"Make" Me (Revisited)

Some years ago, i posted a blog entitled "Make" Me. It began as follows:

[fragment]

I want to touch on something that's very important for all of us. I've alluded to it earlier and now I want to elaborate on it a bit. If Humanity would only grasp the following Truth, half the World's problems of Violence, Rage, Revenge, Feelings of low Self-Worth, etc. would disappear overnight.

That Truth is this:

No One Can "Make" You Feel Anything.

"She made me so angry!"
"That makes me feel sad".
"He made me feel bad".
"That made me feel this, or this made me feel that".

[end fragment]

Having recently come across some corresponding thoughts on the matter from another source, a decision was made to share those thoughts here, along with the link to the original post.

[quoting]

452. Another common form of worry which leads to the most serious results is the folly of taking offense at something which somebody else says or does. Ordinarily common-sense would lead a man to avoid this mistake, and yet those who do avoid it are few. It needs only that we should think dispassionately about the matter, and we shall see that what the other man has said or done cannot make any difference to us. If he has said something which has hurt our feelings, we may be sure that in nine cases out of ten he has not meant it to be offensive; why then should we allow ourselves to be disturbed about the matter? Even in the rare cases when a remark is intentionally rude or spiteful, where a man has said something purposely to wound another, it is still exceedingly foolish of that other to allow himself to feel hurt. If the man had an evil intention in what he said, he is much to be pitied, for we know that under the law of divine justice he will certainly suffer for his foolishness. What he has said need in no way affect us, for, if we think of it, no effect whatever has really been produced.

453. The irritating word does not in any way injure us, except in so far as we may choose to take it up and injure ourselves by brooding over it or allowing ourselves to be wounded in our feelings. What are the words of another, that we should let our serenity be disturbed by them? They are merely a vibration in the atmosphere; if it had not happened that we heard them, or heard of them, would they have affected us? If not, then it is obviously not the words that have injured us, but the fact that we heard them. So if we allow ourselves to care about what a man has said, it is we who are responsible for the disturbance treated in our astral bodies, and not he.

454. The man has done and can do nothing that can harm us; if we feel hurt and injured and thereby make ourselves a great deal of trouble, we have only ourselves to thank for it. If a disturbance arises within our astral bodies in reference to what he has said, that is merely because we have not yet gained control over those bodies; we have not yet developed the calmness which enables us to look down as soul upon all this, and go on our way and attend to our own work without taking the slightest notice of foolish or spiteful remarks made by other men. This is the merest common-sense, yet not one in a hundred will act upon it.

455. That fact is that one must not have any personal feelings that can be offended under any circumstances whatever. A man who has them is still thinking of himself; whereas our duty is to forget ourselves in order to remember the good of others. Nothing can offend you if you have resolved not to be offended-- if you are thinking only how to help the other man, and not at all of yourself.

From The Inner Life - Part I - C. W. Leadbeater (1910)

[end quoting]

Over the long ages, we have given away our sovereignty over our thoughts and emotions. In the effort to purify and refine our astral (emotional) and mental bodies, we must work hard to control the feelings we choose to feel and the thoughts we choose to think. These are important steps that we must take if we wish to succeed in stabilizing the riot of vibrations that assail our subtle bodies from morning til night.

Re-take the Castle, restore peace to the Temple. Honest assessment will reveal that WE are ultimately responsible for what we project back into the material world from within.

Remember always, that no one, and no thing, can "make" you feel a particular way, or think a particular thing. You, and you alone, choose your responses to life's offerings.

~ g