Progress of the Soul

A great sage once gave an instruction showing how a new age spiritual seeker is created. He said: The degrees of attainment are:

Alarmed consciousness

Inquiring consciousness

Knocking consciousness

Hearkening consciousness

Reminiscing consciousness

Transmitting consciousness

Sword carrier consciousness

Puissant consciousness

Lamp of the desert consciousness

Lion of the desert consciousness

Co-worker of the creative principles creator consciousness


One must graduate through these eleven stages in order to become a seeker.

ALARMED CONSICOUSNESS :

The first stage is the stage of a person which is called ALARMED. This is an esoteric word which means a man is suddenly awakened to a situation and confronts a decision. He has received a warning from his soul, from his body , from his circumstances of life. He is horrified by some information, by some facts. He was horrified by a dream or by an experience and now he is uneasy.

One must be “alarmed” in order to find the path. No one enters the path without being alarmed. Alarm is the moment when the soul reaches the stage where his eyes are opened and he sees his situation clearly. He sees his karma, his slavery, the forces of materialism and darkness, and the danger of annihilation and destruction.

INQUIRY CONSCIOUSNESS:

The second is the stage of INQUIRY. The traveler begins to search for solutions; he wants to protect and free himself and those who are closely related to him…. He searches in religion, in education, and in philosophy to find ways and means to free himself from his state of alarm. He visits teachers, read books, listens to lectures, and eventually reaches the conclusion that the secret of all these teachings is hidden somewhere within him. This leads him to the next stage.

KNOCKING CONSCIOUSNESS :

The stage of KNOCKING. Knocking means to gather all your physical, emotional, and mental aspirations into a focus and try to initiate yourself into a new state of consciousness where you will substantiate all that you have learned and dreamed. In this state you knock on the door of your inner guide. you do this by 

a. Asking questions
b. Thinking
c. Meditating
d. Uplifting your heart and expanding your consciousness
e. Cultivating virtues
f. Transforming your life
g. Committing yourself to service
h. Clear observation
i. Exercising severe discipline of speech.


It is through such means that you invoke await evocation; you await an answer from the inner lord. Instead of being a man of ideas, dreams, and theories, you become a man of experience. Knocking leads you into experience.


HEARKENING CONSCIOUSNESS :


You prepare yourself for the next stage which is called HEARKENING. Hearkening is the stage when you are ready to load yourself with great responsibilities and tasks. You are ready to submit yourself to sacrificial service.


The way to hearken is to close your ears to all those voices, which speak about self- interest, vanity, pride, separatism, and greed.


Hearkening convinces you that you are not alone on the path and the guides of life are watching your steps to the mountaintop.


Hearkening is the stage where you come to the conclusion that you must live the things you believe.


REMINISCENCE CONSCIOUSNESS :


The next stage is REMINISCENCE. This is the stage in which the striving one remembers all his past; past lives slowly unfold themselves , giving him special understanding about his present and future life. This remembrance also clears u many factors hidden in his relationships with his family. Co-workers and those people who created problems for him. This stage is a clearing stage where, for the first time, the striving one knows why things happened to him the way they happened.


TRANSMITTING CONSCIOUSNESS :


The next stage is called TRANSMITTING. It is after reminiscence that the striving one becomes a pure transmitter of wisdom. He becomes a teacher who knows how to bring down the ideas and the visions from the subjective world, from the higher realms, and formulate them adequately and pass them on to the people of the world. He not only transmits wisdom but also energy: a real transmitter inspires trust, confidence, and faith. People find the direction of their life when they meet transmitters who not only receive the teaching as it is but also transmit the teaching without distorting it through glamors, illusions, and blind urges.


SWORD CARRIER CONSCIOUSNESS:

The next stage is called the SWORD CARRIER. Traditionally, this has three levels; On the first level, the striving one carries the sword of a Great One. On the next level, the striving one carries his own sword to protect the Great One. On the third level, the striving one carries his own sword for himself. 

The sword is the symbol of:
a. Pure discrimination
b. Power, might
c. Psychic energy
d. Fiery will
e. Law
f. Order
g. Fiery Words


The sword carrier is one who is ready for sacrificial acts and is ready to carry on the command given to him by greater Centers.He is totally committed to the service and liberation of humanity. He is on the field of battle, and he is one who will never give up.


PUISSANT CONSCIOUSNESS:


The next step is called PUISSANT. The striving one, through his fearlessness, commitment, and sacrificial life becomes a tower of strength and power. His words, his acts, and his thoughts express power. He has power over his personality and over the forces and energies of nature. He uses all his might and power for the progress and liberation of all living Sparks in any form. He radiates the fire of will. However, he is extremely cautious to use his power only to further the Purpose of the Planetary Logos.


LAMP OF THE DESERT CONSCIOUSNESS:


The next state of attainment is called the LAMP OF THE DESERT. The desert symbolizes a state of consciousness which is aimless, goalless, fruitless, monotonous, meaningless, flat, isolated; a great vacuum, and emptiness. Those who live a meaningless life which has no purpose or plan, a life in which they are lost and do not have any direction live in a desert. It is such a life that presents the greatest temptation to those who, in the future, are going to be great co-workers.


The lamp of the desert is now a Teacher who brings meaning, beauty, growth, and life into the deserts of life. He gives vision and inspiration to those who were lost in the desert of a meaningless life. His life shines as a lamp in the darkness. His light gives direction and fills people with the sparks of purpose.
Sometimes people live in a “desert consciousness”: when the doctor tells them that they have only a few weeks to live; when they lose a beloved Teacher or a family member or a friend; if suddenly they lose the things that they obtained with great labor, fear, and suffering; if they suddenly realize their worthlessness. Then life appears to them as a waste, as an empty, burning desert.


When you become a lamp of the desert, you begin to see new values in life. You see a great purpose behind your pains, behind your suffering and losses. You bring joy into life; you encourage people; you create striving; and you radiate your beauty as a service to others.


Because of your existence as a light, people find their direction toward their own spiritual destination. The desert blooms in your light because everything receives a meaning, a significance, a purpose.


Are we lights in the desert of crime, violence, deceit, hypocrisy, exploitation, greed, fear, and hatred?


He radiates the fire of will. However, he is extremely cautious to use his power only to further the Purpose of the Planetary Logos.


