How to Overcome Vanity — If you can catch it!

Vanity is a thought-form of the false image of ourselves, and we literally live, move, and have our being in this image. Our mental body is empty of ourselves, as we are somewhere else, or in something else.
A vanity is a false image that we build about ourselves and then accept as ourselves. We operate in that false self. We think, speak, and act conditioned by that false self, and because we are identified with that false self, it is very difficult for us to know about the situation and detach ourselves from that false self.

Major vanities are:

You think you know things, but in reality you do not.
You think you have things, which in reality you do not.
You think you can do certain things, which in reality you cannot.
You think you have attained certain spiritual heights, which in reality you have not.1Whenever you feel proud of yourself and are full of vanity, consider the following:

1. Stop and think if there is someone better than you.
2. Stop and think if you can do better than before.
3. Stop and think if you can be better than before.
4. Stop and think if you can know more than before.
5. Stop and think how much you do not know and how many lives it will take before you are really somebody.
6. Read the life stories of great leaders, scientists, saviors, writers and reformers.
7. Visit museums and art galleries.
8. Go to the mountains and climb them.
9. Watch the midnight sky.
10. Think about great geniuses who have brought changes in human culture and civilization.
11. Take a retreat in the mountains and try to survive for twenty days.
12. Read physics and astronomy.
13. Remember how many times you failed.
14. Try to be aware of all who are more advanced than yourself.

Vanity tries to close our memory and makes us feel that we have never failed or done any wrong. If one diligently works on the above fourteen points, he will begin seeing the ugliness of his vanity and practice more discipline to annihilate it. 2
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1. Challenge for Discipleship, p. 147.
2. Spiritual Regeneration, p.206.
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Questions and Answers

How do we overcome Ego?

We overcome ego by thinking how imperfect we are. I used to do this. My ego would say, "Oh, you are great." One day when I felt so great, I went to my car and couldn't see why it wouldn't start. I said to myself. "You are a nut."

Seeing how many things you need to improve in yourself and reach your vision makes you increasingly humble. I once read a story about Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. When victory for the allied nations seemed assured, they became so proud of what they were doing. One day Roosevelt took Truman's hand and we to the balcony of the White House and said, "Let's watch the sky." After looking at they stars for a few minutes, they looked at each other and asked, "What is our greatness?"

You are a piece of dust in space. Who are we to have ego. Ego is not a psychological state of consciousness. Ego is a sickness like cancer and tumors. Get rid of it before it expresses itself in the body.

How do we increase our gratitude?

Gratitude increases when we see how life brought us to the stage where we are. Everyone and everything in life is helping us to be what we are physically, emotionally, and mentally. Think how many millions of people are working to educate you and how many people are making your life very difficult so that your shell is cut and the fruit is revealed!

Can you give an example of how you would work with someone in the present to get rid of past pain?

We are doing this through joy exercises. When something happens in your childhood and you remember it, you can become a child in your visualization and work it out. You contact the real child who is in pain, and create the new child who has found his or her joy.

When you re-experience your joy in an event of your childhood, you release the encapsulated joy and spread it into your present consciousness. The release of joy destroys the shells of pain and suffering encapsulating with joy. You have thousands of encapsulating joys. When you release them, you gradually fill your nature with joy. This fire of joy annihilates the formations of pain and suffering.

- Torkom Saraydarian (Happiness, Joy & Bliss).

Happiness, Joy & Bliss

The human soul has three aspects.
One if them is happiness.
The next one is joy.
The third one is bliss.

Happiness corresponds to light.
Joy corresponds to love.
Bliss corresponds to willpower.

Again, happiness corresponds to the knowledge petals of the Chalice.
Joy corresponds to the love petals.
Bliss corresponds to the sacrifice petals.

Happiness can be secured by observing the Law of Economy.
Joy can be secured by observing the Law of Attraction and Repulsion.
Bliss can be secured by observing the Law of Synthesis.

Happiness is related to personality.
Joy is related to the soul.
Bliss is related to the Spiritual Triad.

There is an inner Sun that is your Self.
It has Light.
It has Love.
It is the power of Life.

That Sun also exists in you.
Your Sun is the light of all your cells and atoms.
Your Sun is the magnetic power.
Your Sun is the circulating life in all your being.

