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Self Remembering How do you become conscious of your Self - that is, your true or spiritual self? By Peter Shepherd |
| Heal your Heart - Love your Body - Live your Joy! Simply Stunning! Healing Meditations 3 guided meditations on one CD. Access higher wisdom, intuition and insights. Change habits, activate healing energies and free yourself from emotional trauma. Beautifully and expertly scripted and backed by Mike Rowlands amazing Fairy Ring music. Click CD's for more info. |
Negative emotions and all habits require 'identification' or they cease to exist.
Thus when you cease to identify, by self-remembering, your habits will drop
away - they have been exposed. You have differentiated yourself from them.
Habits cannot be stopped by willpower, they can only be erased by
self-knowledge.
Religious doctrines like the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule are
therefore quite impossible for the normal human being to follow. Habits of
mechanicalness will always cause people to violate codes of law and moral
rules. Only self-knowledge can direct you to living the 'right life' and you will not
need written rules, codes or commandments, you will function intuitively and
spontaneously, naturally from Love. This is true freedom without license.
A major self-imposed problem is to identify with objects (including people) and
in turn become 'possessed' by them. Since things wear out, decay and die, a
person becomes bereaved whenever he loses the objects of his affection. This
goes further, he begins to regard himself as a 'thing' which must eventually wear
out, decay and die.
Identification with people occurs when you constantly worry what people will
think about you, if you are liked or disliked, what someone else will do or say in
a given situation, and so on. This can quickly become an obsession of worry,
doubt, suspicion, blame, resentment and guilt feelings. Emotion of this sort is the
main factor that keeps the spiritual being attached and unaware in a fixed
identification with the human body-mind.
A primary cause of identification occurs when a harmful action is deliberately or
accidentally committed, or a good deed omitted, and the resulting sympathy
causes an identification with the victim. The compulsion to make self right, may
then cause a reversal of this, sometimes almost immediately, and the victim is
made wrong, and the act is considered deserved. But the sympathy
identification, though suppressed, continues to have effect subconsciously. One
is then caught in an internal conflict of identification.
The only reason we humans aren't at peace within ourselves is because we've
gotten caught up in the erroneous belief that things must be "right or wrong."
This creates judgment, which creates guilt. The usual human response to guilt is
projection - putting it onto the other - in an attempt to get rid of the guilt. This,
of course, doesn't work, but it does start wars and keeps people from feeling
peaceful. If we stop seeing things through the eyes of the right vs. wrong
comparison, we stop judging and stop trying to justify our negative feelings and
actions. We stop wars and feel peace.
You should know that: no-one can effect you but your own thinking; it is your
own mind that keeps you in bondage; no-one can ever make you angry but
your own thoughts; all anguish is self-inflicted and self-imposed; no-one can
make you worry but yourself.
It is impossible to do anything to you - the actual You - at any time; it is always
your beliefs and decisions that affect you. Thus only you suffer from holding
grudges, hatreds, resentments or revengefulness. No-one has ever affected you
but your own thoughts. No-one has caused you to be frightened, angry, hurt or
happy but your own mind, because if you didn't identify in your own mind with
what was said or done to you, you would not have been affected in the least.
This is one of the most difficult facets of existence to perceive, but once
perceived, its worth becomes priceless. Understanding this is the way to
ultimate freedom.
Go back over today events and relive as many experiences as you can
remember. Take each memory separately and see that it was your own thinking
that caused you to feel hurt, happy, angry and so forth. Keep re-feeling the
experience until you free everyone in the scene of responsibility for affecting
you. Then reverse the process, and be sure that you yourself do not assume
responsibility for another's feelings because in like manner, it was their
identification in their mind with what you said or did that affected them and not
you.
The Gnosis or knowledge you release (for you always knew it) will not
immediately make you more comfortable or secure. In fact, it is painful at times,
because you will be aware of your false identities, your facades, your defense
mechanisms, your silliness, your viciousness, and your primitive self, perhaps for
the first time. But persist for you are recovering a genuine identity that no-one
can take away from you. Your security and comfort will gradually be found in
your change from a pseudo-self to a permanent harmonious Self that is
objective and unlimited in scope.