LION OF THE DESERT CONSCIOUSNESS:


When you have proven that you are a light in the desert, a lamp of the desert, you then pass to the next stage of evolution, which is called the LION OF THE DESERT. The lion is the symbol of power, protection, steadiness, endurance, beauty, victory, daring, courage, and fearlessness. The lion of the desert is subdivided into three degrees: the first degree is composed of those who make a breakthrough out of crystallization and fanaticism in any department of human endeavor. For example, Blavatsky was one of them. She attacked the merchants of materialism who were working the field of science. She attacked the merchants of fanaticism who were working in the desert of religion. She made it possible for daring ones to expand the walls of science to Space and opened a new understanding between religious traditions and the mythologies of all nations. In the field of art and beauty, another great lion of the desert was Nicholas Roerich.


On the second level, we have great religious leaders.


On the third level, we have Buddha and Christ, Who were each actually called the Lion of the Desert.


Lions of the desert attack and try to annihilate all barriers that stand on the path of human progress.


They are fearless ones because they know that they are not bodies but living principles, living ideas; Beauty, Goodness, Righteousness, Joy, and Freedom. And because a lion of the desert knows that he is an embodiment of such principles, he is fearless and he is powerful. Fearlessness and power do not belong to you when you create slaves around you, when you exploit people, when you mislead people, and when you try to kill their soul and conscience. Fearlessness and power do not come to you when your life department is dependent on your possessions, positions, titles, lies, deceits, fanaticism, and separatism. All these make you a coward, a weak person.
Fearlessness and power are the virtues of those people who make themselves the embodiments of great principles, great, and great ideas.


When you read the lives of great lions of the desert, you see how fearless they were because they were fused with a divine principle. People could kill their bodies but never their visions and ideas; people could even distort and misrepresent their ideas and thus give them a second blow of death, but they could not touch their visions, the image they had imprinted in the souls of people.


A CO-CREATOR CONSCIOUSNESS:


Lions of the desert are protectors of the human race as a whole. When you reach such a state of consciousness, you graduate into the next stage and you become a CO-WORKER OF THE CREATIVE PRINCIPLES, A CREATOR. You are now ready to cooperate with the creative principles of the Universe and become a creator.


The creative principles are contacted through the Hierarchy, through Shamballa, through the Zodiacal Lives, through the Lives of the Greater Zodiac, through the Lords of the Rays, through the Heart of the Spiritual Sun, through the Central Spiritual Sun. One becomes a greater co-worker of these seven Centers Who Embody the seven principles of the seven paths of the Purpose of the Life in which all existence moves, lives, and has its being. The co-worker is now a conscious part of Life and cooperates with Life in Its creative efforts.


Can you imagine yourself cooperating with your Inner Guide and becoming Its co-worker? Can you imagine yourself cooperating with Great Ones in the Plan of Hierarchy? Can you imagine yourself cooperating with the Lives Who are active in Shamballa? Can you imagine yourself being in contact and a close co-worker with higher forces and Existences? What a glorious being is a co-worker. Instead of building our sand castles, or karmic prisons on our path, we can prepare ourselves to be co-workers of the creative Principles of Life.


A co-worker will never violate the principles for which he stands, neither through his acts, not through his thoughts; neither through his words, nor with his motives. The gates of Hierarchy can open only to co-workers.


Transformation and expansion of consciousness take place:


a. When one realizes his errors and really feels sorry about them.
b. When one is ready to pay for the damage he did.
c. When one is ready to see how his mistakes and errors can produce a new generation of errors and how they can prevent his progress on the Path. Rationalization and self-justifications are the path
which leads into the pit of self-deception.
d. When one is able to see a higher vision, the true destination of his soul, and make a firm commitment to stay in the light of his Higher Self.

You Are A Contributor

We are consumers by every breath that we take in and We are contributors by every breath we release out. We consume all the basic necessities of life and luxuries that are available. We consume love and attention, through other people in our relationships. We also consume the gifts of nature (beauty, elegance, wonder, magic). In order for us to consume, the entire universe has to work for us. Universe organizes everything for our consumption. We are also gifted with five senses and mind to consume and have enriching experiences of life. If you take a moment to reflect, you will be surprised to see how much we consume and how the universe orchestrates everything for us.

Whether you are aware or not, through your thoughts, choices, speech and action you are also contributing back to the universe. Imagine what kind of world you can create, if you are consciously contributing through your choices and actions. We are not born here to live for few years and drag our life until death. We are born here to participate in life and co-create along with universe. However many of us spend our time either struggling for survival - fulfilling basic needs or we are ambitious seeking approval, power and security.

Our contribution does not have to be in the form of money or material things. Although giving money and material things would surely help the needy. We can contribute by spending time, to listen to others in our relationships wholeheartedly. We can be aware of how our choices and actions can have an impact on others and make choices that are harmonious. One of the spiritual practices in yoga tradition is to master your speech (Vak Tapas). We can cause lot of hurt and pain to others through our speech intentionally or unintentionally. We can use our speech to heal others through our words and conversations. Instead of being critical, judgmental and pulling others down, we can be appreciative of others. We can encourage, support, inspire others through our speech. We are also gifted with unique talents. We can use those talents to contribute back to the world.

We don't have to be a Bill gates or Warren Buffet to contribute. Even if you are a home maker, you can support your spouse or your children's through your conscious choices and actions. There have been many people who have contributed to my life along the way; not through their money, but just through their presence in my life. My teachers at school, professors at college, friends, relatives, co-workers, community members, spiritual masters and book authors all have helped me in some ways to open my eyes, so I can enjoy the beauty of life.

Conscious contribution opens your heart, brings more joy, happiness. When you start giving you can experience a sense of freedom. Keep circulating the energy of love and appreciation, through your giving and receiving. All that is needed is to be alert, aware and mindful. We can make a difference in this world through our presence.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

1. APPRECIATE YOUR EXPERIENCES, but don’t try to own them.
2. Avoid thinking of the paths as “my” paths.
3. Let things come and go without attachment.
4. Don’t pretend to be more positive than you actually feel.
5. Don’t exaggerate your experiences, to yourself or others.
6. Don’t allow your experiences to set you apart from or above anyone else.
7. Don’t be tempted to think you are a saint.

Gita's Blog: 95 – Emotions and Feelings

Gita's Blog: 95 – Emotions and Feelings

Spiritual Partnership Guidelines

Commitment – MAKING MY SPIRITUAL GROWTH (CREATING AUTHENTIC POWER) MY HIGHEST PRIORITY

• Focus on what I can learn about myself all the time, especially from my reactions (such as anger, fear, jealousy, resentment, and impatience), instead of judging or blaming others or myself.

