THE "LENNIE" OF YOUR MIND
USING YOUR BRAIN WHEN NEEDED
"Your primary job in life is to get so skilled at managing your primitive mind to the level that you can assure it (and you) are happy."
The BuddhaKahuna
The reality: If Lennie ain't happy, you can't be happy. If Lennie is in fear, anxiety, stressed out, you cannot say "well, that's just 'normal' or "I can't do much about it". It is imperative that you handle this for one cannot be happy in the presence of the opposite (negative) emotions.
A number of people believe that the purpose of life is to help others and that one must be selfless (self sacrificing in order to help others). It is a false belief, not corresponding at all to reality. They must correct this belief or they are living life toward the wrong destination. (This is a tough one for some people to confront as it contains many false beliefs that support it. But those false beliefs and the emotions they create are sure signs that corrections must be made! People are often driven by guilt and shame and Not being "good enough" (and, naturally, dependence on other people's approval). These are all false and must be corrected!!!
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OF "LIMITED FUNCTION", BUT UNLIMITED VALUE
Lennie, in the movie/play Of Mice And Men, was of "limited function", so his brother had to help orchestrate his life for him, hopefully using Lennie's strengths but being sure that Lennie would not do something that was foolish. (His brother George wasn't very skilled at it, but I recommend that you be highly skilled at it!)
The brother George, though fairly ignorant himself, wanted to help Lennie to live his best life, to be the happiest he could be. After all, he was his brother, who was valuable to George, not for what he could do but as a human being deserving of living his very best life.
THE LENNIE AND THE GEORGE OF YOUR MIND
That is what the responsibility is for the brother of your lower brains. That brother is the higher brain. But the big brother, despite his higher thinking ability, is not able to overpower the limited but powerful Lennie, so he must learn how to manage Lennie.
Your primitive mind has a limited repertoire - a huge one, but one that is limited as to the "higher functions". It will have "learned" certain things, just as Lennie has learned a few simple lessons, but many of those things are either incorrect or not totally applicable to what is going on (i.e. not totally useful and in some cases just inappropriate).
For instance, if Lennie (your primitive mind) gets all in a tither about somebody not liking and/or disapproving of him, your higher brain ("George", but a bit smarter) needs to help Lennie understand that this is not a survival threat and to reasure Lennie that George will always be there to help him survive. If he doesn't help educate Lennie about that, Lennie will get upset (and upset George in the process) - and he'll regret the day he chose not to learn how to manage Lennie the right way. Yes, Lennie will forget, but George will then take over and straighten things out. But if the higher brain never helps train the lower brain, the lower brain will have no way to effectively adjust its reactions.
What I would suggest, of course, is that it would be better if the higher brain would get some good data (i.e. learn) about how things in life work and how to work them so that he/she can program and guide the lower mind.
TWO KEY POINTS
So, there are two key points here:
And you must never expect, nor get mad at the lower mind, that the lower mind "should" be capable of more; sometimes we get confused and think we are Lennie (the lower mind), but we are not. We are only that which uses Lennie to function in life:
2. You've got to be smart enough to know that you can't guide Lennie well if you do not first learn what is necessary to do that.
