Do you have one? Do your thoughts wander around beyond your control? Do you know how to direct them? If you do, you have a rare gift.
I don't. For many years I've been aware of a tremendous wastage of psychic energy through my unruly thoughts.
Second question: are you whole? Are you one person or many?
The work of the Russian humanists (Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and Nicoll) placed great emphasis on the dividedness of a person. The idea was later taken up by Betty O'Connor in her Our Many Selves, where it was used in the C of S. in our attempts to move toward wholeness.
Do you have many selves? I'll tell ya:
a husband self
a work self
a relaxed self
a church self
a tennis self
and it goes on and on: my many selves! With every self I'm a different person- chameleon!
How can I be whole? become the same person everywhere? I know one or two people like that.
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The mantra! Ah, the mantra! Friends, it really works. Mine is Isaiah 26:3. You pick one that does something for you.
What does it do? It gives you a good chance to control your mind. You can become one, same person. And you can achieve this anywhere.
Repeat your mantra 100 times, and it will determine where your mind is all day.
But what kind of day do you want? If your mantra involves some variety of loving God, is that what you want? all day? (That includes neighbors and self, both part of God!)
What does loving God mean? Is it like spending all day in church--- not for me! Does it mean that your mind works faster and under your control? Does it mean that you love yourself; you're delighted with yourself; you're a lot more than you thought you were? Does it mean that for the day you're free from the self-indulgent, self-centeredness that has dominated your days in the past?
Believe me sister, brother, you want to do that-- trade the above for a mind working in a new dimension, seeing more, hearing more, feeling more than you ever realized you could do.
And if you stick to it, every day, 100 times, you'll find a kind of happiness that you never dreamed you were capable of. That's what a god-like mantra can do for you?
Try it; and let me know what happens.
8 comments:
My teacher gave me a mantra when I asked how can I keep the clarity of meditation with me throughout the day. Your post reminds me that I need to practice with it more.
Thanks!
Me, too, Jon; that means the post has helped two of us. Hurrah!
Unruly? Oh buddy, yeah, some days. And other days I am tuned in enough to be unwavering. It's like learning to sail... from having to correct/overcorrect/recorrect to learning to work with the boat to learning to anticipate it.. the outcome for me varies from day to day and hour to hour. Larry, honestly - I believe it is a discipline as much as a grace, something that is open to everybody, not a gift given only to some.
Am I whole? Yes, although again the outward reflection varies day by day and hour by hour. I have many roles, one self. Over the past ten years I've gone from terror at colliding worlds, to understanding how different people bring out different aspects of who I am, but since I am one, they all fit.
No mantra, here, except in emergencies... errr... except when I'm getting dragged behind that wild horse Fear. Very useful, then. Never has been part of my daily life, but the remainder of this week would make an interesting experiment.
Go for it, Julie.
BTW I'm still working on ONE.
Oh I suppose the closest thing I have to a mantra is a rather Hill el like statement from Laurence Olivier, when he said, " use your faults and aspire to your talents..." That can keep one pretty close to whole in all things.
:)
lor
Very debatable, Lor.
There's one in every crowd, but you are most welcome here.
Ah but Larry... to that one in the crowd, think of how many of the others he has to put up with!
Just kidding ya,
lor
My direction and mantra to my unruly mind (liken unto a tree filled with druken monkeys!)goes something like this:
"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God."
"Om Namah Shiva"
"Om"
and The sound of the Laurel Creek.
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