• Pay attention to my emotions by feeling the physical sensations in my energy centers (such as my chest, solar plexus, and throat areas).

• Pay attention to my thoughts (such as judging, analyzing, comparing, daydreaming, planning my reply, etc., or thoughts of gratitude, appreciation, contentment, openness to Life, etc.).

• Pay attention to my intention (such as blaming, judging, needing to be right, seeking admiration, escaping into thoughts (intellectualizing), trying to convince, etc., or cooperating, sharing, creating harmony, and revering Life).

Courage – STRETCHING MYSELF BEYOND THE LIMITED PERSPECTIVES OF THE FRIGHTENED PARTS OF MY PERSONALITY

• Take responsibility for my feelings, experiences, and actions (no blaming).

• Practice integrity at all times (often requires action, such as speaking when frightened parts of my personality don’t want to speak and not speaking when they feel compelled to speak).

• Say or do what is most difficult (sharing what I notice, if appropriate, when someone speaks or acts from a frightened part of his or her personality; sharing about myself what I am frightened to say and know what I need to say).

Compassion – SEEING MYSELF AND OTHERS AS SOULS WHO SOMETIMES HAVE FRIGHTENED PARTS OF THEIR PERSONALITIES ACTIVE

• Change my perspective from fearful to loving (choose to see myself and others in a loving or appreciative way.

• Release any distance I feel from anyone.

• Be present while others are speaking (not preparing replies, judging, etc.).

Conscious Communications and Actions – STRIVING TO MAKE ALL MY INTERACTIONS CONSCIOUS AND LOVING

• Consult my intuition.

• Choose my intention before I speak or act.

• Act from the healthiest part of my personality that I can access (rather than caretaking, fixing, teaching, judging, blaming, gossiping, etc.).

• Speak personally and specifically rather than generally and abstractly (use “I” statements rather than “we” or “you” statements).

 Release attachment to the outcome (trust the Universe). If I find myself attached, begin again with
Commitment, Courage, and Compassion.

And remember to enjoy yourself!

- Gary Zukav

YES – NO TECHNOLOGY

GETTING PAST NO

You must break the spell when your mind :

• Tells you that people don’t change 
• Keeps you trapped in rigid habits 
• Traps the mind in obsessive thoughts 
• Creates cravings that cannot be appeased 
• Puts up fear as a threat if you try to break free 
• Forbids you to have certain thoughts 
• Makes natural urges seem illicit or dangerous

It takes mini-breakthroughs to get past the power of no because there is so much negativity to overcome in so many areas.

Now lets look at the specific areas where the power of no needs to be dislodged.

NEGATIVE BELIEF #1: PEOPLE DON’T CHANGE. This familiar assertion seems reasonable in moments of discouragement and frustration, but if you look more closely, it has the effect of shutting down change in yourself.

From your souls perspective , however none of this is real. Its obvious that people continually change. You must stop reinforcing the power of no if you want to reach your soul.

• See yourself changing all the time 
• Encourage change in others 
• When you hear yourself uttering a fixed opinion, stop. 
• When someone offers a counter opinion, don’t resist. 
• Argue from the opposite side every once in a while. 
• Don’t stamp out the fragile beginnings of change, either in yourself or others 
• Stop being absolute. Let your attitude be more flexibe and provisional. 
• Don’t take pride in being right. 
• When you have an impulse to grow and evolve, follow it without regard for the opinions of others. 

NEGATIVE BELIEF#2: HABITS KEEP US TRAPPED. Everyone knows what it means to be caught up in habitual behavior. Life’s everyday struggle is dominated by our inability to think and behave in a new way. in general, habit makes inertia easier than change.

From our soul’s perspective , a habit is just a choice that is ingrained for practical purposes. There’s no

Issue of goo d and bad, right or wrong. You always have the choice to erase the imprint and create a new one. To break out of any habit, you need to reclaim your power to choose.

• Don’t fight against a bad habit. look at it objectively, as if another person had the habit. 
• Ask yourself why you have chosen your habits. 
• Examine what benefit you are getting, usually at a hidden level. 
• Be honest about your choice. Instead of saying, “this is just how I am,” admit that you have chosen inertia over change frightens or threatens you. 
• If you feel victimized by a bad habit, ask yourself why you need to be a victim. Is it an easy way to keep from taking responsibility? 
• Find a reason to adopt a good habit in place of the bad one; make your reason convincing, and keep repeating it to your self whenever the old habit arises. 

Your aim is to break the spell that says you have no choices . you always have choices.

NEGATIVE BELIEF#3: OBSESSIVE THOUGHTS ARE IN CONTROL. Most people don’t think they are obsessive. They identify obsessions with mental disorders, when in fact an obsessive-compulsive disorder is just an extreme variation on a universal condition. Obsessions are yet another way that power of no removes your ability to choose. You can’t assume that a thought becomes an obsession only if it’s immoral, wrong, or irrational. One can obsess about things that society approves of and rewards. We all know people who obsess about winning, or getting back at those who wronged them, or money, or ambition. By definition, an obsessive thought is one that’s stronger than you are. That’s where the power of no does its damage.

From the soul’s perspective, thinking is an expression of freedom. The mind isn’t compelled to prefer one thought over another. Much less is the mind a machine programmed to repeat the same message over and over. What keeps us trapped in repetition is the belief that “I must think this way.” Other alternatives are closed off by fear, prejudice, self-interest, and guilt. To break out of obsessive thinking, you must examine this deeper level where “I must” holds sway.

• Don’t struggle against thoughts that keep repeating themselves. 
• When people tell you that you keep doing the same thing, believe them. 
• Don’t accept that winning, always being out for number one, or always doing anything is productive. 
• Don’t pride yourself on consistency for consisteny’s sake. 
• If you feel trapped by an obsession, ask yourself what you’re afraid of. Repetition is a mask for anxiety. 
• Stop rationalizing. Put your attention on how your thoughts feel, not on what they say. 
• Be honest about the frustration you feel with having the same idea over and over. 
• Don’t defend your prejudices. 
• Take active steps to reduce stress, which is a major cause of obsessions. Under stress, the mind keeps repeating the same thing because it isn’t relaxed or open enough to find an alternative. 
• Through meditation, seek the level of your mind that isn’t obsessed, that has no fixed ideas. 

