Discovering Spirituality - Episode 4 Purity - Podcast Transcript
Is a life that is considered normal really abnormal? Does conforming to western social definitions of success really end up being successful?
When we look at how a successful lifestyle is achieved and what it is built from, can we truly say that this is successful? The image of success of course revolves around obtaining material wealth; you have the car, the house, the good looks, the holidays, the boat, the big TV and on and on.
We could say that the successful individual has intelligence, they have vision, determination and passion, which are to be commended. But are these virtues more about image or being seen with the appropriate milestones of success? They are for all intents and purposes social cliches.
What if there was another kind of success; what if you redefined you own success milestones that did not revolve around accumulating possessions?
For example, today you say to yourself "I will not lie", or "today I will be thankful for what I have", or "today, I will have respect for myself." What if you simply tried to get to know yourself? Are you happy with what you come to realize, can you become a better person?" Ask yourself if you rely on the opinions of other to validate how you feel about yourself?
Are you honest with yourself and others? Does how you speak create chaos or order? What makes you truly content and satisfied? Do you live your life in a state of selfishness or selflessness?
Ask yourself if the things you crave really do make you happy? Do they sustain your happiness? Are you capable of dealing with difficult situations? Does the world revolve around you?
These are just suggested starting points, alternatives to encourage you to dig deeper and to explore what really gives meaning to your life.
Purity of thought. being mindful of your thoughts. Are your thoughts focused on serving your own needs? Do you examine the trajectory of these thoughts to consider their outcome? Do you acre about any potential consequences or do you just right them off as just thoughts?
You may not feel that you need to be responsible for these thoughts because externally your outer appearance is one of respectability. But are you being honest, if an opportunity arose would you act upon your thoughts?
What drives you and motivates you? If you recognize yourself, who or what is looking back at you? What is the self that you experience?
A curious phenomenon, the human identity. We cannot truly see ourselves, but we experience ourselves, all the good and all the not so good. We even have the ability to control what we experience and perceive.
Even when you look at yourself as a reflection you cannot fully comprehend what is looking back at you because this is not the view you are most familiar with. When we embellish the external view we consciously welcome attention or recognition. But this is just the superficial exterior, the true being is an impression of the mind.
The mind is the origin of movement, speech, expression, emotions, thoughts, ideas and language. It is from within the mind that we will find the origins of desires, wants, identity and needs. Can you tell the difference between needs and desires, the primitive from the enlightened, the truth from lies, the honest from the dishonest?
Are you able to simply sit back and observe the phenomenon of the self? To examine the manifestation and to determine the origins of being as it is at that moment?
The mind is a massive data storage unit that is also capable of interpreting that data, but more importantly it is capable of expression and communication. Do you interpret that data without embellishment and comprehend it with truth? With all that data in the mind, the question is, do you understand it?
Most people live their lives based on assumptions, second hand information and a whole lot of misunderstanding due to their lack of effort. Humans, modern humans and fundamentally lazy and fail to make the necessary effort to increase their understanding, why?
Human nature and divine nature. The root of many a conflict. What I am and what I could be.
One might think that the path to true happiness is through denial and chastity, to be monastic and to shut oneself away from the world. This is often the misunderstood path to purity.
In order to understand life one must live, one must experience. It is from our life experience that we learn, or at least in theory. All too often we fall short because of fear or we cling stubbornly to what we think we know.
These mental patterns create barriers and prevent us from truly understanding our true nature. We identify with our thoughts to create our identity. We judge, we determine right from wrong. We create little boxes to contain what we learn without really exploring alternative possibilities. We confine and constrain ourselves to our human framework, relying solely on our human nature to define our human experience. We let our human nature dominate our urges, our desires, our thoughts.
After millions of years, the human being has developed a multitude or automatic responses to environmental and social conditions which are accepted as being acceptable without question.
Understanding the self is a combination of primitive behaviour and part experience. But through patient observation we can learn to tell the difference between the natural and the divine.
But what is the divine? The divine is the gentle hand of guidance, that inner feeling that helps us to correct, learn and move forward. But in order to learn we must understand. Understanding takes time to develop and an openness of thought. A willingness to think and to examine the cause and effect of our thoughts and actions.
The identity that we create and the drives to create an identity all too often leads to dissatisfaction, because it is an illusion. It is a thought manifested as being real.
Self worth, to move beyond diminishing ones self. To see value in our existence not as an accumulator of things or as a deliberately constructed identity. But as a being, a being of value. A being of love, one that works towards becoming. But how do we "become" a being or as an individual who is experiencing and who radiates love instead of ego?
We must first learn to understand ourselves. The components that make up the human being. One must observe the mind and understand its functions, to see it as it is.
man is quite unique because the human mind can observe itself and more importantly it can reprogram itself. The mind is composed of experience, memory, ideas, thought and learned behaviour. Patterns and frameworks are defines by experiential learning and thought. Conscious and subconscious ideas and perceptions can be combined in a multitude of different ways to create a multitude of different thoughts, behaviours and ideas.
