Saturday, February 12, 2005

Humility and Realism

There are a number of ways of loving yourself. In some important ways, you do already love yourself. But in other areas of your life, selflove needs more cultivation. We are all and always unconsciously motivated to think that we have completed our Journey. But this is always delusion and ignorance. We need to continue to work maximally on ourselves, erasing and erasing until only the pure, bright, egoless state remains.

If you really believe that you are "better" than others, this is a clue as to where you can start in your spiritual journey. For possibly the most indispensable part of the Journey is humility. The humble person does not see herself as less than others, but she takes every precaution never to regard herself as superior, either. Her secret: Most of the time, she just does not even think about selfevaluation. It is the furthest thing from her mind!

A practice that helps here is called "Ifree." In this experiential spiritual practice, you go as long as possible without using the words "I,," "me," "my," or "mine." Try sincerely and often to practice this, and you will find your mind more often opening up to the great treasures of Love, compassion, and other-centeredness.

You are also still stuck in the illusion that God should "reward" you in the material world. It is not known how this can be stated more clearly, but:

GOD DOES NOT "REWARD" PEOPLE WITH MONEY OR MATERIAL THINGS.

The rewards of God are Love, joy, peace, compassion, bliss, tranquillity.
He gives us fulfillment, satisfaction, and contentment.

The economic and relationship structures of our lives he leaves up to our free will. This is where lifedesign comes in. There is no advantage, no virtue, in poverty. God wants us to walk the Middle Way in every part of our lives, avoiding extremes. Try not to go too far to the right, or to the left. (One pole is greed, the other poverty.)

Keep in mind that if God gives you the grace to think about Him, as an act of free grace, that does not make you "better" than anyone else. The hunger for God is Love wanting Love; it is not anything that we do personally, for which we should seek credit-- much less, reward.

If, in everything that you do, you put Love first and foremost, you will absolutely and inevitably succeed!:)

1 comment:

VirusHead said...

Ifree is very difficult! Whew!