NEGATIVE BELIEF#4: CRAVINGS CAN NEVER BE APPEASED. When cravings keep returning, they force you either to give in or resist (the futility of this struggle was touched on earlier). The power of no insists that you have no other alternative. Once again, a repetitive pattern imprinted in the brain overrides free choice. Your craving takes on a life of its own, and if taken to extremes, it becomes an addiction. The difference has to do with just how limited you become. Someone who craves chocolate can’t resist eating some, but if addicted, they would eat nothing else.

From your soul’s perspective, a craving is another example of a shortcut imprinted in the brain. The option to reset your reactions always exists. Under the spell of no, you willingly gave up that option, but anything you give up you can also reclaim. 

When a craving arises, don’t make it an either/ or choice. 

Instead of either giving in or resisting, do one of the following: walk away, postpone your choice, find a distraction, pause and watch yourself, or substitute another pleasure. 

Don’t think of defeating your craving. Think instead that you are gradually erasing an imprint.
When you feel discouraged for giving in, be with your feelings instead of pushing them away.
Realize why appeasing a craving never works: you can never get enough of what you didn’t want in the first place. 

Find out what you really want, whether it’s love, comfort, approval, or security. These are the basic needs that cravings try to substitute for. 

Pursue your real need. If you do, the craving will automatically lose its grip and in time will vanish.
If for any reason you can turn away from your old craving, seize that moment, even if your craving soon returns. Every small victory imprints the brain in a new pattern. Don’t see this as a temporary victory – see it as a sign that you can find the switch that turns your craving off.

NEGATIVE BELIEF#5: FEAR KEEPS YOU FROM BEING FREE. The power of no uses fear as its enforcer. Like a hired gun, it holds a threat that is merciless an indifferent. Under the spell of no, the mind finds any and every reason to be afraid. The simplest things become objects of anxiety. The most unlikely risks loom as dangers that can befall you at any moment. When you find yourself in a defensive posture, you have denied yourself the most basic freedom, which is to be safe in the world. It’s not the external threat that creates this situation. We project our fixed beliefs onto every situation, so feeling safe or unsafe becomes a personal decision.

From the soul’s perspective, you are always safe. The universe cherishes your existence. Nature is designed to uphold your well-being. To get beyond a phobia, you must call its bluff and reassert that you are safe.
Don’t fight your fears when you are actually afraid. 

• When you feel calm and safe, call your fear to mind so that it can be examined. 
• Fear is convincing, but that doesn’t make it right. Make sure you see this distinction. 
• Anxiety tends to obsess about reasons to be afraid, stoking its own fire. Don’t be fooled by repetition. A situation doesn’t become more dangerous just because you keep thinking it is. 
• Separate the energy of fear from the content of your experience. Instead of worrying about the thing that makes you anxious, go directly to the feeling of anxiety and move the energy as you would any other, through physical release, toning, meditation, and other techniques. 
• Realize that you are not basically afraid. Fear is a passing emotion that can be released. 
• Know that you have a choice to either hold on to fear or let it go. If you feel anxious, take immediate steps to let go. Don’t dwell on fear or try to reason with it. 
• Avoid blaming yourself. Fear is universal. It is felt by the bravest, strongest people. To be afraid doesn’t mean you are weak. It means you haven’t yet let go. 
• Be patient with yourself. Fear and anxiety are the biggest obstacles for everyone. Be thankful and congratulate yourself every time you overcome fear. 
• Don’t consider it a defeat if fear returns. The time will soon come when you can sit calmly and move the energy of fear. Ultimately you are the one in control. 

NEGATIVE BELIEF#6: "BAD" THOUGHTS ARE FORBIDDEN AND DANGEROUS. 

People expend a lot of subtle energy in pushing down thoughts they don’t want to face. Denial and repression seem appealing as short-term solutions. What you don’t think about may go away. But there’s a sticky quality to bad thoughts – which are any thoughts that make you feel guilty, ashamed, humiliated, or distressed.

From the soul’s perspective, the mind has no boundaries. If you feel that it is forbidden to look at your rage, fear, jealousy, desperation, and feelings of vengeance, you are resorting to a false sense of self. Specially, you are dividing yourself into good and bad impulses. The paradox is that your good side can never ultimately win, because the bad side will constantly fight to be released. An inner struggle ensures. You wind up living in a state of underground war-fare. Instead of trying to be good all the time, try to win your freedom. When the mind is free, thoughts come and go spontaneously. Whether good or bad, you don’t hold on to them. As long as the mind is allowed to flow, no thought is dangerous, and therefore nothing if forbidden. 

• See the difference between having a “bad” thought and acting on it. 
• Don’t identify with your thoughts. They aren’t you; they are passing events in the mind. 
• Resist the urge to demonize. Judgment makes illicit impulses stick around. 
• Learn the value of acceptance. 
• Don’t condemn others for their thoughts. 
• Don’t set up a false ideal of yourself. See clearly that every kind of thought, mood, and sensation exists in your makeup. 
• Celebrate the diversity of your mind. A mind that is free to think any way it wants should be appreciated, not suppressed. 
• If you were taught that god will hate you for sinful thoughts, try to detach yourself from this perspective. Holding a judgmental God responsible for your own self-judgment is a delusion. 
• Don’t fixate on being right all the time. Being right is just a disguise for making other people wrong. In the shadows, you secretly fear that something is wrong with you, which is why you fight so hard to appear infallible – you think it makes you good. 
• When you are tempted to control your mind, stand back and realize that task is impossible to begin with. Even the most disciplined mind has a way of breaking out of its chains. 

NEGATIVE BELIEF#7: NATURAL URGES ARE ILLICIT OR DANGEROUS. Silence there is no such thing as an artificial urge, all urges are natural. They arise from either a desire or a need. When the mind intervenes, however, any urge can become a danger. Eating a candy bar feels dangerous if you are obsessed with your weight. Loving somebody feels dangerous if you fear rejection. There is a tangled dance between what we feel and what we think we should feel, and everyone is caught up in the dance, which is why disputes over social values can lead to violence.

From your soul’s perspective, all urges are based on legitimate needs. When the need is seen and fulfilled, the urge fades away, just as hunger fades once you eat. However, when a need is denied or judged against, it has no choice but to become more insistent.

