Tagged: intellectual abilities
Consciousness and Motivation in a Spiritual Life
Many concepts which are supposed to help our rational being to understand things so we can self transform, several times are misunderstood when they are understood without experience and merely using our intellectual abilities to grasp them.
The battle between “free will” and “predestination” is just one of them.
Spirituality is not about intellectual understanding. Having a high IQ means nothing. In spirituality, our understanding will change as our consciousness changes. Openness of consciousness means greater understanding.
In simple words, a person without much ego; will have a different understanding than a person filled with ego.
A person without much ego will be able to sense that “his individuality” is an illusion of the mind for practical purposes. Life is a relationship. The “I” is nothing without that relationship. A person without much ego, will be able to sense the Unity of all, not as another concept, not as another label such as “omnipresence,” but as an experience of life.
As ego dissolves; then having “free will” or being predestined is no longer important for those concepts do not affect the only fact of BEING, those concepts only affect BEING when there is separation, when there is this idea of “individuality,” which exists only as much ego is displayed.
Then, my “effort” becomes important. Then, to “try hard,” to labor, to achieve, to strive are all words known by those struggling in the ego battle of “becoming better.”
When ego is left aside, the above mentioned words are no longer used. Then, we achieve by not trying, we make effort; when all effort has ceased…Paradoxes.
Why?
Because there is no “I” doing things.
In that process of seeing the “I” dissolve; there is a time when “I” need to be motivated so I do not forget to “make effort.”
Motivation becomes important, because it is the way to continue on in the Spiritual quest to self-transformation.
Many who have been involved in Spirituality, have left this path only because their motivation was lost.
When we lose our motivation to continue, carelessness arrives and with that “entropy,” which means that we will be going “back” to the old ways…
BapDada calls that motivation with 2 words: Zeal and Enthusiasm.
Without those (which I refer to as motivation) we will experience “darker days and nights,” we will experience that our purpose is gone. We will search for outside sources of motivation, such as being with the Spiritual family, the center, being busy in this and that, etc. All important items as long as there is no dependency.
Nevertheless, motivation, to be true; always comes from the inside.
As our consciousness increases, our motivation will increase as well. It cannot be otherwise, for seeing the “attainments” (As BapDada calls it) is an automatic boost to continue on.
Those attainments could be named with simple words: Experiencing the inner smile of super sensuous joy (bliss,) experiencing the light of being light in life and to finish this beautiful painting, with a bright smile in our faces.
The above cannot be “obtained” by making effort. It comes automatically as a reward of maintaining that inner motivation, as the prize of experiencing a different consciousness.
Continuous change
Life is change. Movement. Continuity.
Change is all-pervading. To hold onto something will be a source of suffering for that something will change.
Our bodies change. This is a tough realization for an athlete but not so much for a “normal” person. Different awareness. Different priorities.
Our surroundings change. The same people who we used to hang out with, will not be there. It is a matter of fact. A matter of time.
Our thoughts and ideas will change. They need to, for in that change there is the possibility for further change, further discoveries.
The truth is not a still picture. Something to hold on to, something to talk about, something to recite and to keep it unchanged. The truth cannot be a dogma.
Why?
Simply because it needs to fit life, the reality of living; and that is change in all respects.
Even what I am sharing, is not the “last word,” it cannot be. From the minute that it is put in writing, most of the truth behind the realization is gone; it cannot be put into words.
If I hold onto this realization with my intellectual abilities; If I continually recite that “the truth is that everything changes,” then; I am incurring in a greater falsehood, which is to conceptualize something that cannot be put into concepts, into ideas.
A shared realization is merely a point of reference to start a journey of self discovery. This article is just that, a point of reference.
If I hold on to something which will change and deposit my hopes and desires in that, I will suffer for sure.
Marriage is one of those situations where change happens and our ideas about the “other” will bring disillusionment once we realize that our ideas do not match “reality.” Then, we could say something like: “You changed. You weren’t like that when I met you.”
The picture, that still in our minds is the cause of that disillusion. Life is a movie not a picture.
To embrace that change without talking about it, to be in tune with the possibilities that things will not go according to our plans, is to be the unencumbered traveler of life, who is flexible enough to go where life goes.
It is not a question of finding who is “right or wrong.” It is about going along in unity, flowing and letting everyone find out for themselves where they are.
I am with change. I flow with change, I let life present the gifts that will allow me to understand me better; for living, in a way is nothing more but knowing ourselves; to realize that all the dramas of life are merely products of our own inability to let go; to flow.
Life seems like a “me” game; but it is not. There cannot be unity where there is only “me.” However; to know “me” is a necessity for that is all that I could ever hope to know. To know “me” means to know others. Then, there is flowing with life. “Me” goes away.
To know “me” so “me” can go away.
Attachment is a serious mental disease, once we realize that water must flow to be alive, to heal; to endure, to last.
To welcome life changes is a sure way to know how in tune we are with our destination.
To embrace our destiny as it is, requires to know ourselves; for then, we will know that nothing happens in life just for the “heck of it.” It happens because of “me.”
Exploring the Depth of Living 