"You don't have to become something, you are already a Buddha. The yoga practices chip away unnecessary things hiding the Buddha within." ~ Swami Satchidananda
So much of our lives we are aiming for something, directing our actions at some target. And when we stop aiming for material things such as security, a good job, a loving family, a nice home etc, often we start to dissect ourselves and look at ways to promote our mental or spiritual growth. Perhaps the last thing we think to examine or improve is our emotional life, the way we react to life's problems, vexations and stressors.
When we do pause to explore how we can improve our thoughts and feelings, our aims tend to be inward: 'I should be less angry, more patient, more tolerant, more forgiving. I shouldn't have said what I said...' We start to focus on those elements of our personality that we think most need changing or discarding. Unfortunately, since energy follows thought, (or for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction), the more we focus on our weaknesses and flaws, the more active they become until perhaps they take over our emotional life. The harder we try to control our feelings, the more it seems that aggravating situations arise to disturb us and corrupt our good intentions.
This is the time to remember what the Swami said above. We are already perfect in our deepest core, at our highest level. In our innermost being we are already resonating in tune with the Divine. Now we have to find ways to let that manifest.
We have to chip away at those accretions we have built up over a life time. Just as limpets cling to a rock or the hull of a boat, changing its shape, its dynamic, the way it reacts to the tides and currents, so do we have to dismantle all that's in us that hides the light.
We do this, as Dr Edward Bach - among others - has said, not by focusing on the fault or accretion but by developing the opposite emotion. Much of the Dalai Lama's teaching is about the development and evolving of our sense of compassion: something else that we've always had deep within us but which has been smothered by the accretions of the years.
By 'accretions', I mean all those emotional millstones, neuroses, defences and reactions we've built into our psyche since childhood. Not neccessarily the big abuses, but little things that we allow to build up - fear of being hurt, feeling rejected, unsuccessful, feeling a need to dominate, etc. How often have we thought of someone, 'S/he'd be such a nice person if only s/he didn't have this hang-up; or this antagonism; or this aggression.' We can see that accretion distorting and mal-colouring their whole lives, although the person can't see it for themselves. Is the same therefore true of ourselves as well?
We can't alter other people; we can only alter ourselves. We each have to find our own way to do it, the way that makes sense to us. The purpose - and beauty - of quotes is that one of them, somewhere and at some time,will strike such a chord in our heart that our soul leaps up to greet it. And the resulting resonance raises our vibration enough for us to recognize that yes! now! at long last, we must work to reveal our inner Buddha.
"Think of yourself as a precious, breathtaking pearl - and
this is your irritation phase." ~ Astro Twins
And see the Twitter account @S_Satchidananda