Peter Shepherd is a transpersonal psychologist living in France. He runs the
personal development website Tools for Transformation, which includes many
resources for transformation of body, mind and spirit - including his full book
'Transforming the Mind' available freely online and for PDF download, and a
popular free weekly newsletter. For details of these and much more please click
here... http://www.trans4mind.com/
www.reinventingmyself.com/peter_shepherd4.html
Thus when you cease to identify, by self-remembering, your habits will drop
away - they have been exposed. You have differentiated yourself from them.
Habits cannot be stopped by willpower, they can only be erased by
self-knowledge.
Religious doctrines like the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule are
therefore quite impossible for the normal human being to follow. Habits of
mechanicalness will always cause people to violate codes of law and moral
rules. Only self-knowledge can direct you to living the 'right life' and you will not
need written rules, codes or commandments, you will function intuitively and
spontaneously, naturally from Love. This is true freedom without license.
A major self-imposed problem is to identify with objects (including people) and
in turn become 'possessed' by them. Since things wear out, decay and die, a
person becomes bereaved whenever he loses the objects of his affection. This
goes further, he begins to regard himself as a 'thing' which must eventually wear
out, decay and die.
Identification with people occurs when you constantly worry what people will
think about you, if you are liked or disliked, what someone else will do or say in
a given situation, and so on. This can quickly become an obsession of worry,
doubt, suspicion, blame, resentment and guilt feelings. Emotion of this sort is the
main factor that keeps the spiritual being attached and unaware in a fixed
identification with the human body-mind.
A primary cause of identification occurs when a harmful action is deliberately or
accidentally committed, or a good deed omitted, and the resulting sympathy
causes an identification with the victim. The compulsion to make self right, may
then cause a reversal of this, sometimes almost immediately, and the victim is
made wrong, and the act is considered deserved. But the sympathy
identification, though suppressed, continues to have effect subconsciously. One
is then caught in an internal conflict of identification.
The only reason we humans aren't at peace within ourselves is because we've
gotten caught up in the erroneous belief that things must be "right or wrong."
This creates judgment, which creates guilt. The usual human response to guilt is
projection - putting it onto the other - in an attempt to get rid of the guilt. This,
of course, doesn't work, but it does start wars and keeps people from feeling
peaceful. If we stop seeing things through the eyes of the right vs. wrong
comparison, we stop judging and stop trying to justify our negative feelings and
actions. We stop wars and feel peace.
You should know that: no-one can effect you but your own thinking; it is your
own mind that keeps you in bondage; no-one can ever make you angry but
your own thoughts; all anguish is self-inflicted and self-imposed; no-one can
make you worry but yourself.
It is impossible to do anything to you - the actual You - at any time; it is always
your beliefs and decisions that affect you. Thus only you suffer from holding
grudges, hatreds, resentments or revengefulness. No-one has ever affected you
but your own thoughts. No-one has caused you to be frightened, angry, hurt or
happy but your own mind, because if you didn't identify in your own mind with
what was said or done to you, you would not have been affected in the least.
This is one of the most difficult facets of existence to perceive, but once
perceived, its worth becomes priceless. Understanding this is the way to
ultimate freedom.
Go back over today events and relive as many experiences as you can
remember. Take each memory separately and see that it was your own thinking
that caused you to feel hurt, happy, angry and so forth. Keep re-feeling the
experience until you free everyone in the scene of responsibility for affecting
you. Then reverse the process, and be sure that you yourself do not assume
responsibility for another's feelings because in like manner, it was their
identification in their mind with what you said or did that affected them and not
you.
The Gnosis or knowledge you release (for you always knew it) will not
immediately make you more comfortable or secure. In fact, it is painful at times,
because you will be aware of your false identities, your facades, your defense
mechanisms, your silliness, your viciousness, and your primitive self, perhaps for
the first time. But persist for you are recovering a genuine identity that no-one
can take away from you. Your security and comfort will gradually be found in
your change from a pseudo-self to a permanent harmonious Self that is
objective and unlimited in scope.