• Stop seeing this as a matter of self-control. Every kind of urge comes and goes in everyone. 
• Be willing to stop judging against yourself. Bad urges don’t make you a bad person. 
• Know that neither side will ever win an internal war. 
• Don’t make this a test of willpower. Giving in to an urge isn’t proof that you need to discipline. Acting on your urges serves only as a temporary release of energy, like opening a steam gasket. There will always be more steam. 
• Guilt is a perception, and all perceptions are open to change. You can’t instantly change guilt to approval, but you can see guilt as negotiable. When you remove the underlying energy that forces you to be guilty, a new perception can flower. 
• Realize that your soul never judges you. With that in mind, your aims is to live from the level of the soul. That is the final answer to the war between good and bad.

- Deepak Chopra

The Science of Promises

A promise is considered very sacred. In Asia, a sage formulated a saying which emphasizes the importance of a promise. It says “one would rather die than to make a promise, but if he promises, he must fulfill his promise to his death”.

Our promises cause certain patterns in relation to their time, daily work, feelings, thoughts, plans, motives, and in their relationships with other people. Let us imagine such a pattern as a set, electrical pattern in which things are done automatically according to how it is set. As long as the promise continues, things go as they were planned to go, but, when the promise is broken, the whole pattern of set activities of the physical, emotional, and mental levels and the set patterns of relationship are disturbed.

Many physical, emotional, mental disturbances and states of confusion are the result of broken promises, whether it was a promise formed with a friend, a mother, a father or your own promise to yourself. People do not pay attention to this subtle factor, which plays a great role in our health, sanity and behavior. Promises from others or from our own self considerably damage our health and sanity if they are not met and fulfilled.

During childhood, unfulfilled promises by parents, teachers, and friends have such an effect on our system that we may even wait for the fulfillment of the promises for 70 years and run our life in accordance with the thought forms of the promises given to us long ago. Thus a promise builds a prison around us and does not let us take self-activated actions.

Throughout our life, whenever the promise is attached to any circumstance or event, we go through acute crises, depressions and failures.

A promise forms a special thought form in our mind and a strong expectancy within our emotional vehicle. Sometimes, even the awareness of the futility of the promise does not annihilate such thought forms, and the expectancy of the lower mind brings in many rationalizations and lets us hang on to the promise.

Great depressions, disillusionments, inertia and apathy are the result after the thought forms and the expectancy melt away. In such cases, the best way to help is to find the promise and the one who promised it and dissipate the promise through analytical logic, replacing it with a spiritual challenge. It is also helpful to analyze the one who made the promise and search for the motives behind the promise and the circumstances which were related to it.

It must be remembered that the moment of the dissolution of the promise is a moment of pain and suffering. Once this phase is over, joy will be witnessed by the observer.

It is very interesting to note that the promiser builds a thought form within his mental sphere. If he fulfills his promise, this form melts away. If he does not fulfill his promise, no matter how lightly made, it bothers him in subtle ways, creating confusion in his mind and behavior.

If the promise is forgotten by him, the thought form still exists, and it is registered as a defect in the mental computer which does many things wrong because of this invisible defect.

The thought form of a promise can be re-stimulated either in the mind of the one who promised, or in the mind of the one who was promised. Everytime the thought form is re-stimulated, it takes away the clarity of the mind and creates minor or major disturbances in it.

In certain cases, one promises but for a while does not carry it out. Later he wants to meet his promise but cannot find any opportunity to fulfill it because of many circumstances. But the thought form of the promise remains in his being as a sore spot until it is analyzed and dissipated.

Some people make false promises. In this case, they have a weak thought form of a promise in their minds. This thought form gradually grows and bothers them because the one who was promised nourishes the weak thought form by the force of his expectation. The thought form of a false promise not only becomes a promise but also a hated thought form within the man. It is mostly such thought forms that weaken the memory and the clear thinking of a human being.

It is very helpful to do a review to find your promises and either dissolve them consciously or fulfill them if possible.

A promise has a form element in it. It has etheric, astral, mental elements and will power. The melting process is almost impossible left to itself, but through logic and analysis, it is possible to dissipate it, paying some taxes in the meantime for the delay.

Promising to oneself is also a very serious matter. In most cases, a person promises when he is in a higher state of consciousness or is soul infused. A promise made from such a level evokes positive polarization from the lower vehicles, but when the promise is not carried out, the positive polarization changes into negative polarization. Then the man on the personality level does exactly the opposite of what he promised in his inspirational or uplifted moments. This eventually creates an intense inner conflict.

A related situation also creates problems. Many people make various promises to their higher self and when they do not carry them out, they try to hide from the light of the higher self and keep themselves busy with lower activities. But promises made to the higher self can never be forgotten because the higher self eventually will create those crises in your life in which you recollect yourself and meet your promises through painful experiences.

It is also true that we promise on various levels with our false I’s. Because we change our levels very often, we create conflicting promises within our nature. On each level, we see things from different view points;  we have different interests and also different relationships. All the factors combined force us to make various promises to ourselves and to others which are often conflicting. Conflicts created in these ways do not contribute to our serenity and growth.

Expectations are not promises. In expectations, you form a thought form which may obsess you gradually if you feed it with your imagination and thoughts. Generally, expectations fade away when the source of inspiration does not show the evidences of support for your expectations.

It is very beneficial to clear your mind of the thought forms of expectations because they consume a great amount of energy from your mental, emotional, and etheric nature. They create diffusion in your mind, which makes you take unreasonable actions or attitudes.

VOWS:

Vows are of a higher order. They not only have etheric, emotional, and mental forces and the energy of the Will, but they are also associated with Devas and higher beings. The violation of vows creates serious disturbances in man’s subtle bodies and his relation with subjective forces.

As we go higher, our words, promises, and vows are taken more seriously because they are connected with speech and thought.  On higher levels, speech and thought are agents of creative forces which bring into manifestation and objectification the things about which we talk and think.

In breaking your vows, you start a destructive process within the forms and relationships which you have been building with your vows. This destruction affects your higher and lower vehicles in many ways.

It is possible to break vows if they were taken under pressure or in a state of unconsciousness, or if the vows interfere in your relationships with greater principles, laws, and service. If this is the case, the vows must be analyzed, brought into the light of your present consciousness, and cancelled.

"We must start to practice living in the light of our soul and see things as they are."

-  (Leadership)

Worry

Worry is a prevalent habit, and since it is annoying rather than disabling, many worrywarts don’t recognize themselves as anxious. In fact, worriers often feel justified. 

