What comes up for you when you hear the phrase, “It’s all about me”?
It turns out that self-centeredness is a two-edged sword. And one edge of that sword is dangerous to everyone—including the one wielding the sword!
You see, on the one-hand we have the teaching of Jesus, who said “Love your neighbor as yourself.” For most people—and particularly most scholars—this means that we have to love ourselves in the way we wish to be loved so that we can share this love with our neighbors. But notice that the self (“Me”) has to come first. Another subtle aspect of this teaching is that we must take responsibility for our own internal processes and for our reactions to whatever happens around us. This is a true act of self-love, because it means that we are not projecting our “stuff” onto other people, thereby creating more pain and suffering.
But on the other hand, we have to be careful, because the ego-mind can turn “It’s All About Me” into a whole lotta selfishness. And if we don’t take charge of our ego-mind, then pretty quickly we get caught up in the “blame game”—making other people responsible for what we are experiencing—and this is the source of great suffering. By letting our ego-mind focus our attention on our own well being at the exclusion—and expense—of everyone else, we’re constantly creating conditions for disappointment and hurt.
So, why do we say “It’s all about me” at all? Because, in reality it IS! You see, the “Truth” is , we are ALL connected. We are all one. So, there is only really ONE of us here!
But even if you don’t buy into the whole one-ness view of the world, here’s something for you to think about. Everything you think, say or do IS about you. All your judgments, conclusions, interpretations and ideas are about you. No matter how much you might think that they are about someone else, they are about you. And so, our objective with this week’s discussion is to raise awareness of this, so that people can take full responsibility for their own thoughts, choices and behaviors.
And once you can get to that place, and others get there too, then you’ll begin to see that one-ness IS the truth, and that everything, everywhere is all about WE!