I’ve been getting all tangled up in “selfs” lately.  There’s self-awareness, self-esteem, self-worth, self-confidence, self-knowledge, self-image, self-respect, self-efficacy, and all the varied assortments of theory and blather about self-concepts.

They do go on and on.

Slicing, dicing…chopping, chopping, chopping.  How you see yourself and the ways and means for changing your “bad” attitudes about yourself is pretty much the foundation of most mental health healing systems and a heck of a lot of motivational tapes, it seems to me.

It’s all supposed to help you decide what you do (or avoid doing) next.  It’s all supposed to help you find happiness and “your best life.”  (See?  It says that…right there!)

The thing that is getting to me, I think, is all of those definitions.  Each one is little more than just one more way of changing out filters in your head.

I am forced to ask myself:  How many selves are dancing around in that teeny head of yours, girl?  (ACK!  It looks like there are multitudes in there and all of them are wearing a version of my face or some unreasonable facsimile.)

Doing this dance is supposed to help you attain “success” in the world (whatever your definition of success happens to be).  It says so…after every riff about why each whole other self-thing is so all-fired important.

My problem with all of it is that, basically, I find myself pretty boring.  After a lifetime of watching me, it’s gotten more than a bit snooze-inducing, and I just can’t work up much enthusiasm for it all.

Another problem with the whole self-thing is that it is just so deadly, dully SERIOUS.  SHEESH!

LAUGHING ALONG THE WAY

And then I stumbled across the following video, “The notion of self and other teachings by Puppetji”.  It was published in 2013 by Science and Nonduality (SAND) and features a talk given when the guy put in an appearance as a guest speaker at one of their conferences.

SAND is an online community of creatives, freethinkers and deep thinkers who put together events, produce articles, movies and other projects and maintain an online community all around the concept of nonduality (another word for lack of separation and an argument for interdependence, the Oneness of all things, and other such woo-woo topics).

Click the button to check out their website:

The mission statement of this non-profit group tells us, “Science and Nonduality is a community inspired by timeless wisdom, informed by cutting-edge science, and grounded in direct experience. We come together in an open-hearted exploration while celebrating our humanity.”

Apparently, they are all about the interdependence of the All of Everything and their purpose is to mash up ancient wisdoms with newfangled scientific conjecture and thinking in order to gain new insights about the big questions of what it means to be human, how to become more conscious, and the possible places you can look to find meaning and purpose in your own life.

It sounds like a very good thing.  They seem to be having lots of fun in the process of doing their mashups and fostering and promoting new ways of thinking.

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF ONE PUPPET

However, I have to confess that my heart belongs to Puppetji Guru.

Too bad he’s officially retired.  (My guess is that he’s gone back to helping to run the family store in Pune, India, “The New Delhi Deli” – home of the famous six-foot Swami-Pastrami.)

Puppetji Guru sure was a lot of fun and he did have a great run (for a foam-and-cloth based entity).   The little dude got famous and everything.

The creation of freelancer puppeteer and voice actor James Murray, Puppetji Guru became a coveted international public speaker for various spiritual conferences and such, in his role as something called a “joyologist” and a “momentarian.”

The Guru’s insightful (and self-admittedly meaningless) video “Socksangs,” which are still alive on YouTube, are little nonsensical “wisdom”-snippets that encourage us humans to stop thinking so much and are apparently all in aid of living a little bit more.

The guru puppet even published a book, PUPPETJI’S WORDS OF WIZDUMB:  Deeply Meaningless Insights and Revelations by Puppetji Guru.

The master dummy still has a Facebook page of his own as well as a fan group page on Facebook, and he’s got a Twitter account.  He was even interviewed occasionally by various online seeker-zines and those posts are still floating around.

His Blogger.com profile lays out his philosophy nicely.  It says, “I don’t exist…I am but a reflection of your own inner Guru manifested in this apparent unreality to remind you to stop thinking so much.”

Then Puppetji Guru advises:  “Open your heart to a new way of being…and when times get tough and the chatter in your head begins to take over; stop…stop what you’re “doing” and drop into your BE-ing. THEN…From this calm place that resides inside you, the ever constant presence within…DANCE.”

This enlightened master manikin is cool because he doesn’t know anything about anything and he admits it freely.

It’s ALL a mystery to Puppetji Guru.  He likes it that way, and many people (including me) like having him tell them to “Enlighten Up.”

One more video, published by puppetji69 in 2007 is “Puppetji Speaks:  WHO AM I?”

Is his message “life-changing?”  Probably not.  It does make you smile, though, and if you’re not careful, it can make you think.

Hmmm….

Here’s a poem:

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 TO EXPERTS LARGE AND SMALL

(SNARK, SNARK)

I am not politically correct.

The Mind Police can come

And take me away….

I don’t care.

 

I will not be trammeled by

Your excessive sensibilities.

I will not be bound by your neuroses.

That’s yours; I don’t have to play.

 

I won’t.

Feelings are just passing things and

Monkey-mind rules the broadband waves.

Me, I’ll just do mine.

 

You can do yours. 

Go!  Play!

I haven’t got all day

To comb out the knots in your issues.

 

I do my dance and I’m just fine.

I don’t need to eat your regurgitated thoughts.

I’m not a baby bird, ya know….

Vomit is not my favorite food.

Created by Netta Kanoho

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Header Photo credit:  “Examining clouds” by Kate Ter Haar via Flickr [CC BY 2.0]

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SOME OTHER POSTS TO EXPLORE

(Click on each of the post titles below and see where it takes you…)

• WHICH SELF?  (Another Un-Seeing Exercise)
• OTHER VOICES:  Maya Angelou
• OTHER VOICES:  Grace Iwashita Taylor

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Thanks for your visit.  I’d appreciate it if you would drop a note or comment below and tell me your thoughts