The mind combined with the human will can manifest any reality it chooses, which can go unchecked for years. The mind defines the "I". the self, the representation of the identity, the mind can create.
But what about motivation and intention? Are you aware of your ability to manipulate, which results in the satisfying of needs and desires? Are need and desires the manifestation of conscious thought or primitive subconscious instincts?
Self worth and having the ability to create self worth (because it needs to be created, it does not just happen), requires honesty and understanding and a keen awareness of ones mental and cognitive direction.
Most, if not all, spiritual and religious concepts focus on teaching the individual how to recognize ones own cognitive dissonance and the consequences of ones failure to manage the mind.
The primitive mind is not to be ignored, instead it is to be understood, to be controlled, managed and tamed. When you extinguish the need to be and instead become you focus on how to nurture your own becoming. Your mind can be focused on how to become, to understand what it takes. Even trying to be a good person is an identity and false image because ones motivation and mind are focused on the outward expression instead of the inner. Success should never be the goal, understanding is far more rewarding.
Trying to be a good person until you reach a point when you do not even have to try. When goodness becomes natural, but trying is the first step. When you "try" to be a better person you know that in order to try you acknowledge that a change needs to be made, a course correction.
This might be an attitude, a thought or a behaviour. Whatever it is, to "try" is to exercise your freewill to create a new being. We can become consciously aware of who we are and willfully change to become something more, to discover more. This is like a car knowing it's a car and re-engineering its engine and shape to become faster and more aerodynamic. No other species on earth has that gift.
To take what is, and to reprogram it, to re-engineer it to the point where it can alter itself at the genetic level to reproduce an upgraded being, now that it a gift from God! To know that you can do that, to discover that ability is mind blowing. This goes beyond just knowing you can make a decision to execute an idea, this goes way beyond that.
To know you can observe your own mind, to understand its functions, behaviours and manifestations and to create new thoughts, new ideas, new behaviours from the same piece of hardware is a significant paradigm shift.
Imagine if this was known consciously and globally? Maybe it is know.
Through this observation we becomes consciously aware of our own duality. We can observe its complexities, its subtleties. You can understand them and change them, to create a better person.
And those were my thoughts on the writing Purity.
If you are interested in reading the writing from the book "The Light in Your Life is Spirit", you can download it from this link.
D.B 08/07/2019
When we look at how a successful lifestyle is achieved and what it is built from, can we truly say that this is successful? The image of success of course revolves around obtaining material wealth; you have the car, the house, the good looks, the holidays, the boat, the big TV and on and on.
We could say that the successful individual has intelligence, they have vision, determination and passion, which are to be commended. But are these virtues more about image or being seen with the appropriate milestones of success? They are for all intents and purposes social cliches.
What if there was another kind of success; what if you redefined you own success milestones that did not revolve around accumulating possessions?
For example, today you say to yourself "I will not lie", or "today I will be thankful for what I have", or "today, I will have respect for myself." What if you simply tried to get to know yourself? Are you happy with what you come to realize, can you become a better person?" Ask yourself if you rely on the opinions of other to validate how you feel about yourself?
Are you honest with yourself and others? Does how you speak create chaos or order? What makes you truly content and satisfied? Do you live your life in a state of selfishness or selflessness?
Ask yourself if the things you crave really do make you happy? Do they sustain your happiness? Are you capable of dealing with difficult situations? Does the world revolve around you?
These are just suggested starting points, alternatives to encourage you to dig deeper and to explore what really gives meaning to your life.
Purity of thought. being mindful of your thoughts. Are your thoughts focused on serving your own needs? Do you examine the trajectory of these thoughts to consider their outcome? Do you acre about any potential consequences or do you just right them off as just thoughts?
You may not feel that you need to be responsible for these thoughts because externally your outer appearance is one of respectability. But are you being honest, if an opportunity arose would you act upon your thoughts?
What drives you and motivates you? If you recognize yourself, who or what is looking back at you? What is the self that you experience?
A curious phenomenon, the human identity. We cannot truly see ourselves, but we experience ourselves, all the good and all the not so good. We even have the ability to control what we experience and perceive.
Even when you look at yourself as a reflection you cannot fully comprehend what is looking back at you because this is not the view you are most familiar with. When we embellish the external view we consciously welcome attention or recognition. But this is just the superficial exterior, the true being is an impression of the mind.
The mind is the origin of movement, speech, expression, emotions, thoughts, ideas and language. It is from within the mind that we will find the origins of desires, wants, identity and needs. Can you tell the difference between needs and desires, the primitive from the enlightened, the truth from lies, the honest from the dishonest?