Peter Shepherd is a transpersonal psychologist living in France. He runs the
personal development website Tools for Transformation, which includes many
resources for transformation of body, mind and spirit - including his full book
'Transforming the Mind' available freely online and for PDF download, and a
popular free weekly newsletter. For details of these and much more please click
here... http://www.trans4mind.com/
www.reinventingmyself.com/peter_shepherd4.html
Self-Remembering
How do you become conscious of your Self - that is, your true or spiritual
self, rather than just your inner speech and the voices in your head replayed
from the past? Direct conscious effort is necessary. You become more
conscious just by asking yourself, "What am I conscious of right now?' Also,
"What feelings am I creating right now?" These expose that our actions, and
the emotions that drive them, actually relate to self-talk, i.e. compulsive
thinking, often just below the level of consciousness.
Just asking these questions will make you temporarily conscious, but probably
you will not be able to keep it going, your mind will become absorbed in
something else and you will forget yourself. You must realize during your
self-observation that you are present, that you are here, in the present
moment. As you persist in self-remembering, your moments of consciousness
as Self will become increasingly longer and you will forget your Self
increasingly less.
What do you observe? Begin by watching your actions, reactions, responses
and behavior. Be like 'another person' looking at your human mind in
operation. At first this will be very difficult to do but as you practice, it will
become progressively easier and eventually stable.
Continue by observing your posture, listening to your speech, observing how
much you talk, listening to the tone of your voice, i.e. the 'way' you say
something. Observe how you automatically assume certain attitudes with some
people, and different attitudes with others, i.e. how you (normally)
unconsciously switch identities and play different roles with different people.
Watch all of your emotions, observe your mind wandering aimlessly in pure
fantasy. Observe how certain words by certain people trigger reactions in you
that you (normally) cannot control. Watch your defense mechanisms, your
justifications, your rationalizations, your pet superstitions, your favorite
criticisms, and so forth. You are now starting to become conscious of your
unconsciousness, and thereby bringing it into consciousness.
Normally people erroneously assume that they are constantly one and the
same person. However, as you begin to observe yourself, you find this is not
true. You assume many different I's and each 'I' manifests itself as a role that
you play corresponding to one set of conditions, i.e. you assume different
roles with different people and in different circumstances. One role with your
parents, another with your children, a loved one, at the corner store, at the
theater, in sports, under stress, when threatened, when praised, when jilted,
and so on. You seldom, if ever, notice these differences or how you pass from
one role to another. The change of roles or 'personality masks' is always
controlled by circumstances, rather than you self-determinedly choosing an
appropriate way of being. It is the unconsciousness or compulsion that we are
trying to expose. Freely adopting appropriate ways of being, for example, to
match the reality of the people you are with or the game you are playing, is a
necessary social skill and all part of the fun and variety of life.
The illusion of 'oneness' or belief that you are always the same is created by
always having the sensation of one physical body, the same name, the same
physical habits and so forth; and also by the illusion that each identity is right.
After all, you are always 'right', aren't you? And the same rightness - your safe
solution to the circumstances you are in - gives the illusion of the same identity.
By self-observation, you will catch yourself lying. Lying occurs when you
pretend to know something when in actuality you do not. People pretend to
possess all kinds of knowledge: about themselves, about God, about life and
death, about the universe, about evolution, about politics, about sex, about
everything. In fact, people do not even know who or what they are. Even
when he or she has no choice and is controlled in life like 'a reed in the wind',
a person will lie to himself that he is self-willed, knows himself and is in control
of his destiny. You imagine these things to please yourself, and shortly after
you begin to believe them.
As you self-observe, you find that you identify with everything - you
emotionalize 24 hours a day. Some people take pride in their irritability, anger
or worry. It is extremely difficult to perceive that you actually enjoy negative
emotions. Books, movies, TV and popular songs glorify negative emotions
such as anger, fear, guilt, boredom, disgust, irritation, hatred, jealousy,
suspicion, self-pity, sympathy, depression, etc. Many people are controlled by
the expression of negative emotions. But negative emotions are purely
mechanical - done without awareness or consciousness - and serve no useful
purpose whatsoever. For example, it is hard to be angry or fearful when you
are conscious, as to be conscious you naturally assume your true state of
being, which is loving, without judgmental qualification.
