I've just finished reading chapter six of Carl R. Rogers' book "On Becoming a Person". Reading parts of it indeed reminded me of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay 'On Self-Reliance'. The most important point both gentlemen make is that of accepting oneself as continuous process, rather than finished product. And allowing oneself to be at the time one is at.
After peeling away all the false masks of one's self, we can start the process of being a person. And Rogers highlights four things that the person is then able to accomplish.
1) Openness to Experience
2) Trust in One's Organism
3) An Internal Locus of Evaluation
4) Willingness to be a Process
Boy, do I have a LONG way to go before I get to become that type of person. I still have this huge fantasy of running away to some safe place, whereas it should be making my environment safe for me to exist in.
Speaking of which, here is a part of Emerson's essay, to remind me of that which I would love to do in order to feel alive, but which has backfired in the past and will continue to do so unless I work according to the will of the universe. Shite, that sounds akin to what Paulo Coelho writes in "The Alchemist".
5. TRAVELING
Another area to start this revolution of self-reliance is in the habit of traveling. It is ironic that we will travel thousands of miles to see great architecture rather than staying home and building our own great works — something the architects of these great foreign buildings obviously did.
Of course there is a place for travel, but not as a way of finding anything. You take yourself with you wherever you go, and if you are not at ease in your own home, you will not be at ease anywhere else. If you hope to find something greater than your own surroundings when you go traveling, you will be sadly disappointed. Greatness is everywhere, even where you are, if you would open your eyes and look. As Emerson wrote, "Traveling is a fool's paradise." You may travel to get away from yourself, but no matter how far you go, when you wake up in this new place and look in the mirror, there you are. You can't escape yourself.
After peeling away all the false masks of one's self, we can start the process of being a person. And Rogers highlights four things that the person is then able to accomplish.
1) Openness to Experience
2) Trust in One's Organism
3) An Internal Locus of Evaluation
4) Willingness to be a Process
Boy, do I have a LONG way to go before I get to become that type of person. I still have this huge fantasy of running away to some safe place, whereas it should be making my environment safe for me to exist in.
Speaking of which, here is a part of Emerson's essay, to remind me of that which I would love to do in order to feel alive, but which has backfired in the past and will continue to do so unless I work according to the will of the universe. Shite, that sounds akin to what Paulo Coelho writes in "The Alchemist".
5. TRAVELING
Another area to start this revolution of self-reliance is in the habit of traveling. It is ironic that we will travel thousands of miles to see great architecture rather than staying home and building our own great works — something the architects of these great foreign buildings obviously did.
Of course there is a place for travel, but not as a way of finding anything. You take yourself with you wherever you go, and if you are not at ease in your own home, you will not be at ease anywhere else. If you hope to find something greater than your own surroundings when you go traveling, you will be sadly disappointed. Greatness is everywhere, even where you are, if you would open your eyes and look. As Emerson wrote, "Traveling is a fool's paradise." You may travel to get away from yourself, but no matter how far you go, when you wake up in this new place and look in the mirror, there you are. You can't escape yourself.
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