Why not turn the car around to double check that you locked the door? 

Why not worry about global warming, terrorism, and all the other aspects of an unsafe world? 

When You Help Yourself, Which Self Are You Helping?

Yet the more one looks into the self-help movement, the more confusion seems to reign. It's common to meet people who tell the same story of being adrift. Having read many books, visited many teachers and joined many groups, they continue to feel unfulfilled. Why? If self-help burgeons year after year, where are all these good intentions and well-meaning advice getting us?

I think a good deal of confusion can be cleared away if you stop for a moment and apply some realistic standards. In order for self-help to work, you need to know a few things with some certainty:
Who am I today?

The wisdom of no escape or the problem of boundaries

The great disadvantage to desire is that repetition kills joy. As our soul sees it, desire has no interest in repetition.it wants to go deeper. It wants more intensity, more meaning, more expansion.

Desire that pursues its object while never gaining ground is stuck. A boundary acts like an invisible fence or a line that is not supposed to be crossed. Why do we put boundaries around our desires? First ,to keep out uncomfortable experiences. The second reason for putting boundaries is to protect your comfort zone.

Movement

The movement we intend to initiate for ourselves is from:
Doing to Being.
Looking to Seeing.
Hearing to Listening.
Pretence to Presence.
Ego-Centered Knowing to Inspired Guidance.
Imbalance to Balance.
Separation to Oneness.
Reacting to Responding.
Inauthentic to Authenticity.
Fragmentation to Integration.
Seeking Happiness to Allowing Joy.
Revenge and Blame to Forgiveness.
Distortion to Clear Perception.
Competition to Co-Creation.
Behaving Unconsciously to Behaving Consciously.
“Living in Time” to Experiencing Present Moment Awareness.

- 

Opinions

When we hold on to our opinions with aggression, no matter how valid our cause, we are simply adding more aggression to the planet, and violence and pain increase, cultivating non aggression is cultivating peace.

When we are doing meditation, part of the technique is to become aware of our thoughts. Then without judgment, without calling them right or wrong, we simply acknowledge that we are thinking. Its an exercise in nonaggression toward ourselves. It is also an exercise in bringing out our intelligence: seeing that we are just thinking, but with no attached hope or dear, praise or blame.

When we are not in meditation , we could begin to notice our opinions just as we notice that we’re thinking when we are meditating. We have lot of emotional backup for these opinions. if we can see our opinions as opinions and even for a moment let them go, and then come back to the immediacy of our experience, we may discover that we are in a brand new world, that we have new eyes and new ears.

The key is to realize the difference between opinions and clear seeing intelligence. Intelligence is like seeing thoughts as thinking, not having opinions about whether those thoughts are right or wrong.

Whole heartedly do what it takes to awaken your clear seeing intelligence, but one day at a time, one moment at a time. If we live that way, we will benefit this earth.

- .

Meditation and Obstacles on the Path

The life of an aspirant or of a disciple is not an easy life. We all have our obstacles on the Path. Once we decide to do regular medi tation, according to the ancient rules, many unexpected obstacles start to appear. The disciple, however, is a man not paralyzed by obstacles, but one who is inflamed more and more with a continuous inner radiance. He even enjoys obstacles because “he grows through them.”

Each obstacle evokes a new line to be developed in our nature, a new tool to be built for the battle, a new means to bridge the gaps and to master our nature. We do not ask for happiness, only for growth....

The student is tested also by his beloved ones. His wife, her husband, or the children may create many problems and put him in a state of worry or depression in which it seems to him that it is im possible to carry on his meditation, his study, and special type of service.

He must remember that his problems cannot be solved by fighting with them on the same level where they are found, but they can be handled by raising himself higher than his problems. Real help comes from above, not from below.

In such cases, you may go into seclusion and try to concentrate your mind upon a great vision, a great plan, a great beauty in any form, and lift your consciousness toward Infinity. In such an en deavor you will suddenly notice that your consciousness is expand ing, you have a greater vision, greater inspiration, and a flaming joy is pouring into your heart.

You may read the New Testament, the Bhagavad Gita, the Imita tion of Christ, or In the Hours of Meditation by F.J. Alexander.

In addition to this you may regularly meditate upon the following seed thoughts:
a) “Be not afraid of loneliness. The Soul that cannot stand alone has naught to give.”
b) “Seek freedom from the past.”
c) “Develop joy and self-forgetfulness and serve your brothers.”
d) “Pain comes from form-attachment.”
e) “Leave all the past to Us, and think only of the Future.”
f) “The co-workers who walk in self-denial will be victors.”
g) “Amidst treason of the spirit, amidst strife and sorrow, My shield is over thee.”
h) “One must affirm that victory underlies the bond with the high est will.”

When you really meditate on these verses, a great change will come in your consciousness, and when you return to your daily routine of life you will see that most of your problems have de parted and those which still remain have lost their power over you.

Thus you will still continue your meditation and service, knowing that these are two main channels from which you receive strength, joy, wisdom, and new inspirations to handle your life as beautifully as possible — “through harmlessness and self-forgetfulness.” ....

Remember that times of crisis in our lives are times for growth and opportunities to show the Great Ones just how much we have developed. We can face the crisis, take it and conquer it, and then move along to the next step higher on the spiritual way. That is what the disciples ever have to do.

- .

How to Dispel Darkness

When people face a dark hour, as all of us have to, what is the best way to move out of it? 

The kinds of darkness haven’t changed over the centuries, but our response has. The greatest change is that medicine has replaced religion as a way to explain what is happening. We speak of depression and anxiety as disorders, not as curses or as signs of sin. In the aftermath of trauma we don’t ask why God wanted t punish us; we cope with post-traumatic stress disorder through therapy, either talking to a professional or taking a pill. Thus the doctor has replaced the priest as first choice for dispelling the darkness when it descends.

The medical model is free of judgment; it removes blame from anyone who is afraid or depressed, who suddenly loses faith in themselves or wants to give up out of sheer hopelessness. This is all to the good. Yet there was something valuable in the spiritual model that we can’t afford to lose: the notion of the divided self. In the world’s wisdom traditions, darkness is inescapable, because Nature contains both creation and destruction. That includes our own nature. 

