Years ago, I moved to Oregon and to a house with multiple wood-burning stoves. Being from the city, I had no knowledge on how to start a fire. I failed many times. I had to learn all about kindling and the proper way to get a good fire burning. Before I knew it, I became very skilled at starting a fire. Having the right size of kindling and when to add wood and when not to add wood was important to my success or failure. It is so very interesting how one small spark can lead to a roaring fire. A fire provides warmth and a relaxing atmosphere, a wonderful sense of security.
Vernon Howard’s Teachings like any true teachings about how to become wise started with a spark. The spark was the realization within me that all could be different. My life had been an endless struggle of regrets and mistakes. I was sure that it was many bad breaks. The real problem was I never learned from my mistakes. This was a character flaw that I had to face. I’m so glad I did. I had to pass through 1000’s of mistakes and I’m so happy I did.
If you are wondering if you, the reader, can move from a frustrating life to a peaceful existence life, the answer is Yes! I don’t care how bad your life is right now you can find psychological tools that will help you to discover your present mistakes and your life will get fixed. Vernon’s books and talks will help you.
In an early Vernon Howard audio recording entitled “The Special Secret for Inner Success” (which can be found on Youtube), Howard reveals that your only problem in life is you, but only through your false sense of “self ,’ and that the only system that works is to be “nobody”, “selfless”. Being “nobody” allows your natural state of peace, fulfillment and contentment to prevail and spontaneous and appropriate behavior to occur naturally effortlessly and
from m0ment to moment without being blocked by insistent thoughts generating a false
sense of being a “self”, a “somebody.” Only those thoughts of self centered concern create the so called drama of life, the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” from flights of ephemeral elation to chronic depths of despair, and all are neutralized merely by the seeing that they are not generated by you, but by a foreign influence. It is not necessary to know where those detrimental thoughts are coming from, merely seeing their harmful nature is enough. You are not what generates those detrimental self delusive thoughts, but you are what can, by merely seeing them for what they are, end their influence. Being “selfless” is your natural state of being which is achieved by seeing what you are not, the product of a foreign thought generating influencer. Thank you Vernon Howard.
Yes, Vernon was and is a master at telling truth seekers what is wrong with them before telling them how to reach the High Life, the selfless existence as your post talks about. We are brought up on this planet to be very good actors and actresses to help us get what we think we want in life. Our performances happen all by themselves. There is an imposter in this process, which we believe is us. The contradiction of smiling on the outside while frowning on the inside is a condition/realization most will never face nor want to face. They are sure that there is nothing in this direction. Detecting this contradiction changes our daily experience and is much more important than we can conceive. We must decide we can’t live with our unhappiness. Suspecting there may be burdens presently unseen within ourselves is very heroic and freeing. It is like a man who owns a mansion but only lives in and knows of one small room. He never enjoys his full castle. Having a self to take through your day is a heavy burden with all the second-by-second maintenance. This is a whole lot of unfun. Vernon’s teachings give the psychological tools to detect and release these burdens by exposing them to the light. The Light fixes the problem, not you, not me. Simply, we don’t exist as we think we do. Therefore, we don’t have the problems we think we have. Great News!
Thank you Steve and Ramon for your very helpful posts. I listened to “The Special Secret for Inner Success” on youtube as recommended and it was pure gold. When Steve wrote “Having a self to take through your day is a heavy burden with all the second-by-second maintenance”…I felt the weight of that bottomless pit, false self, which I am always feeding with my attention and energy. Thank you Vernon Howard for showing me another way !
Glenda, Don’t thank me, thank Truth. I don’t exist as I have been brought up in this world to believe. We all live with pain-making imposters. Vernon maps out our escape and it requires a new kind of action.