Return to Essence: How to Be in the Flow and Fulfill Your Life's Purpose by Gina Lake

Return to Essence: How to Be in the Flow and Fulfill Your Life's Purpose by Gina Lake

Author:Gina Lake [Lake, Gina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endless Satsang Foundation
Published: 2013-12-24T05:00:00+00:00


Exercise: Becoming Aware of Negativity

The first step in becoming free of negativity is becoming aware of the extent that negativity is present. Observe the mind, like a curious scientist. What is the ego up to in coming up with those thoughts? What is it trying to do? Once you look, the ego’s motives are pretty transparent.

Most thoughts, especially “I” thoughts, are designed to support the current self-image and keep us identified with that instead of with who we really are. To that end, the egoic mind will try to frighten us, build us up, or tear us down. It will do whatever it feels will be most effective in drawing our attention to the false self, because once we pay attention to our thoughts about ourselves, we become identified with them: Attention equals identification.

Notice how your thoughts are mostly about you. In an attempt to perpetuate this you and inflate or deflate it, the egoic mind is forever comparing this you to others, checking to see how it measures up. Many of our thoughts are evaluative and judgmental because that is how the self-image is maintained. The ego’s job is to maintain the sense that we exist as a separate entity, and most thoughts serve that end, hence all the thoughts about I. The mental world is a world of me, me, me. You’ve undoubtedly noticed.

Negative thoughts, in particular, serve this end by getting us involved in trying to fix or improve something about the me. Negative thoughts generate feelings, which generate activity. Negative thoughts and feelings become the reason for taking action and end up structuring our life. They keep the story rolling along. Negative thoughts are particularly effective in maintaining the sense of I because we get hooked into believing that the egoic mind will save us from trouble, problems, and difficulties if we listen to it. What we often don’t realize is that the egoic mind created the problem in the first place, simply by defining something as a problem. Problems give the egoic mind something to do, and they give the ego a reason for existing.

A simple example of this would be the belief, “I have to get this done before I go on vacation or I won’t get a raise.” That belief gets you very involved in planning how you’ll get what you need to get done, wondering if you’ll get it done, being afraid of not getting it done, and thinking about what will happen if you don’t and what has happened in the past when you didn’t. All these thoughts and feelings make it seem like you have a real problem on your hands. Then the ego tries to help you by giving you advice, pushing you, admonishing you, and scaring you. The ego creates an artificial goal and then makes that goal more important than it actually is. Doing that gives the ego a sense of being more important than it really is. And that gives it, and you, lots to do.

Another



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