Brokenness

Last updated Aug 15, 2023

• Source: Atlas/Maps/DLQ 10 MOC
• Keywords: Cards/permanent notes
• Relevant Notes:
  • Module 1A
    • Cards/Problem versus Mystery: Gaining more knowledge about a mystery requires personal investment, and experiencing brokenness can lead us to this
    • Cards/Absolute Certainty versus Wonder: Absolute certainty makes us act on our brokenness with bitterness, while wonder makes us act on our brokenness with compassion.
    • Cards/Order and Chaos: A balanced approach is needed in order to make the most of our brokenness.
    • Cards/Perfectionism: The excessive control perfectionists pursue in their lives is rooted in their unique brokenness.
    • Cards/Desire: Our desires show how we are uniquely broken.
  • Module 1B
    • Cards/The First Principle and Foundation
    • Cards/Discernment:
    • Cards/Desolation:
    • Cards/Consolation:
    • Cards/Disordered attachments: what our brokenness can create; its manifestations
  • Module 2
    • Cards/Tangibles:
    • Cards/The Divided Life: a life dictated by personas created from tangibles.
    • Cards/The False Self: what happens to us if we let our brokenness stay raw and unprocessed
    • Cards/Self-rejection

• There are 2 ways we experience brokenness:
  • Malicious: the hurts deliberately done against us.
  • Accidental: the hurts we experience indirectly as a result of being the collateral damage of other people’s bad actions.
• What brokenness does to us:
  • Our brokenness alienates us from ourselves.
  • We tend to define ourselves according to our wounds.
• Our brokenness has the potential to…
  • …reveal who we truly are and what we deeply desire (Cards/The True Self)
  • …create your worst compulsions (Cards/Disordered attachments)
    • Weakness and badness is the bitter fruit of brokenness.
    • “We sin from the point of weakness”
• So what makes the difference? It depends on how you act on it. Here are the 2 ways we act on our brokenness:
  • Bitterness: allow the hurt to take over our decisions and actions.
    • “Hurt people hurt people.”
    • Our brokenness manifests in subtle yet sinister ways in our Cards/Disordered attachments
    • E.G. getting infected by COVID -> spreading the virus (even if you’re “asymptomatic”)
  • Compassion: use the hurt as a way to connect with the hurt of others.
    • “Hurt people heal people.”
    • E.G. getting infected by COVID -> using the virus to create antibodies
• So remember: Getting in touch with the pain of your brokenness enables you to get in touch with Cards/The True Self.
  • There is something within all of us that needs healing.
    • The mark of a mature person is acknowledging this.
    • Growing old doesn’t necessarily mean you’re growing up.
  • Your brokenness is a part of you, but you are not your brokenness.
    • Defining yourself solely by your brokenness = Cards/The False Self
  • So ask yourself: what are you doing with your brokenness?
    • It is better to be self-aware than to be self-righteous
• Problem: We often do not want to confront what hurts us.
  • The source/s of our aches may not always be clear.
  • Your aches reveal both your desires and your unfreedoms. Cards/Desire
  • Henri Nouwen encourages embracing our brokenness; there are things you learn about yourself in failure that ==you can’t learn in success.==

• Healing the wounds of our soul is not about pain removal, but about pain management.
• Rumi: “Cards/The wound is the place where the Light enters you”