Many aspirants have the naive belief that all will be well on the spiritual path if they just do the work they are told to do, even if they don’t really want to do it. That attitude is not sufficient. Your service to the Divine has to come from the heart. You have to give it your all and it has to be selfless. That is often not easy. The pearl of Higher Consciousness is a pearl of great price. Do not ever assume that you can have it for nothing, or for very little effort, when you are overloaded with karma caused by vanity, pride, selfishness, or self-importance.
Look at all your personality aspects, count them, and examine them. You may find you have a great many that need to be eradicated with the help of your spiritual practice before you can have any expectations about Higher Consciousness.
One of these aspects may be criticalness. Find out where your criticalness is. Find out what you do with it, and where you join criticalness to judgment. You must overcome criticalness, because you cannot have the pearl of Higher Consciousness unless there is great sincerity in your directed self-will to forgive. There is no forgiveness for you if you won’t forgive others. In the New Testament, Jesus said people have to forgive seventy times seven. That is a lot of forgiveness, but you can’t want forgiveness for yourself and still be highly critical of everybody else.
Spiritual life cannot be lived in naiveté. You have to grow up. If there is a little boy in the man, or a little girl in the woman, who throws tantrums, that immature part has to grow up. There are no exceptions; everyone has something of that nature within. Try to become aware of that aspect, and be ruthless when it throws tantrums. A large part of this immature aspect is the ego, which wants to have its own way. Destroy that ego. Destroy vanity. Destroy pride.
How do you destroy ego? Don’t fight it. If you fight it, matters will only become worse. What you can do is subdue it. You can command it: “Out! Don’t you dare interfere!” Say that to all the things that go on in the mind. Then immediately either switch to the mantra or focus on the inner Light. Later you can give time to this aspect in yourself as you would to a child who throws a tantrum. Ask it, “What do you have to say?”
That part of you which throws tantrums must not be allowed to make demands or to command your actions. Make sure you carry this out. That immature aspect in yourself will do everything it can to manipulate you, just like a person having a tantrum. Don’t be moved by its tears. In this way, you can finally get rid of those interfering personality aspects and then you will begin to focus on that inner Light that is your true being.
You can do the same thing with other personality aspects. When a particular one comes to the foreground, ask yourself, “If this were a person, how would I deal with him or her? What would I say to this person?” If you try to comfort and cuddle or soft-pedal that aspect in yourself, you are refusing to deal with that which wants to destroy your spiritual life. Make the choice to give power to that spiritual aspect which brings you to the spiritual path. Then that spiritual being, your Higher Self, will have control.
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