How do you become conscious of your Self - that is, your true or spiritual
self, rather than just your inner speech and the voices in your head replayed
from the past? Direct conscious effort is necessary. You become more
conscious just by asking yourself, "What am I conscious of right now?' Also,
"What feelings am I creating right now?" These expose that our actions, and
the emotions that drive them, actually relate to self-talk, i.e. compulsive
thinking, often just below the level of consciousness.
Just asking these questions will make you temporarily conscious, but probably
you will not be able to keep it going, your mind will become absorbed in
something else and you will forget yourself. You must realize during your
self-observation that you are present, that you are here, in the present
moment. As you persist in self-remembering, your moments of consciousness
as Self will become increasingly longer and you will forget your Self
increasingly less.
What do you observe? Begin by watching your actions, reactions, responses
and behavior. Be like 'another person' looking at your human mind in
operation. At first this will be very difficult to do but as you practice, it will
become progressively easier and eventually stable.
Continue by observing your posture, listening to your speech, observing how
much you talk, listening to the tone of your voice, i.e. the 'way' you say
something. Observe how you automatically assume certain attitudes with some
people, and different attitudes with others, i.e. how you (normally)
unconsciously switch identities and play different roles with different people.
Watch all of your emotions, observe your mind wandering aimlessly in pure
fantasy. Observe how certain words by certain people trigger reactions in you
that you (normally) cannot control. Watch your defense mechanisms, your
justifications, your rationalizations, your pet superstitions, your favorite
criticisms, and so forth. You are now starting to become conscious of your
unconsciousness, and thereby bringing it into consciousness.
Normally people erroneously assume that they are constantly one and the
same person. However, as you begin to observe yourself, you find this is not
true. You assume many different I's and each 'I' manifests itself as a role that
you play corresponding to one set of conditions, i.e. you assume different
roles with different people and in different circumstances. One role with your
parents, another with your children, a loved one, at the corner store, at the
theater, in sports, under stress, when threatened, when praised, when jilted,
and so on. You seldom, if ever, notice these differences or how you pass from
one role to another. The change of roles or 'personality masks' is always
controlled by circumstances, rather than you self-determinedly choosing an
appropriate way of being. It is the unconsciousness or compulsion that we are
trying to expose. Freely adopting appropriate ways of being, for example, to
match the reality of the people you are with or the game you are playing, is a
necessary social skill and all part of the fun and variety of life.
The illusion of 'oneness' or belief that you are always the same is created by
always having the sensation of one physical body, the same name, the same
physical habits and so forth; and also by the illusion that each identity is right.
After all, you are always 'right', aren't you? And the same rightness - your safe
solution to the circumstances you are in - gives the illusion of the same identity.
By self-observation, you will catch yourself lying. Lying occurs when you
pretend to know something when in actuality you do not. People pretend to
possess all kinds of knowledge: about themselves, about God, about life and
death, about the universe, about evolution, about politics, about sex, about
everything. In fact, people do not even know who or what they are. Even
when he or she has no choice and is controlled in life like 'a reed in the wind',
a person will lie to himself that he is self-willed, knows himself and is in control
of his destiny. You imagine these things to please yourself, and shortly after
you begin to believe them.
As you self-observe, you find that you identify with everything - you
emotionalize 24 hours a day. Some people take pride in their irritability, anger
or worry. It is extremely difficult to perceive that you actually enjoy negative
emotions. Books, movies, TV and popular songs glorify negative emotions
such as anger, fear, guilt, boredom, disgust, irritation, hatred, jealousy,
suspicion, self-pity, sympathy, depression, etc. Many people are controlled by
the expression of negative emotions. But negative emotions are purely
mechanical - done without awareness or consciousness - and serve no useful
purpose whatsoever. For example, it is hard to be angry or fearful when you
are conscious, as to be conscious you naturally assume your true state of
being, which is loving, without judgmental qualification.
| Heal your Heart, Love your Body and Live your Joy! Click the book cover to find out more. |
| EBook also available for only $8 |