- Torkom Saraydarian (Sedona, Arizona, 1990)

Crystallized Thinking

Those who are living in crystallized thought forms, traditions, and religions do not keep pace with the advancing life. 

Such though forms, traditions, and religious beliefs keep people retarded on the path of evolution and gradually create friction with the advancing life. This friction eventually reaches such a momentum that it begins to violate the laws formulated by the advancing life.

For example, the cruelties practiced by crystallized fanatics in politics, religion, or in other fields eventually make them confront the law and fall into endless troubles.

People who act through crystallization cannot generally change and be inclusive except by falling into trouble and facing themselves. Their misdeeds — viewed from the progressive viewpoint — become not only their judge but also their salvation.

It is observed that all crystallized thinking acts against the Common Good because crystallization becomes for people a shelter in which to pursue their egocentric interests. On the other hand, such people do a great service to humanity not because of their good deeds but because of their violations and J mistakes.

It is not easy to change the thinking of people, the laws, and the traditional ways of living by fighting against them, but a big violation of the law or the manifestation of a mistake can shake people and urge them to take actions to prevent future repetitions of the same mistakes.

Sometimes those who have done wrong are victims, but through their involuntary sacrifice they have changed many things in life.

The present method of dealing with wrong doers is to punish them. In the future this will change. Every convicted person will enter into schools of transformation where they will be subjected to various methods of a transformation process. "

People will not punish or condemn each other but will anxiously try to transform each other because, in the future, the intelligent people on earth will see that there are inseparable relations between all human beings and that everyone shares the conditions of everyone else.

They will see that humanity is one body, and the cells in the body share all that happens to the body as a whole.

In violating the Laws of Unity and Brotherhood, we impose upon ourselves heavier conditions of pain and suffering. And, because of pain and suffering, we eventually come to our senses and try to search for a way that leads us to happiness.

What we find in our search is nothing else but the Laws of Unity and Bfotherhood.

Some people believe that we need pain and suffering to come to our senses. But pure logic and reasoning can help us bypass pain and suffering and build a life of health and happiness. This will be possible when people will stand above their crystallizations and let the light of clear thinking illuminate their path.

Inclusiveness, tolerance, and sensitivity to new viewpoints and new revelations make a person a better thinker.

People often are afraid to think because they do not want to lose the crystallizations with which they have identified. It is through thinking with inclusiveness and tolerance that sensitivity is increased and new viewpoints are found. Sensitivity is the increasing magnetism of mental matter which attracts new revelations that create new viewpoints.

People must learn to stand above all their beliefs and knowledge. This leads to a creative freedom in which they can create a new self-image which is more progressive.

In the thinking process, a time must come in which the thinker will not be able to identify with his thoughts but instead will use them to meet various needs. He must even be able to destroy a former thought and build a new one.

When we develop the ability to stand above our thoughts, not only will we become better thinkers, but also we will see how ridiculous our thoughts were at certain times.

If one can discover how ridiculous he was on certain occasions, he can surpass his former level of consciousness. Humor is the moment of discovery of our former ridiculousness, preposterousness, and foolishness. With an attitude of humor, not only can we destroy our own crystallizations but also the crystallizations in others, opening a new life of freedom for them.

Thinking must be balanced by devotion. Without devotion, or the unfoldment of the heart, thinking can lead to black magic with dire consequences.

Devotion is the radiation of an unfolding heart. Through the heart the human soul tries to worship a transcendental beauty and serve that beauty by spreading its radiance all over the world to secure a world of freedom, joy, and safety.

Devotion thus guides the thinking process, making it .serve the Common Good and the transcendental principles, laws, and values.

It is not enough to penetrate into the laws of Nature and gain control of its energies. This can be the most destructive adventure. One must have direction, inspiration, impression, and a sensitivity to respond to the calls of everlasting principles'.'

Power destroys itself if it is not used for the welfare and progress of all that exists. Once power is used for selfish, separative reasons, the power increases your weight and smashes you against the rock. That is what happened to many civilizations which boasted about their knowledge, power, and technology.

It is the heart that shows the path of unending progress and the infinite glory waiting for all of us.

- Torkom Saraydarian.