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Qualify Yourself
from Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge by Vernon Howard
The need to ‘let go’ is so fundamental to the inner adventure you should remind yourself of it often. Just realize the necessity of abandoning whatever does no good, such as painful memories. Who would refuse to do that? It is a startling thought, but can you imagine anyone refusing to drop the useless and the burdensome? Man refuses. We know why. His peculiar logic takes the useless as a necessary item for survival. He rarely asks, ‘But what kind of survival is it?’ He just sits and suffers from his peculiar logic.
An athlete wishing to win the game must qualify himself by abandoning activities which interfere with his performance on the field. Qualify yourself for self-conquest by letting go of whatever you sense must be dropped, perhaps resistance to a guiding fact.
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We as humans love to hold onto our sad states and will fight to protect them because we believe it makes us powerful and existing as an entity which is real. It’s ‘Total imagination’ which anyone can prove for himself by being interested in his states of mind. It is not easy to separate from habitual sad states because they feel so right and normal to us. But ask anyone else and if they are honest with you they will tell you to get rid of those states asap. Self abandonment is very healthy for the person and those around that person.
Seems strange to think that we love what’s hurting us, but we do. Years ago, after a close friend of mine died, I suffered continually thinking about it and was caught in a vicious cycle of pain. Then one fantastic day I noticed thoughts saying, “If you don’t feel sad then you don’t really care about that person.” I knew that was a lie and saw how ridiculous the whole process was. At that moment I was able to let those painful thoughts go. I never suffered again over that person.
Abandonment ~Nisargadatta.
You need not get at it, for you ARE it. It will get at you, if you give it a chance. Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own. Stop imagining yourself being or doing this or that and the realisation that you are the source and heart of all will dawn upon you. With this will come great love which is not choice or predilection, nor attachment, but a power which makes all things love-worthy and lovable.
I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self. Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence.
The way back to your self is through refusal and rejection.
All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define your self. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions.
We discover it [Self] by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.