Lao-tzu & 7 ways to expand your Higher Self
Friday, February 8, 2008 at 3:15PM Lao-tzu invites you to explore the condition of complete simplicity. What brings you to a new level of understanding? Who were you before? Who are you now? Who will you be?
Notice how you conceptualize and express ideas and whether you stay in harmony with your nature. Raising your awareness allows you to meld into a timeless process and sense your own choices between love and fear. To feel profoundly within yourself allows you to exert effort and dream effortlessly, as if you do nothing yet, accomplish everything.
1) Value silence & solitude. Be still, quiet. Allow your mind to flow freely. Discern what it means to live with conviction. Learn that focusing on what you sense outside prevents you from discovering what lies within. Trust your own nature. Live an unhurried life. Contemplate all that you have, all that flows in and out of your life, and be grateful for it.
2) Heed the laws of nature. The more man interferes with the natural order of things, the more out of balance his perception of the world becomes, and the more emotional turbulence distracts him. Discomfort arises from the interfering and unappreciative mind. The essence of life is cyclical yet, rebirth or renewal is disguised in the form of endings which evoke pain and fear. Natural endings bring new beginnings. How you feel and act attracts more of the same. Assume responsibility for your own actions.
3) Resist naming things. Names are only the effects of your subtle thoughts and feelings. To move beyond the pull to name is to begin to sense the underlying cause of your impulse. Each thing you name tells you things about your desires, what you will allow and resist. Why seek to control? Notice your reflex to separate rather than connect things. The process of naming prompts us to distinguish between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, high and low, and "being" and "non- being." Comparing evokes desires. To abandon what you think you know requires you stop naming, isolating tastes and desires.
4) Experience pleasure as you are. Struggling is counterproductive. Endeavor to do nothing. This isn't laziness. It doesn't suggest you reamin idle. Instead, learn to discern your true nature. Observe your views of people, institutions, and ingrained systems of rewards. You are not happy or worthy because someone tells you or gives you a diploma. You're not moral or righteous because you obey imposed laws. You are moral because you connect with your inner self. Pleasure lies in spontaneity.
5) Live creatively. Know that you are a Divine creation. Get in touch with this origin. Listen to your inner calling. Ignore what other people might criticize or judge about your ability, intelligence and potential. Follow your heart and engage in whatever enables you to feel most alive. Manifest based on what evokes good feelings inside you.
6) Live beyond ego. Basing your awareness on acquiring and accomplishing suggests you only exist for yourself. By putting yourself last, you end up progressing further than you ever thought possible. Getting caught in ego means you're caught in striving but never arriving. Remove yourself from the rat race. Reverse the ego's hold over you. Generously serve others. Whenever ego convinces you things aren't good enough, shift your attention to a less fortunate individual. The perceived need for approval and importance are trouble. Let go of your identification with stuff. Believe you are nothing, and own nobody. Permit yourself to realize your worldly self isn't your true self.
7) Become aware of existence beyond form. Learn to see without eyes. Evolve to hear without ears. Move beyond perceived limits of your senses. Tap into this immeasurable, invisible source of harmony. Enter the indescribable place, the core of energy and forever. Conflict is impossible. Magic connects you to something bigger. Release the hold outer forms have on you. Embrace the timeless infinity beyond all that.
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