How Self-Insight Advances
(from There is a Way Out by Vernon Howard)
“‘Tell us something about the process of self-enlightenment.’
“Happily, one insight leads to the next. See how uncomfortable you are with people and you see how you have unnecessarily made yourself their slave. See the need to stop pretending and you see how to end the fear of being found out. See how a wrong thought precedes a wrong action and you see how to stay out of wrong places.
“We need more of that kind of internal vigilance.”
***
Pieces of Gold from Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.”
“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.”
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place… to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
I spend my day reminding myself to stay on the right side of the fence. It boils down to choice!
I love the term Mr Howard uses, “Internal Vigilance”… That is so necessary for keeping to the High Road, where every turn is what it should be: an adventure in self discovery and self-fulfillment! I must be a professional thought-watcher, become fully responsible for what I latch onto. Thousands of impressions pass thru us each day, what is it that I pull into my ‘sphere’….I certainly did not create what is there, but the quality of my life is wholly determined by what my interest holds dear! Am I interested in appearing intelligent, or in getting the upper hand over my husband, winning the argument, or is Life for the discovery of something grandiose? Pure and regal taste is what is needed here! Become tired of the old and tired lifestyle. What opens is a vast meadow of fragrant and colorful flowers! I need more of that!
Every day, ever hour, in fact every second the mind is making noise. Chattering away with only one goal, which is to convince us that we have a self. Some “separate self” that need maintenance and protection. Doesn’t matter if we are a good self or a bad self, as long as we take the bait. Why?, so we can falsely believe that the world centers around us, but of coarse this opens the door to worry, crabbiness and complaint. We become these wonderful actors and actresses which we show the world, but inside we feel small and then suddenly switch and feel great. Only to find ourselves feeling small again. Enough! Being real is the only true coarse. Seeing yourself being unreal is the 1st step to becoming real. This work leads to nicer places within. Let’s go.
This morning when i went to get my water from the dispenser I noticed it was very low so i assessed how much i needed to fill it back up and proceeded to do so. Then like a wave, an insight washed over me that during that whole episode I had no emotion, no internal scream that someone else dropped the ball. There was nothing, just a feeling of calm. And i was astounded. I thanked God for taking one small bit of my false self and turning it to dust. These little insights will happen all the time if we can just stop thinking and reacting and just be observers.