Do you feel anxious and overwhelmed by day-to-day life? Are you looki
ng for a greater sense of personal fulfilment?
The constant demands of our fast-paced modern lives means we often feel overwhelmed, stressed and under pressure. You Can Find Inner Peace is a simple, easy-to-use guide designed to help you achieve a more balanced way of living
The inner temple
The forgotten spirit is constantly searching: for identity, self-worth and truth, amonth other things. ‘Who am I?’ is one of the fundamental questions we need to ask ourselves is we are to rediscover inner peace. We may not immediately define the answer, but we can begin, initially, to move toward self-knowledge by recognizing what we are not.
We are not our bodies, and we are not essentially any of our roles in life–partner, friend, sportsplayer, and so on. Some of our roles are important, others less so. But the fundamental reality lies somewhere deep inside ourselves, and is unaltered by the choices we make–to follow one profession rather than another, to marry, to have children, to canvass for votes in local politics, or to cycle to work.
The spirit or self is the precious thing that, we uniquely, are. To live a fully satisfying and purposeful life, we need only become fully acquainted with this inner ‘I’, to realize our true self and to understand and use the real extent of our energy.
Defining identity
How do I see and experience myself?
This is a fundamental question, to which many of us in the modern world tend to give wrong answers. We have fallen asleep to a true awareness of self and we define ourselves by the external rather than the internal. We are programmed to identify ourselves with things that we are not: our physical form (obsession with appearance); our job (with action); our worth in relation to others (with status); our material possessions (with surfaces).
In reality we are not these incidentals of fortune or choice, but the energy of consciousness that they clothe. We are neither the sum of our memories, nor of our relationships with others. These factors are closer to the truth, because they offer a unique profile formed from others ‘claims to ‘know’ us. If we have lived responsibly and creatively, our past and our relationships will be precious to us, and they will provide a picture of our lives to others. Yet these things are like a comet, making a bright, beautiful arc in the night sky. We are the fiery heart of the comet, the animating energy. We are the spirit that animates the body: identity and spirit are synonymous.
[bluebox] Spirit is self, and its highest expression are the radiant spiritual qualities of peace, love, truth, power and happiness.[/bluebox]
Once truly absorved, this realization is liberating.
Sovereignity of the self
Spiritual growth is a process of learning how to become the rulers of our own internal universe. We can measure our progress by the mastery we have over our thoughts, feelings, needs and decisions.
If we awaken to the truth that spirit is what constitutes us all, and live by that truth, we enjoy the confidence that whatever external factors put pressure on us, we remain vital and creative, and our essential nature cannot be changed.
Mind (self-experience and creativity), intellect (analysis and discernment), personality (habitual behavior patterns) and the senses (messengers to spirit) may be considered the four ministers within the self’s court. To rule ourselves effectively, we take advice and evidence from each of them.
Responsability
Freedom and responsability are like the two sides of an arch leaning in upon each other, with a truthful self-image acting as the central keystone. Unless we are free, in the sense of being able to do and say what we believe in, rather than being determined by others, responsability means nothing but conformity.
Conversely, unless we are responsible, and live by our belief in what is right, our freedom is an indulgence–wasted, because it will bring us nothing of worth. Taking responsability for ourselves frees us from the false dictates of society. Freedom is the only medium in which we can live virtuously.
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omplement You Can Find Inner Peace with What Tibet Can Teach the West about Self-Worth.