Everyone contains creative impulses and destructive impulses inside themselves. Being self-aware, we watch both at work, and since the destructive side – aging, sickness, fear, and depression – causes suffering, we yearn to escape it. Every society has a dispeller of darkness who is responsible for keeping the dark forces at bay. In the past the role was taken by priests, shamans, and gurus (the word “guru” means dispeller of darkness in Sanskrit).
Doctors can serve as modern replacements in order to alleviate immediate mental pain, but when it comes to wisdom or long-term change, they are relatively helpless. Even in an age of countless therapies and practitioners who train for years in psychology, real change depends on the sufferer himself: studies show that 75% of people who achieve significant improvement with their psychological problems did it on their own. 

The divided self isn’t going away, nor is the darkness it brings. So each of us must take responsibility for dispelling your own darkness, and that begins by seeing what is effective and what isn’t.

The paradox of suffering
Suffering is universal, and yet pain isn’t a good motivator for change. One can undergo years of darkness without finding a way out. If you stand back, it would seem paradoxical even to ask someone to deal with the destructive forces inside themselves. How can the divided self be both the sickness and the healer? No problem is more difficult to solve, which is why most people find it hard even to start. They feel too overshadowed by their problems. 

When fear, depression, anger, regret, helplessness, loneliness, or despair comes calling, it takes over the mind too easily; like a familiar guest, it knows just how to settle in and make itself comfortable. It does no good to blame yourself or wring your hands. It’s not your fault that negativity can gain such a strong hold. 

The divided self makes it inevitable, because life is constructed out of opposites, and the contest between light and darkness, evolution and entropy, growth and decay, good and evil, God and the Devil – pick any pair of opposites you prefer – keeps nature in balance and provides the dynamism for the cosmos itself.
But you can’t make the symptom the solution, which is what countless people do. They try to use the divided self to cure its own negativity. This happens in three ways:

Passivity: The vast majority of people do nothing. They wait for things to get better. They seek distraction (studies have shown that when they face psychological difficulties, 65% of respondents report that the main thing they do is watch more television). They indulge in wishful thinking and hope that someone else will rescue them or at the very least offer reassurance. If given a choice to see a therapist or doctor, they procrastinate as long as possible. To an outsider, it’s obvious that passivity is self-defeating. The person has taken refuge inside the “good” half of themselves, waiting out the “bad” side until it goes away. And since time does heal some wounds – or puts a bandage over them, at least — wishing and waiting provides an illusion of comfort. Actual healing, however, doesn’t take place.

You can tell if you are resorting to passivity when any of the following responses has turned into a pattern:

Asking for constant reassurance

Pleading for help but never getting enough
Putting up with difficulties until they reach the breaking point
Fantasizing that you will be rescued
Depending on someone stronger to tell you what to do
Ignoring good advice after you seek it
Presenting the weak side of yourself because you think that’s the only way you will get any attention
Feeling confused and dull when faced with problems
Waking up to feelings of fear or panic
Seeing only the worst when you look into the future
Failing to stand up for yourself
Seeing yourself as a perennial victim
Pursuing distractions rather than relating in a real way
Wasting time for days on end

Self-discipline: Realizing that they can’t simply react passively, some people will try to control their negative side. In fact, all mature adults achieve some measure of impulse control. They deal with anger and anxiety by shutting it out or facing it down. There is practicality in finding a measure of self-discipline. Your behavior will be more socially acceptable, for example. But when impulses are tamped down, hidden, repressed, secreted away, or denied access, the darkness doesn’t go away. The energies of the shadow, as Jung called this aspect of the psyche, are part of us. They can’t be manipulated forever.

Eventually they will find a way to express themselves, with painful results. Physical illness is associated with repressed emotions, yet we don’t have to turn to medical studies to tell us that the longer you repress your negativity, the more numb your emotions become in general. Those who cannot feel pain also cannot laugh or love. There was wisdom in the Buddha’s teaching that pain and pleasure are woven together; pursuing the goal of pleasure that is devoid of pain leads to a dead end. People who use self-discipline probably wouldn’t describe this as their goal; it doesn’t feel pleasant to have to control yourself. But they are trying to force darkness out of sight, which is much the same thing.

You can tell if you are resorting to self-discipline when any of the following responses has turned into a pattern:
Working all the time
Not affording more than a few moments of relaxation
Ordering your day with rituals that you hate to have disturbed
Growing impatient with other people’s shortcomings (as you see them)
Turning exercise into a fetish
Focusing on perfection
Insisting on strict morality and enforcing it at home
Giving up on spontaneity or disliking it in others as frivolous
Rejecting the childlike; demanding mature, responsible behavior form yourself and others
Micro-managing, directing criticism at others over tiny details
Clamping down in the face of stress
Rarely showing emotion when anyone else is around
Settling for a loveless existence in order not to take risks
Judging against emotions in general

Overcoming: The third option is to build up your positive side so strongly that negativity is too weak to defeat it. If the good can overcome the bad, you become a winner compared to all those people who give in to negativity. We hear from competitive sportsmen how they use their fear to achieve higher levels of performance. “Feel the fear but do it anyway” became a familiar slogan for a while. At its simplest, this tactic comes down to an insistent belief that there is no gain without pain. At its most sophisticated, there’s a belief in stoicism, the philosophy that confronts suffering by accepting it as inevitable but building a better self through that realization. The flaw with overcoming is that you can never truly overcome yourself. Everything you defeat is part of you, and therefore you are sacrificing aspects of your own nature (such as tenderness, vulnerability, compassion, and self-acceptance) that aren’t useful to a winner but are necessary if you want to be a complete person.

You can tell if you are resorting to overcoming when any of the following responses has turned into a pattern:
Dividing people into winners and losers
Turning everything into a competition
Focusing on your self-image, hating it when someone makes you look bad
Refusing to give up until you get your way
Boasting of your accomplishments while diminishing the accomplishments of others
Worrying about status, rivals, and power struggles
Fighting for position, even when it doesn’t matter
Being the strongest or most appealing person in a group
Over-achieving; insisting on achievement from your children
Seeing your children as a reflection of yourself, especially as the world views you
Seeing weakness as your enemy
Fearing that you will fall from the top
Fighting to be as good as possible
Seeing every situation in a positive light, with no tolerance for negativity in yourself or others
Secretly believing that only losers are afraid or depressed
Excessive hero worship; admiration for strong authorities who keep the peace (at whatever cost)

As you can see, a wide range of human behavior falls under these three categories. You can spend your whole life using the means of passivity, self-discipline, and overcoming. Depending on which strategy you prefer will often determine your occupation (the police and military honor discipline; doctors overcome disease; athletes overcome pain). There is no doubt that the divided self forces each of us into a response. Yet the problem still remains: How can we dispel the darkness when it is part of our own nature?

