Existential Shame II

Why are Adam and eve so chunky? x]

When smoking weed I become very self aware... my words, my movements... it's almost like looking at myself at distance... but I can also get stuck on it and it becomes paranoia... tricky, tricky
Shame also changes from culture to culture... I think is in Japan where touching your face in public is as bad as picking your nose in public... and there are tons of other examples... I just can't think of any right now =P... LOL ... I guess when in Rome do as the Romans...
So where is the limit? because as always things get used for lower purposes... Nobody should feel ashamed of their bodies regardless of what shape or form they come in... nobody should be ashamed of expressing their feelings... and most importantly nobody should be ashamed for making mistakes, they are a part of life... of course there mistakes and MISTAKES... error of judgement, mistake... Letting rage take over you and murder someone, MISTAKE,,, because murder is shameful, disgusting and a sin.

SeRgIo

thank you all for talking about stuff that matters!^^ im used to logging on and seeing " its nice out i think ill have pizza " or something that just didnt seem worth the time to type. J-Pan2134.

Assessing my own experiences, and in accordance with Circle Bear, I see shame as an evolutionary mechanism of self awareness. It is feeling- that is, shame itself is not intuition (though it can be intuitive!), it is not an action (though, it certainly can be acted out!), nor is it anything else. It is a spring of water whose channel is opened into our person when the mother of our supercognitive family feels we must know how to act (it can also be a frigid breeze when our Ego feels it has suffered a blow). This makes shame an intrapersonal mechanism which REacts to an action (performed by you or performed by someone regarding you). Shame is self-ish.

I think that perhaps any covering-up is a defensive action, carried out by a persona or self-preserving ego, in response to shame- out of a little tiny fear of shame. Shame is the family within asking us to confront our perceived shortcomings-- this is regardless of whether or not subsequent introspection illuminates shortcomings at all. It is a call to fix ourselves in some way, be it making yourself whole and conscious so that the Ego has nothing to be ashamed of, except perhaps its own measure when standing at the great foot (also fish) of God.

Something about benevolence goes here....

Shame wants us to be light and pure, so that one day when we are standing at the foot of God, maybe he will accept us as a new toe-hair... or something.

Love, Allen

Oh yes, that is most certainly the essence of this piece! I don't suppose I remember ever thinking about shame and its function, though I'm sure I have. This piece sort of nudged me to write in my own journal my thoughts about shame... writing it felt great! The topic of shame with Genesis(3:7) in mind is definitely great to contemplate in hand with recent Jungian studies.

I suppose I was just lending my comment towards a different semantic in stating shame as a mechanism of awareness which is hopeful of subsequent "repair". I was also questioning whether or not covering-up/running-from was shame itself, or rather an act of shame which only turns heads away from the source of shame(in essence brooding rather than fixing).

"Shame is covering up what you cannot account for, avoiding a question for which you do not have an answer.

Shame is running from our problems, denying our weaknesses, disowning our faults. Indeed, trying to hide from our Source."

I think if we react to our shame by denying weakness or disowning fault we are not using shame as a tool, but rather as a masochistic instrument. Shame makes us acknowledge something, even if only inwardly(usually with an unconscious outward expression, such as flush cheeks and sweating brow hah); hopefully we will choose not to cover up or deny anything, but to take ownership of the fault and manage it. I just don't think we ought to abandon something that causes a feeling as strong as shame... this would be denying part of what makes us whole.

Black and white say the same thing, I've learned.

Anyway, something I find very interesting is Genesis(3:15), right after God found A&E in the garden with fig leaf aprons and questioned A about the the serpent and the woman. As punishment:

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

This whole scene of Genesis is regarding the primal facilities of man and woman- sex. This verse puts a stipulation on choosing to "eat the fruit", or "indulge". Recurrent orgasm between man and woman (and same sex) will begin to yield a hormone imbalance. The partners bodies will release prolactin at orgasm- this hormone is associate with lactating and fear. On a biochemical level the partners(especially the male) will lose attraction and desire to search out other partners. The process hurts the head and the heel almost literally(like if an angry spouse throws a toaster at you and it hits your foot).

This is great imagery of how Nature requires us to regulate our desires if we wish to keep a consistent partner and dwell outside the animal realm of our genitals.

I do wonder about the very, very curious wording. Genesis 3:15 is God speaking directly to Adam. Then after the semicolon he speaks as if addressing Eve without any transition, like a narrator should say "then God turned his head to Eve". If God gave the word to Moses, why did Moses write as if he was there? Did Moses write this? Anyway, questioning the author of the Old Testament is not a fortuitous conversation topic. Just pondering it.

much 10ve, Allen