Finding Self II

Months past, I wrote about finding the self, which I sum up as being better as a person and knowing one's worth in society. In essence, self actualization comes before self realization and there are three parts I told you I was going to discuss, that is, the body, the spirit and the soul. I guess you must have been waiting for the second part and here it is. This is about self realization, the soul and higher purpose.

The tragedy of life isn't death, but what we let die inside of us while we live.            

-Norman Cousins

The gifts of the spirit are love, interconnectedness, talent amongst others. This is what being spiritual entails, not the ability to see monsters or evil spirits, as I had thought. Self actualisation is realizing your talent, your creativity. It means figuring out your place and purpose in the society. You need to know your worth to realize your potential. Self esteem is the proof of self love. Self actualisation brings you to self realization, which is the intuitive understanding of the self. You have to love yourself enough to find yourself and self realization is loving yourself enough to be worthy of making a change. Change is a vital part of life. It's a transformation which I'll call the second birth you'll hear more about. It's just like the first birth but this is longer and you bear the pains. It involves bravery. It is awakening, awareness, enlightenment. It has to do with the metaphysical, which is oneness of the spirit, soul and body. It is vital for inner peace and spiritual fulfilment.

Have you ever reached out to question existence? or to touch infinity? Or have you ever thought, how did God come to be. Have you ever wondered where you come from. You are the truth which you seek. You are eternal. Things of the body go away, the only thing lasting is oblivion. So what were you born of? Self realization is a journey of self-exploration through awareness and recognition of individual potentials. It is a journey beyond ego and towards freedom. 

What you are trying to find out is what you already are.

-Nisargadatta

Self comparison breeds either ego or jealousy. You are the best version of you. Some are busy complaining about others, telling them what to do. Meanwhile they got their future in the hands of another and have no single passion. Good competition is healthy competition. It is what is called boundary-setting. To become an individual, avoid competition. When you fit in to stand out, you're not in any way different, just ahead of others. Not every one has to understand. In whatever you do, never trade honesty for relatibility. Not everything has to be about consumer choice. Validation, even in business, to seek rewards, turns you into a puppet. Accept yourself and live for your own soul if you truly want to live life on your own terms. Change your mentality to 'that which I think of myself is far greater than what you think about me'. Whatever your aspiration may be, your responsibility is to love. Is it not a privilege to love? to live, breathe? experience? You own the world. When you learn how to live, that is where life ends. So do your wish.

Do not choose ignorance when there is a better thing as enlightenment. The people we surround ourselves with either raise or lower our standards. They either help us to become the best versions of ourselves. Seek true friendship, find someone like you, someone to teach you and vice versa. We become like our friends. No man or woman becomes great on their own. The people around them help to make them great. We all need people in our lives who raise our standards, remind us of our essential purpose, and challenge us to become the best version of ourselves. True freedom is absence of absurd beliefs. A person with freedom has some responsibility to bear. We have the power to influence others identity, whether by praising them or pulling them down. Find your place amongst friends. They make us who we are by shaping our identity. If your best friend eats healthy, you will, if not you won't. There is no need for society to be torn apart by illness if we truly need one another. If everyone is the same, it will be boring, yet we seek people who are like us and expect them to be like us. There is beauty in diversity and yet, while in diversity, we make adversaries. Remember something from before, we have only come to experience what I call the 'power of the soul' and that is what influencing is.

Simply see that you are at the center of the universe, and accept all things and beings as part of your infinite body. When you perceive that an act done to another is done to yourself, you have understood the great truth.

 - Lao Tzu

For self realization, experience life beyond the senses. Nothing is good or bad. Experience life as all in one. Without insects, you'd die. Without carbon dioxide, you'd die. See everything as working together. Self realization is maturation from rationalization; when you don't have to get to the root of everything through thought. It is growth from fear the unknown, starting to try again, forming new relationships. Your movement is toward creativity, joy, contentment, transcendence, insight, harmony, beauty, compassion, bliss and high power. When you're free from all bondages of self, then you will have compassion. Embrace all to embrace your own self. 

The only real thing here is your soul. Your soul is so powerful, it holds everything, creates, imagines, it loves. How'd God see what you've been up to? Maybe your soul's satisfaction, have you thought up to that level? So why not feed your soul with love. Self realization is the moment you realize that no one is trying to hurt you, it's you trying to hurt yourself. You are everything and once you change, people follow. Let's see it like this. You are the moon. You are the stars. You are the sun. As they all revolve, so do you. We go through a process called living, experiencing. But how farther are you than the sun, the moon, the stars, it's awareness. You live in the moment but you are aware you are evolving, on a phase, with these heavenly bodies. They all have their moments, you do too so love yourself enough to have it. It is when you start thinking, this is not for me. Unless you know your value, you will live to the satisfaction of everyone else.