Are you able to simply sit back and observe the phenomenon of the self? To examine the manifestation and to determine the origins of being as it is at that moment?
The mind is a massive data storage unit that is also capable of interpreting that data, but more importantly it is capable of expression and communication. Do you interpret that data without embellishment and comprehend it with truth? With all that data in the mind, the question is, do you understand it?
Most people live their lives based on assumptions, second hand information and a whole lot of misunderstanding due to their lack of effort. Humans, modern humans and fundamentally lazy and fail to make the necessary effort to increase their understanding, why?
Human nature and divine nature. The root of many a conflict. What I am and what I could be.
One might think that the path to true happiness is through denial and chastity, to be monastic and to shut oneself away from the world. This is often the misunderstood path to purity.
In order to understand life one must live, one must experience. It is from our life experience that we learn, or at least in theory. All too often we fall short because of fear or we cling stubbornly to what we think we know.
These mental patterns create barriers and prevent us from truly understanding our true nature. We identify with our thoughts to create our identity. We judge, we determine right from wrong. We create little boxes to contain what we learn without really exploring alternative possibilities. We confine and constrain ourselves to our human framework, relying solely on our human nature to define our human experience. We let our human nature dominate our urges, our desires, our thoughts.
After millions of years, the human being has developed a multitude or automatic responses to environmental and social conditions which are accepted as being acceptable without question.
Understanding the self is a combination of primitive behaviour and part experience. But through patient observation we can learn to tell the difference between the natural and the divine.
But what is the divine? The divine is the gentle hand of guidance, that inner feeling that helps us to correct, learn and move forward. But in order to learn we must understand. Understanding takes time to develop and an openness of thought. A willingness to think and to examine the cause and effect of our thoughts and actions.
The identity that we create and the drives to create an identity all too often leads to dissatisfaction, because it is an illusion. It is a thought manifested as being real.
Self worth, to move beyond diminishing ones self. To see value in our existence not as an accumulator of things or as a deliberately constructed identity. But as a being, a being of value. A being of love, one that works towards becoming. But how do we "become" a being or as an individual who is experiencing and who radiates love instead of ego?
We must first learn to understand ourselves. The components that make up the human being. One must observe the mind and understand its functions, to see it as it is.
man is quite unique because the human mind can observe itself and more importantly it can reprogram itself. The mind is composed of experience, memory, ideas, thought and learned behaviour. Patterns and frameworks are defines by experiential learning and thought. Conscious and subconscious ideas and perceptions can be combined in a multitude of different ways to create a multitude of different thoughts, behaviours and ideas.
The mind combined with the human will can manifest any reality it chooses, which can go unchecked for years. The mind defines the "I". the self, the representation of the identity, the mind can create.
But what about motivation and intention? Are you aware of your ability to manipulate, which results in the satisfying of needs and desires? Are need and desires the manifestation of conscious thought or primitive subconscious instincts?
Self worth and having the ability to create self worth (because it needs to be created, it does not just happen), requires honesty and understanding and a keen awareness of ones mental and cognitive direction.
Most, if not all, spiritual and religious concepts focus on teaching the individual how to recognize ones own cognitive dissonance and the consequences of ones failure to manage the mind.
The primitive mind is not to be ignored, instead it is to be understood, to be controlled, managed and tamed. When you extinguish the need to be and instead become you focus on how to nurture your own becoming. Your mind can be focused on how to become, to understand what it takes. Even trying to be a good person is an identity and false image because ones motivation and mind are focused on the outward expression instead of the inner. Success should never be the goal, understanding is far more rewarding.
Trying to be a good person until you reach a point when you do not even have to try. When goodness becomes natural, but trying is the first step. When you "try" to be a better person you know that in order to try you acknowledge that a change needs to be made, a course correction.
This might be an attitude, a thought or a behaviour. Whatever it is, to "try" is to exercise your freewill to create a new being. We can become consciously aware of who we are and willfully change to become something more, to discover more. This is like a car knowing it's a car and re-engineering its engine and shape to become faster and more aerodynamic. No other species on earth has that gift.
To take what is, and to reprogram it, to re-engineer it to the point where it can alter itself at the genetic level to reproduce an upgraded being, now that it a gift from God! To know that you can do that, to discover that ability is mind blowing. This goes beyond just knowing you can make a decision to execute an idea, this goes way beyond that.
To know you can observe your own mind, to understand its functions, behaviours and manifestations and to create new thoughts, new ideas, new behaviours from the same piece of hardware is a significant paradigm shift.
Imagine if this was known consciously and globally? Maybe it is know.
Through this observation we becomes consciously aware of our own duality. We can observe its complexities, its subtleties. You can understand them and change them, to create a better person.
And those were my thoughts on the writing Purity.
If you are interested in reading the writing from the book "The Light in Your Life is Spirit", you can download it from this link.
D.B 08/07/2019
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