View Related
Best-selling, self-realization author
Can you think of a way in which you regularly sabotage yourself? You sabotage yourself when “something” in you acts against yourself.
Now, for most of us, we have a passing understanding of an idea like that because we recognize that we don’t want to hurt ourselves. We don’t want to hurt others. We don’t want to be a burden to this planet. We don’t want to do a lot of the things we do. But we still do them. “Something” in me acts against me.
How can a human being have something inside of him or her that acts against them? It’s evidence of a rudimentary conflict that exists inside of the human being. And the absence of the knowledge, and agreement with the fact of it, sits at the root of why the world is in ruins. Because nobody will admit to themselves that there’s a certain part of them that, under the right circumstances, it talks, it walks, it speaks, it pushes, it eats, and it does things against themselves and others.
Who is this me that recognizes that I wish I wasn’t doing something at the time, but still can’t stop myself from doing it? Or that I just did what I wish I wouldn’t have done and now I need to make reparations and make a new start? Who is the me that wants to make a new start? The answer is, that me is for all intents and purposes the best understanding I have of what is good.
The part of me that wants a new start can’t be in that moment the part of me that agrees with what is cruel, with what undermines, with what tears down. Something in me recognizes that I need to make a new start because it sees that something in me is sabotaging my relationships with myself and others. So what is this me that recognizes that things are ruining its life? And the answer is, that me is the best understanding I have of how I ought not to be sabotaging myself.
This part of me that knows that it ought not do what it finds itself being taken through represents a world. It represents the world of its understanding. Can anybody do any better than they understand? In fact, most of us can’t even do the good that we do understand, can we? Because there’s something that seems to be stronger than our best understanding in the moments where – if we had our best understanding – we wouldn’t be betraying ourselves or others as we are.
So this best understanding I have, the me that it represents, is a world. And how do we know it’s a world? Because all of us know, to one degree or another, that it’s possible to live in a world of broader understanding. It’s possible to live from a part of myself that doesn’t sabotage itself the way it used to under certain circumstances. And all of us have been through that to some degree. People who get captured in the world by this, that, or the other one day absolutely can’t take part in what used to harm them. And they enter into a world that is not only broader than the understanding of the sabotaging self, but because the understanding is superior to the self that sabotaged them, they enter into a new world of themselves; one that will not allow – and that brings an end to – the world that formerly dominated them.
Each brighter, broader world is represented by a new understanding of ourselves. That understanding, that wisdom, belongs to God, belongs to a living light, a divine order whose essence is uncompromised, incorruptible, intelligent. You start to live from a broader world, and you don’t do the things you used to do. Why? Because thought is not there prompting you to do it. And in scale, you begin to recognize that the things I’m about to do are not right for me or for you.
For over 40 years Guy Finley has helped individuals around the world find inner freedom and a deeper, more satisfying way to live. His in-depth and down-to-earth teachings cut straight to the heart of today’s most important personal and social issues – anxiety, fear, self-discovery, meditation, relationships, addiction, stress, compassion, and personal peace. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and spiritual leaders of all denominations.
https://www.guyfinley.org
Guy is the author of 45 books and video/audio programs, including his international bestseller “The Secret of Letting Go,” that have been translated into 30 languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide.
He has a weekly program on InsightTimer.com and is a regular contributor to numerous print and online publications.
Guy is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery located in southern Oregon, with tens of thousands of online newsletter subscribers worldwide. His talks are live-streamed free from the Foundation twice each week. www.guyfinley.org/light
A Life of Learning outreach program is OneJourney, a growing, international community. In a world where differences among people are tearing us apart, OneJourney uses the wisdom of the ages to show that the journey to wholeness is an inner journey that is essentially the same for all people and all religions throughout time. It’s just been described in different words. The OneJourney site and its ever-expanding Living Book helps us meet life in a new way so that we no longer fight with events, but can use everything to grow stronger while making the world a better place. www.OneJourney.net
Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article