|
Are your feelings, thoughts and beliefs created mainly by intuition and the subconscious mind? Or are they a product of your intellect and cultural/social programming? The former supports and enhances the natural flow of your life energy; while the latter can shape, direct or even block it.
In Awakening the Genie Within author Bill Carpenter deliberately invokes the word “programming” to convey how a lack of conscious involvement in your own life and fixed belief systems prevent you from fully embracing your inner “genie,” the life force or spirit within you. The book’s purpose is to help you understand and transcend your individual and collective programming (ego and culture) and help you to live a more fulfilled and sustainable life. If the mind is powerful enough to create the ego, it can also transcend it, Carpenter believes. The exercises in this book are designed to do just that. |
This practical and provocative guidebook poses tough questions to help you and your groups and organizations analyze your worldviews, which can cause dissent among individuals and even outright oppression on a global scale. The goal is to help you understand and challenge your tightly held belief systems that tend to divide us. We have far more in common than that which the ego focuses on to separate us. Carpenter is your engaging guide on this journey of self-discovery for the betterment of yourself and the future of our world. We must resist the lure to be mindless drones of the collective.
Book Cover Symbolism
The illustrations on the cover are symbolic of the book’s central purpose, which is to help the reader to become aware of their programming and how it shapes, limits, and distorts their thoughts and behaviour. Rather than seeing reality as it is, we see it through the lens of our programming. With this awareness, we can choose to see the world and other people in it from a different perspective. Individually, this programming manifests as our ego; a mind-generated construct of how we see ourselves. Collectively, this programming manifests as the culture of the many groups to which we belong. We are not destined to perpetuate the same thinking and behaviour. We can choose to change.
The house is analogous to the unique environmental conditions and circumstances into which each of us is born. This is like an animal born in captivity, where the confines of the zoo comprise its world. The house also represents all those things over which we have no control such as our sex, ethnicity, parents, physical and mental characteristics and much more. Although we have no control over these things, they are fundamental to shaping our lives. The shutters on the house are analogous to our programming (ego and culture). They can block out the light and warmth of the sun’s radiant energy. Compared to the sun, the shutters are of no consequence, yet to the people in the house, the shutters can severely limit their perspective of the world. They are in essence held captive in a prison partly of their own making (kept in the dark). They have in fact separated themselves from the very source that created and sustains them. Without the radiant energy from the sun, life on Earth would not exist. Likewise, our programming blocks our access to our spirit; our real essence (The Genie Within). Compared to our spirit, our ego is also of no consequence except to those who identify with it. Our programming can block our pathway to liberation, enlightenment, and salvation.
To lessen or remove the impact of the ego or the shutters on our lives, we simply need to change our perspective. To those in the house, they must open the door and run outside. Those who identify with the ego, need to observe their thoughts and behaviour from a different perspective. By making this behaviour habitual, the ego gradually loses its influence.
The Yin and Yang symbols represent the female (darker half) and male (lighter half) respectively. Both males and females are necessary to create life and are of equal importance. Each carries the seed of the other within. Although they are separate in the physical realm, there is no difference in the spiritual realm (hence the genderless genie). Rather than being mindless drones of the collective, we must Awaken the Genie Within to ensure that we humans not only survive on earth but thrive and fulfill our purpose and potential.
The house is analogous to the unique environmental conditions and circumstances into which each of us is born. This is like an animal born in captivity, where the confines of the zoo comprise its world. The house also represents all those things over which we have no control such as our sex, ethnicity, parents, physical and mental characteristics and much more. Although we have no control over these things, they are fundamental to shaping our lives. The shutters on the house are analogous to our programming (ego and culture). They can block out the light and warmth of the sun’s radiant energy. Compared to the sun, the shutters are of no consequence, yet to the people in the house, the shutters can severely limit their perspective of the world. They are in essence held captive in a prison partly of their own making (kept in the dark). They have in fact separated themselves from the very source that created and sustains them. Without the radiant energy from the sun, life on Earth would not exist. Likewise, our programming blocks our access to our spirit; our real essence (The Genie Within). Compared to our spirit, our ego is also of no consequence except to those who identify with it. Our programming can block our pathway to liberation, enlightenment, and salvation.
To lessen or remove the impact of the ego or the shutters on our lives, we simply need to change our perspective. To those in the house, they must open the door and run outside. Those who identify with the ego, need to observe their thoughts and behaviour from a different perspective. By making this behaviour habitual, the ego gradually loses its influence.
The Yin and Yang symbols represent the female (darker half) and male (lighter half) respectively. Both males and females are necessary to create life and are of equal importance. Each carries the seed of the other within. Although they are separate in the physical realm, there is no difference in the spiritual realm (hence the genderless genie). Rather than being mindless drones of the collective, we must Awaken the Genie Within to ensure that we humans not only survive on earth but thrive and fulfill our purpose and potential.