First, bravery is a vital part of self realization. It is disregarding things that lie beyond our control. It is the road to 'freedom'. It is living. One secret of happiness is that it's in the present. Ego is the opposite of living. Do not be scared to take risks, particularly when your heart tells you to because as they say, time is money for real. To live happily is an inward power of the soul, as previously discussed. The only thing which could change the world is love and sometimes, your purpose. There is no creativity without love. Even pain does not change what love is. Emotions should not control one's fulfilment of one's dreams. The opposite of depression is not happiness but purpose. Many die with unfulfilled destinies, all a result of hopelessness or control. You can let your story of sadness own you, control you or you can recycle it to heal yourself and others too. Accept your darkness and tell your own story. In making decisions, you are free to make decisions about your own life. When we own our stories, we avoid being trapped as characters in stories someone else is telling. Do what gives you peace of mind. Live life and do something. It is good to be dedicated to something in life. Life is not worth living when you have nothing to live for. To be clear, be passionate. 

Be passionate. You should have passion for at least one thing in life. If you have passion for something, you will want to get it done and you will, through any means you get. My passion is changing lives. Even if you see your ambition or your university course of study as your major aim, do what you love to do and do it well. Your passion is something you could die for.

As a person, you may not matter but your deeds would. A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions. This is why you should be able to see how important you are, you need self love and not validation. If you do, you seek danger and draw danger into your life. This passion, as an emotion is a very great message which heightens your drive. 

He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow. 

-Freidrich Nietzsche

That is the deal. Talent is your uniqueness. It is your authenticity. All that matters is your happiness. It is not to the point of believing that you're so talented at one thing that you become close-minded to other ideas, intolerant and opinionated. Everybody is creative. It is happiness, live from it. To fulfil God's desire is to fulfil your own. Do something for which you will be remembered. Leave, not only asset. Your legacy or impact remains yours while your asset gets to belong to another and you know something? People love free stuff. Your job which you take so seriously, it would be replaced in no time and you'd be forgotten. Someone that has not even been born could also do it. So in essence, the men whose hearts are their primary guide to life will be remembered. 

The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these, the idea that you are the body comes the world, with the world - God, who is supposed to have created the world and this it starts - fears, religions, prayers, sacrifices, all sorts of systems - all to protect and support those who are unaware, frightened out of their wits by monsters of their own making. Realize that what you are cannot be born nor die and with the fear gone, all suffering ends.

- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

It doesn't matter how long you live. Time does not exist as long as you're in line with your purpose and your intuition tells you to act. And it is evidently sure that when you are, the universe starts to work in your favor. It is called synchronicity and it just helps you with your intentions It's like an aligned fulfilment of your wishes and intentions even regardless of interruptions because you're already taking the path of true destiny. You are your soul and your soul is love, it is your guiding force and until your third eye is open, you may never be able to realize this: this sacred purpose of yours. As long as you have a soul, your soul is sacred and your purpose has to be sacred. Any other thing is just based on some of your primordial desires. 

So in essence, the people around you help you to discover yourself; they bring out either the best or worst in you and you do not get pressurized, only motivated. If it's so negative that you become someone else entirely, then you need to do some inner work because you must be taking the path of the self, that is, the body and mind and that means that you have not realized who you are yet. And this is why you should be who you are. You cannot be who you are not. And by being who you are, I mean being who you were created to be. Authenticity is found in vulnerability. This is how love is cultivated. All of God's creations are beautiful in itself and when one thing is missing or you exhibit traits of craftiness, then you are not being who you are.

And something that I won't stop believing is, not everyone is from God. Some others are agents of the devil which is the serpent and the agents of God were sent to earth to defeat but God already knows who wins because light always wins so God likes drama that he puts in a lot of dramatic effects but really is in control and what God has ordained cannot be stopped by any force of darkness. To put it all together, being oneself is like being in synchronicity with your own self and not being someone particular today and someone different tomorrow, just like a charade kind of thing and only clowns display the act of charades, is it not? Your light and darkness coming together as one is authenticity. So not being who you are or straightforward is the greatest form of despair. It's a tragedy of life because you have nothing to hide; not from everyone because you are certainly seen. There is always remedy and one thing I'm certain of is that what is deemed impossible only takes a long time.

You are aware that you will experience death, so have the best legacy right here. Do something which will make others remember you. You are time. Do what matters. Have a mind of your own, speak your mind. Defend the truth even when it is not popular. Never move with the crowd or believe everything. Body and life are compatible with time and death. You are simply only in time. Spirit and soul go together. Feed your soul, not your body. Anything taken in the body is ejected. But the soul, it is eternal, beyond time. When you follow your bliss, miracles will happen where there were none. It's not what you are, it's not what you know. It is who you are right now. It is your soul now. While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone, only to leave it all behind after death, you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness.

"When everyone is trying to be something, be nothing. Range with emptiness. Human should be like a pot. As a pot is hold by its emptiness inside, human is hold by the awareness of his nothingness. Live this life as light and empty as the number zero. We are no different from a pot. It is not the decorations outside but the emptiness inside that holds us straight. Just like that, it is not what we aspire to achieve but the consciousness of nothingness that keeps us going."

- Shams Tabrizi