When people use the word “vulnerability”,
it has a fairly clear meaning: bad things could happen.
If I look at the good ol’ online Oxford English Dictionary,
that source says vulnerability means:
The quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally: “conservation authorities have realized the vulnerability of the local population”, “he is confined in isolation because of his vulnerability to infection”, “con artists are great at spotting our vulnerabilities”.
So … what I want to write about here is
about some of the specific types of vulnerabilities that exist. If I ask people
I could meet in the street about types of vulnerabilities, responses could
include:
- using drugs and becoming vulnerable to a “bad lifestyle”;
- getting in with a “bad crowd”, leading to the previously mentioned problem;
- not looking after diet, exercise and stress, and thus being open to health problems;
- not complying to social stereotypes, and thus being vulnerable to being a sicko without a girlfriend / boyfriend – not to mention someone who could do something about changing society (the sort of shallow, superficial sucker who would come out with this sort of rubbish would probably not use those exact same words … there might be a lot of “like’s”, and “as if’s”, and maybe even a few “whatev’s”, though);
- being vulnerable to grossly imbalanced base chakras because of not having sex with the person doing the chakra balance (seriously – this one was tried on me once);
- etc.
The first vulnerability I want to talk
about is actually a potentially good vulnerability – yes, that’s right, you
read “good”. This one is “emotional vulnerability”, in which one is prepared to
be open - without being stupid and putting oneself at risk: I wouldn’t stand up
in front of a group of right wing rednecks at a xenophobes rally and start
talking about insecure their hostility was making me feel … .
No, this means having the courage to be
genuine, to simply be oneself, and take a risk that someone else may not like
you, or may be clumsy with your feelings. In terms of general interpersonal
interactions, this sort of vulnerability opens the way for change, growth and
deeper relationships. It is a form of vulnerability that people with the Growth
Orientation of Bhakti
Yoga enjoy, and find comfortable and rewarding. That beneficial
relationship does not apply to everyone, which, sadly, is a lesson that almost
everyone has to learn the hard way.
Spiritual vulnerability is a vulnerability
that can be either good or bad.
On the one hand, it can mean one is
uncertain, and thus frequently checks, what one is doing in terms of a
spiritual direction, and thus is open to the possibility of changing what one
is doing spiritually – and that is
something I have written about several times, all the way back to my ninth post on
this bloc, back in June, 2007 (which
has one of my personally favourite photos, one that I took while I was still
living on a boat … SIGH – them thar were tha days). So, speaking
personally, I can categorically state that these changes have been good for me,
and they have occurred in the – sort of – sense that I have had a spiritually
vulnerability.
On the other hand, changes are NOT
always good, and, in that sense, a “spiritual vulnerability” can be something
that leads one to changing in an unhealthy way – for instance, becoming caught
up in a cult or cult-like group (SIGH –
been there, done that too), or one can be so certain of oneself that one
is, or becomes, arrogant. I know a fair few people like that, sadly, in almost
all spiritual paths.
Then we come to psychic vulnerability,
which is nothing but bad news. This covers things like ignorance about
protection, or leaving one’s aura open, etc. It makes vulnerable to the psychic
versions of control,
direct and indirect
psychic
attack, nonBPM obsession
and nonBPM possession,
and a range of other problems from having psychically ingested incompatible,
discordant or nonBPM energies – all of which has been written about elsewhere
on this blog. I’ve also written about ways to prevent these problems – (psychic)
flaming, grounding,
protection,
(good) psychic health, etc.
It also covers the fact that one can be “got
at” through the people one cares about, and thus one NEEDS to spend probably as much time – sometimes more time - making sure they are
protected, as oneself.
I’ve also realised that I haven’t written
much about how to heal oneself and others from such effects. Hmm. I’ll have to
add that to the list of things to do – probably in the fourth decade after my
mythical retirement from my day job.
And on that note, I want to lead into the
main topic for this post, which is what I can only describe as “lifestyle
vulnerabilities”.
These actually overlap with the other
categories, to some extent – as is common in real life.
So, to choose an example: having a too
busy, stressful job because one has too many debts – probably because one’s
house is far larger than one needs, creates a lifestyle where one is more
likely to be unable to reflect on matters, let alone meditate or work
realistically at psychic / spiritual / metaphysical development, or being of
service to other people (except that I’ve
always rented, I am speaking from personal experience from a few phases of my
life * SIGH * ). This also creates emotional, psychic and physical health
vulnerabilities (same comment again :) ).
What this means is that there are issues
one needs to think about, in terms of where and how one lives. As an example, I
should possibly not have moved off my boat – and certainly should not have
moved to the city, but my move from the humid heat and social backwardness of
Queensland was exactly the right thing to do.
Other positive examples of dealing with
lifestyle vulnerabilities from people I know include emigrating from one nation
to another, changing careers, and changing relationships.
Things like changing one’s diet and
starting exercise are possibly other examples, but I tend to view them as
dealing with physical / health vulnerabilities.
As I said, lots of overlap :)
It is our lifestyle vulnerabilities that
become an issue if one wishes to do serious work on psychic / spiritual /
metaphysical development. The simple fact is that one needs to be able to
invest time, energy and effort into those at various stages – particularly when
beginning, and trying to do so while raising young children caring for ill
relatives or dealing with a bad intimate relationship, is impossible. At that
point one has to (a) face up to fact that one may have actual, real
responsibilities, and deal with them, and (b) where one doesn’t have
responsibilities (e.g., the bad intimate relationship), get out of it.
One may also have to deal with the problem
of someone you love or care about repeatedly putting themselves at risk of
psychic attack (e.g., drugs or lifestyle
vulnerabilities), and thus taking an exorbitant amount of energy and effort
from you, and preventing you living the sort of life you want. I can understand
how hard it is to detach when someone one loves is harming themselves, and most
times (not always) they will benefit
from receiving such caring, but, if they are adults, there is a limit: they need
to learn there are consequences to their actions, and you have rights that they
need to remember as well. (This paragraph
does not apply in the case of people being harmed
through no fault of their own – e.g., by being attacked by a criminal.)
It all reminds me a little of story I read
some time ago about someone who followed an alleged Hindu guide for his life,
and spent 20 years as a student, 20 years in the military, 20 years a family
man, and then left it all to spend 20 years in the wilderness as a hermit, to
focus on being a spiritual person.
A little regimented, and fails to
acknowledge that there are situations where one can genuinely combine a lot of
these (e.g., one never stops being a
student), but it’s not a bad example of making change so one can focus on
matters, and that is one strategy for dealing with vulnerabilities.
Just something to consider using as one
reflects on one’s life …
[1] BPM =
Balanced Positive (spiritually) Mature. See here and here for more on this.
[2] Please see here, here, here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
[2] Please see here, here, here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is
no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted
changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately
after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix
Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga
... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this
site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue
(see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me
for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are,
to meditate-clear for peace), and here
for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend
learning how to flame, ground
and shield, do alternate
nostril breathing, work
with colour, and see also here and be
flexible.
The real dividing line is not between
Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who
believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.
- If your “gut” (your instinct/intuition) is telling you something is wrong, but logic and the available evidence is saying otherwise, the proper conclusion to draw is that you need better, more personally credible evidence. Your “gut” could be wrong, right, or missing the nuances / “shades of grey” . So could the available evidence.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...
Tags: about me, denial, dishonesty, emotions, lifestyle vulnerabilities, lifestyles, metaphysics, personal responsibility, Psychic attack, psychism, spirituality,
First published: Laugarsdagr, 5th March, 2016
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's
and other minor matters): Saturday, 5th March, 2016