All of the ways that we deal with darkness will fall short unless there is a solution that lies beyond the divided self. As long as one part of you wants to get better while another part of you holds on to negativity, you will be conflicted. The world’s wisdom traditions all teach that there is a way  out of the divided self; therefore, by following this way, one should find healing from everyday problems like depression and anxiety.  Calling them everyday is not to diminish the suffering that is caused. I could have called them age-old problems or the burden of being human. But the solution to negativity is also age-old and part of being human. In practical terms there are three parts to the spiritual solution.

Transcending:  It is crucial to go beyond the domain ruled by the divided self. When they are in trouble, people naturally attempt to escape. They suppress their fears, seek distraction, deny the problem, blame others, seek a scapegoat, substitute a more acceptable feeling like anger, and so on. But none of these tactics actually leaves the field of struggle behind; they just pretend to in one way or another. The spiritual rule here is that the level of the solution isn’t the level of the problem. So you must take yourself to a place beyond conflict.  The world’s wisdom traditions agree that there is such a place. The challenge is to find it inside yourself. The journey is not as mystical as it sounds.

You are transcending negativity whenever the following things occur:

Sitting by yourself, going within, and letting your internal dialogue quiet down

Meditating, a way of guiding the mind to deeper levels of the self

Feeling empathy for someone else

Giving of yourself

Caring for and appreciating someone else

Being in love

Looking at a situation beyond your own limited viewpoint

Feeling inspired by someone or something

Being uplifted by scriptures (of whatever faith)

Showing faith and trust in a higher power

Asking God or your higher self for a solution and then letting go

Acting morally instead of selfishly

Objectivity:  If the ways of transcending are so many, why don’t we take advantage of them?  Habit plays its part. People keep repeating false solutions to the point where it is hard to see another way. The mechanisms of denial and repression are also powerful. People talk themselves into believing that they don’t have a problem or that their negativity is under control.  Yet at bottom there is a common denominator to all false solutions: lack of objectivity. You are overshadowed by your emotions, habits, conditioning, and hidden beliefs.  Instead of offering the road to freedom the inner world is a prison, and the only self that can be found is the shadow self, the part of you that holds on to fear, anger, trauma, revenge, jealousy, resentment, and a fascination with negativity in general.

It takes a degree of objectivity before you can face your problems. From the spiritual perspective, the shadow is a subtler aspect of the divided self.  Negativity has been pushed out of sight there; it remains quiescent until you disturb it, and then the negativity comes to the surface. This doesn’t mean that the shadow is your enemy. If it were, then the great sages and seers would advise us to fight back with all our might. The reason they don’t is that darkness can always find a way to return; the only way out is to go beyond darkness. In itself, that realization is a form of objectivity.

You are obtaining objectivity whenever any of the following occurs:

Seeking a new perspective from someone you trust

Seeing that your problem is repetitive—you’ve been here before

Realizing that you have experienced a clear space before and will again, because negativity comes and goes

Finding moments of calm and release

Laughing at yourself

Seeing yourself in somebody else’s situation

Trusting a trained therapist or counselor who has helped others in your situation

Giving up the illusion of being unique—others have experienced the same problems and overcome them

Joining a support group

Helping someone else to heal

Hope becomes real and not just an empty promise

Uncovering your inner power; renouncing helplessness and victimhood

Shifting:  Once you obtain a degree of objectivity, a road starts to open, and by following it, you begin to transcend. You leave the level of the problem on the way to the level of the solution.  Going beyond is natural, and as we saw, there are many ways to do it. The path to freedom comes down to repetition, not the old kind where you repeat the false solution over and over but a new kind, where you go beyond, in big and small ways, until you have trained yourself to respond to negativity as your own healer. There are forces inside you that exist to help you; you become your own guru when you learn how to call upon these forces.

We don’t need to use a mystical or religious vocabulary here. The forces I am referring to are aspects of your true self: love, optimism, compassion, kindness, non-judgment, tolerance, acceptance. All are imbedded in your awareness, and at one time or another everyone has experienced them, however fleetingly. To shift into healing, you need to direct these qualities toward yourself.  When you meet someone who suffers from a chronic problem, it’s inevitable that in their past they learned to judge against themselves. Once that happens, it is automatic to deny oneself the compassion and understanding that we would direct to strangers in distress. The divided self makes you a stranger to yourself. That is bad enough, but you also learn to hate and fear this stranger.  Spiritually, you cannot be a stranger to yourself, because in reality there is only you, a whole person who has always been on terms of loving intimacy. Shifting toward wholeness is how you take advantage of transcending. In other words, once you go beyond the level of negativity, you say, “This is my home. I have found out who I really am. I intend to be this person forever.” You stake a claim on wholeness rather than self-division.

You are shifting toward your true self whenever any of the following things occur:

Being kind to yourself

Understanding yourself without judgment

Letting go of old resentments and unpaid grudges

Healing your psychological wounds

Realizing that forgiveness is possible, especially forgiving yourself

Making peace with guilt and shame

No longer blaming yourself, or those who made you who you are

Releasing the past, living in the present

Ending toxic relationships

Seeking a wholesome emotional environment

Making a plan for a better future and sticking to it

Taking the wisdom of spiritual traditions seriously

Finding the courage to confront scary feelings, then releasing them

Learning to be alone; valuing what it is simply to be

Developing a greater vision of life

Defining a purpose that inspires you every day

Listening to the voice within; cultivating intuition and insight

Valuing your own uniqueness

Letting go of externals; no longer defining yourself by status, money, and possessions

Each of these points needs to be gone into deeply. You have a lifetime to do that. Our purpose here was to give an overview of the choices that face you. A menu isn’t the same as a meal. It is up to you to make your choices from the menu first.  Millions of people don’t even realize that false solutions and real solutions come down to choice, they feel trapped inside their old, habitual responses. When the ancient sages talk about waking up or seeing the light, in practical terms they are pointing to inner choices about how life should be lived.  Now you can see how to expand your choices.  Reality is much fuller than illusion. It offers openings every day to transcend, obtain objectivity, and shift out of your stuckness. This is spirit at work, and no other work is quite so fulfilling.

- .