What is the psychological "Trap of Compensation"? (Self-Inquiry/Philosophy)

"Every child is seduced into taking part in our game of life. He loses direct-mind ability when he identifies with and participates in this dimension, and tries to manipulate it for his own petulant form of counter-seduction*." —Richard Rose*

"Our imagination, this function which creates in us an imaginative film that is not based on the real present, is therefore our compensating function; it is the function which fabricates our compensations. Our compensations are systems of images which we borrow from our sensory and mental perceptions—from the material of images stored up by our memory—and which we arrange as we please, in accordance with the structure of our individual psycho-somatic organism" - Hubert Benoit

What does this term "compensation" mean to you? To me I see it as a balancing function. Existentially I see myself as a conglomeration of atoms, that are alive now and due to die at some future unknown, yet ominously impending, time. How do I keep myself "positive" during this interval between now and death? I indulge in "compensations", which to me can be creature comforts, egoic mental positions, superiority complexes etc. Also I could compensate by running about, busying myself with life so as not to come face to face with the reality of my existence, or my belief about the reality of my existence.

People who claim enlightenment tell us we are eternal, that we have a soul. How do we as seekers go about finding our soul? Is looking at our behavior, our mental positions, the best we can do? How do we build from zero as Richard Rose suggests below?

“This whole process is a retreat from error, not a planting of a postulation and then massing all of our forces to prove that postulation. It is taking zero, and building from zero. When we ask ourselves, ‘Who am I?’ we are taking an initial step. We do not begin by saying I am this or that.” ~ Richard Rose, Psychology of the Observer

What questions do you have? How do you compensate? What are your peculiarities and idiosyncrasies that show up in behavior regarding this topic? Or are you in fact free of compensation? Or is freedom really just blissful ignorance? How long can ignorance remain in a blissful state as it in fact may be a mechanism that hides deeper truths? Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting to delve into compensation, the term coined by the fascinating psychologist and mystic Hubert Benoit.

Thanks to Pexels.com for the event cover.

Check out the "What we are about" section in the groups' main page for some guidelines we work to adhere to. Meetings are run on the popular Zoom platform. Please contemplate the topic in advance of the meeting to get the best out of it and bring your views and convictions to the meeting, if possible have a pen and paper close by to record anything useful that may come up that you resonate with on the night, little things you may want to contemplate further.