and that you strive to improve, is your hindrance. It is what makes you blind to your true nature.
To improve on a self is to make it continue, it is to give it credit, to give it the existence it never had. After all, we all want to feel real, to see that we can act, and have a power on our self. So we have the desire to consolidate and sculpt our being through rendering it an object that we can manipulate. We want to make a profit of our self, and see a return on our investment. In fact, to improve myself is nothing but a form of merchandising. It is a trade and a transaction. It is retail management, the ‘cutting off’ of our self with the aim of maximising profits. But don’t ever forget that if you are able to improve yourself, you can therefore also make it deteriorate, worsen, decline, decay. So what then?… is self-improvement decay, error, illusion? Is it ourself going astray, being mislaid? Are we really so sure that our being could ever decay? That awareness is a so fragile thing?
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On how there is no improving our self and being… (READ MORE…)
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The Dawn Within 
Thank you, Alain. For me, this is one of the most impactful texts you have ever written.
There is a lot of fear in abandoning self-improvement. We fear what we will be without the notion of self-control. Which is absurd, because what we would abandon is just an idea, something that has always been an illusion. There is nothing to really lose.
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Thank you Rodrigo! 🙏 You said it beautifully. I’m glad you have enjoyed this text so much.
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I wonder who or what it is that appears to want to improve the self? Which part of the self? The apparent mind or the rest of the body?
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Thank you Julian! 🙏 In my understanding it is the self that I have reduced to an idea, and that I feel is separate. We have conditioned it by identifying ourself to our mind, body, and experience. It was ‘poisoned’… has lost its purity and innocence.
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