The High Price of Victimhood

A key issue that is likely to prevent awakening and which will absolutely estrange us from stability and embodiment is our insistence on being a victim. Don’t point outward. Point inward. Virtually all of us have our victim stories.

Our victim story may even be at the heart of why we’re trying to wake up.

“I want to wake up so that my pain as a victim will go away.”

“I want to wake up at you!”

“I want to transcend my inherent, karmic victimhood.”

And on and on and on. That’s totally understandable in many cases, but it is not useful in this field. All I ever care about is what works, and I don’t give a damn about anything that doesn’t. Victimhood is just a play on the “I’m special” story. It’s a clarity killer.

I’m posting a link to a column by one of the most thoughtful people I don’t know. David Brooks is a fabulous writer, and a very thoughtful man. He claims to be a Republican, although he bears no resemblance to what I think of when I think of a Republican. Be that as it may, given that in spirituality and everything else I’m only interested in what works, he would absolutely get my vote if he ran for president. Sadly he’s a little caught up in being a professor at Yale, as well as a commentator on PBS NewsHour, NPR’s All Things Considered and Meet the Press, not to mention his New York Times column. Whatever else he may be, he is busy.

This is probably worth reading even if you are not someone claiming innocence through victimhood. After all, you might not be a victim today, but the day ain’t over.

David Brooks at the New York Times