Such is the influence of our past. Is that not a severe judgement?? Looking from a soul-conscious perspective and from what we have understood about the make-up of the soul, ie, that it accumulates a residue of past actions, there are influences on all of us that makes it difficult to simply do good all the time. An obvious example might be if I commit a crime, let’s say theft, it may seem inconsequential but if I’m successful and manage to avoid instant repercussions it could easily become a habit. The motivation for wrong doing is not corrected but instead ‘rewarded’ and thereby reinforced so that if another opportunity presents itself, I readily take it. The example of theft is given only because it’s universally accepted to be a ‘wrong-doing’. Now replace that example with something more nuanced or perhaps somewhat more socially acceptable, let’s say anger or aggression. OK, you won’t go to jail for that necessarily unless it’s accompanied by violence but something else will happen. Your intellect after sometime will get locked up. In the same way that we feel uplifted when we help someone in need, there is also a subtle self hatred when we do something against our own good nature. We get distracted and busy and after a while the event disappears from our conscious mind - not from the subconscious though. It’s there in the form of a slight stain or film that dims the inner light of awareness. Over a period of time, our judgement gets clouded and reduced. We lose the ability to negotiate our way successfully through life much less to do it with ease. It’s dangerous to drive a car if you can’t see clearly through the windscreen. Something similar can happen to our inner vision. The intellect, whose function is to discriminate, understand and guide our decisions, gradually loses some of its clarity. We become less able to distinguish between what is genuinely beneficial and what merely satisfies an immediate desire or emotional impulse. And here we encounter a particularly interesting development.
The intellect, which should guide our behaviour, can gradually become occupied with justifying it. Having reached a point of low self esteem or perhaps desperation, we now resort to blaming anyone else for our sorry situation. We have to start noticing our own weaknesses and taking account of them if we want our situation to change. Instead of asking whether our anger was necessary, we begin explaining why the other person deserved it. Instead of recognising dishonesty, we call it being practical. Selfishness becomes looking after ourselves. Resentment becomes a perfectly reasonable response to the injustices we believe we have suffered. Our weaknesses acquire respectable explanations.
The danger is that repeated justification can eventually make a weakness appear to be a perfectly normal part of our personality. We no longer recognise it as something that needs attention.
And if we cannot recognise a weakness, how are we going to change it? The greatest danger is not that we lose our way, but that we lose the ability to recognise that we are lost.
So, what’s the solution? Meditation can indeed lift us out of this zone. However, the intellect is required to be in working order to achieve this outcome. We may not be able to see clearly through a dirty windscreen, but recognising that our vision is impaired is already the beginning of seeing more clearly. We don't need to repair the intellect before beginning meditation. The initial willingness to reflect becomes the starting point for its restoration. Stage one would be a reflection on the true nature and identity of the self. One needs to recognise our own inherent goodness. That capacity can indeed be increased and does increase as you progress. As our understanding of the self deepens, answers to other questions in life may begin to emerge with greater clarity. Rather than continually searching outside ourselves for solutions, we develop the ability to recognise them from within, testing their value through experience. c jHow much of a leap of faith is it? The risk of an unfavourable outcome is almost zero. The simple basis of inner change is taking advice in good faith. In any case, we are developing depth to our thinking which makes us challenge any assumptions. That’s part of the process. If it works, it works. In reality, you don’t need to put extra time aside for the practice. You may like to though as you progress and begin to enjoy it’s benefits.
So, the Who am I? question underpins the practice of meditation. Answer this question and you will have answers and solutions to many more unsolved riddles in your life. Because those answers arise spontaneously from within, you will naturally feel the truth behind them. The practice of soul-consciousness is not only gratifying in an emotional or spiritual awareness sense but practical in showing you a path in which you can free yourself from everyday complications in life. The value of the practice can be assessed through personal experience rather than unquestioning belief. The faculties through which we have complicated our lives are the very faculties through which we can learn to restore their simplicity. Now make a start.
