This morning I was thinking about dishonesty and rationalization. How does one know if they are rationalizing something? Te rationalizing mind cannot discern the true from the false because it is viewing the world through the lens of it's justification. There have been times when I felt a person that I was talking to was justifying bad conduct but was obstructed by such fine tuned rationale that I knew it was useless. At this point I realize that the person is not surrendered.

I thought about the times that I (or my sponsor with me)have intuitively resorted to just having the rationalizer explain themselves and then answer questions. Sometimes the person will hear themselves objectively now that the thoughts are out in words and then catch themselves in their rationalization. Sometimes this is a delayed effect, the conversation is repeated in the mind and has to be justified and then it becomes apparent.

There have been times when this is not possible. The rationalizer does a mis-direction so emphatically that he does not allow any in roads. Perhaps at this point a good strategy would be to talk about powerlessness and unmanageability. In doing so the attention is directed to the source of the problem, ineffective surrender.

It occurred to me that this plan may be used in every spiritual endeavor. That at the beginning of every conversation there should be an affirmation of powerlessness thus laying the groundwork for increased honesty and open mindness. This is something that I can apply to myself also.