The basic core of all true spiritual teachings is that the inner determines the outer. What this timeless idea means to us is that what we receive from life -- our experience of self in life -- is determined by how we perceive events. And how we see life is determined, each moment, by what we are looking at it through.
There are many times when we believe we see the world aright but fail to see that our view of the world has been colored; compromised, without our knowing it. A simple example of this internal dynamic, and how it colors our world, is seen in those moments when we're in a dark state of mind. No matter how bright the day, all we see around us is gloom and doom. That's why until we realize this inner relationship between those parts of ourselves perceiving life and our experience as a result of their unconscious interplay, we'll just keep seeing our stressful condition as something brought to bear upon us by a dark and uncaring world around us.
What's required of us is a whole new self-understanding. We must learn what it means to reach for a whole new place within ourselves; to find and stand upon a higher ground from where it's possible to see that our present thoughts and feelings reveal only a fraction of the whole of our possible experience -- instead of being what now defines our whole world for us through their conditioned and incomplete perception of it.
Reversing this unconscious condition in ourselves is both the purpose and the plan of the timeless truth. Insights and higher knowledge are its tools. Our task is be receptive and willing; to be open to what is trying to reach us and teach us about the truth of ourselves, and to accept the inner responsibility these timeless lessons reveal as being good and necessary for our freedom. As this higher receptivity and responsibility are united within us, a new destiny is forged for us. Its direction becomes one great power headed upward! Now let's learn how we might bring this power's promise to bear in our individual lives.
Have you ever heard yourself say, "What in the name of heaven was that all about?" and you were asking yourself what you had just done? Or along the same lines, "What on earth was I thinking?" when it became clear you weren't thinking at all! Then there's always, "How could I have been so stupid? So blind?" Or -- you fill in the blanks.
It's more than clear there are many times when we act out behaviors that, while seeming right to us at the time, are later found to be all wrong for us and everyone else unfortunate enough to have been caught up in our misguided choices. But how do such blunders take place, knowing that no one would consciously choose to defeat himself?
The simple answer is that we don't see what's actually before us. We are temporarily blinded, but not in the sense of having no vision. Our momentary blindness is to our own conditioned nature as it supplies us with its view of reality; one that we mistakenly accept as being ours; an error that can only be corrected by becoming more and more aware of the actual nature of our own internal workings. To see where we have been deceived -- after the fall -- is one thing. But learning to see how we're being fooled -- right in the act of it -- brings an end to both the fool and the fall brought on by his foolishness.
Have you seen this condition in yourself? That in a given "unwanted" event, because of some unpleasant past personal experience with others like it, a certain part of yourself rushes to the front and assumes command? In short, first these reactions define the moment and then rule the direction of all those that follow in its breaking wake.
First came the so-called disturbance; that cruel remark made by some thoughtless person, or news of whatever nature it takes to "shake" us up. In less than an instant, what is essentially a passing, neutral-by-nature moment becomes the center of our universe. Why? We're drawn into it.
As we're taken up into thinking over what's "at stake," our former view -- of a once wider, more objective world -- is replaced by the fully subjective world of what our anxious thoughts now see as being real. And with this first separation accomplished, our reality now changes with our every consideration of it. Please pause here to consider the implications of such a psychological condition. Let me restate it: what we now see before us as being real is only what we think we see.
In order to sustain this entirely false view of life, and to keep it from crumbling (which any illusion must do in the face of what's true), the thought-self must contrive a foundation to support its imagined conclusions. So, it begins building a case for itself to stand upon. For instance, it's suddenly able to recollect everything this troubling person ever did that ever troubled you at anytime, anywhere, in your history with him!
At this point there's nothing about the character of the offender too inane to deliberate about; no blemish too small, no past minor infraction that doesn't fit perfectly into the fractured view of the thought-self doing the reflecting. And as the case being built against the person reaches completion, all we're able to "see" is how justified we are in both our judgment of him, and for the unbearable stress we must endure until the situation is resolved.
The circle of stress drives itself from here on out. No other facts exist, and no interference is tolerated by anyone who would try and help us to wake up to reality. We believe we're alone, or certainly no one else quite sees the thing in the same clear light as we do. And to support this delusion the same nature that created and drew us into its ever-shrinking world has one more trick up its dark sleeve.
With our attention locked onto one small thing -- and subsequently seeing our lives through this psychic pinhole -- everything in our lives for that time period -- be it a day or decade -- serves to feed this false view and the stress it creates within us.
Haven't you seen this principle at work in yourself or others? It doesn't matter what comes along. Whatever, or whoever, it may be, it's drawn into your stressed state where it's seen as being (at least) partially responsible for why you're in such pain. Even your over-heating toaster oven becomes a part of the conspiracy against your happiness. This runaway thought nature is like a tornado, drawing all moments into its winds; whirling thoughts that not only create the storm, but that continue to feed it as well.
At first glance, it appears these stressed sensations are there within you because of something "gone wrong" outside of you. But remember: this view of life belongs to the stressed self through whose eyes you are now looking at this event. So now is the time to shake yourself awake! What does this mean?
Understand the actual nature of the pressure within you. Instead of blindly seeing and accepting what your thoughts are describing to you as the "truth" of this moment, use your awareness of these anxious or stressed thoughts to come awake and to see them and what they are shoving on to you for you to see. Each time you'll take this new inner action you'll discover this amazing truth:
You're not a captive of some stress-producing condition taking place somewhere outside of yourself. The truth is, in this moment, you are actually surrounded by an invisible circle of thoughts and feelings, all of which are pushing and pressing up against you to get you to acknowledge their reality. Why do they want your acknowledgment? Because your acceptance of their stressful nature within you unconsciously validates their reason for existing; reasons which, in turn, empower these same thoughts to tell you what to do about the stress you're starting to become aware of within yourself.
What should you do when finding yourself surrounded in this way? When perhaps you've already started sinking into a stressful state? Step outside of the circle of stress. Deliberately take yourself outside of this thought-constructed reality. Any time we're awake inwardly enough, we can choose to consciously direct our awareness. We can hold it where and upon what we wish, which, in turn, can help us to change what we take as being real.
When we perceive ourselves as being a captive in some circle of stressful thoughts, we can deliberately bring into our consciousness -- in that same moment -- the awareness of something outside this circle. And if we'll hold our awareness there, take a deep breath and just let go of whatever thoughts may have been defining our sense of self the moment before, we instantly exit our formerly stressed-out self and the thought-produced reality responsible for it. In what can be only an instant of inner work we then find ourselves standing in a new world untouched by stress.
Learn to look at all difficult moments as opportunities to come awake to yourself and a place from which you can practice stepping outside of the attending circle of stressful thoughts. In this way, work for yourself and upon yourself. Do your part and be assured: that great day of days will come when your developing awareness will forever shift from the unwanted world of your stressful life to the world of Inner Light.
