Self-regulation takes discipline. Discipline takes commitment. Commitment takes effort. And effort takes heart, a path of heart to be exact. A path of heart encompasses effort, commitment, discipline and self-regulation. If you are to progress, really progress toward a more spiritually balanced state that is active and in constant motion then attention to these details will aid you. Look to the wise heart within, to the calm mind and the vigor of your spirit to gain the perfect balance of self-regulation that is right for you personally, within and without. It’s just about getting to know the self in a deeper and calmer way, so that happiness, contentment and balance may become the norm.
Find balance within the self rather than looking outwardly. What is outside of you is merely reflecting what you think you need, while what is inside you is the barebones truth. Sometimes the truth is too hard to accept so time is spent avoiding it. But in the end, the only place to go for real and deep resolution to what ails you is inward.
Do you feel left out of life, neglected, rejected, left behind? Rather than feel that life is not treating you well, look to yourself and question what you are supposed to be learning in this life. Is it to give rather than receive? To learn compassion for others? To get over self-importance? With a calm and quiet heart, meditate upon the suffering of others for a change and figure out a way to give so that the world may be a better place. With your heart in the right place you can indeed make a difference in someone else’s life, thus making a difference in your own as well.
Is it time to give rather than spending your time and energy trying to get?
Prometheus stole fire from the gods, delivering to humanity the gift of consciousness and the ability to chart its own course. For his transgression, Zeus condemned Prometheus to eternal torment. Human beings must also suffer nature’s torments, as she evens the score for transgressions to nature, within and without.
At the deepest transpersonal dimension of our psyche we all share the same roots and laws that govern our being. These are the instincts and archetypes of the collective unconscious. When the decisions we make deviate too widely from those archetypal roots, our Promethean debt must be paid and, as Jung put it, “from time to time with hideous consequences.”*
This is the usual course of human history with its eternal torment of wars. Outwardly, the conservative laws of the instincts are diametrically opposed to the decisions and directions of detached consciousness. Instinct and reason are fighting for supremacy. The lines are drawn, with no interest in reconciliation.
Inwardly, the consequences of one-sided attitudes are the torments of restlessness, anxiety, terror, and depression. Resolution of these painful states is to be found on the path of individuation, where we reconcile and live the fullness of our wholeness. To travel this path brings benefit, both within and without. It takes but one rainmaker to bring rain to an entire village. As within, so without.
Every one of us is a fragment of the same hologram. Though outwardly we appear unique, at the transpersonal, quantum level of our being we are all all that is. Look no further than yourself to confront the same dynamics being played out, at this very moment, upon the world stage.
Individuation requires that we suffer the opposites of our wholeness. All beings are actually bipolar beings. Wholeness cannot be found in one-sided dissociation. We must suffer full ownership of our shadow, all the parts of us that we reject or simply don’t know about.
It is not enough for consciousness to shine its light into the darkness, it must accept and bring into life all of itself. Sometimes, for example, you must speak the truth, however painful the consequences. As a result, a rejected part of the psyche that had turned aggressive might feel reconciled with consciousness for its willingness to take such heartfelt action.
Those deep truths, though they may appear transactional, and require outer action, actually originate within the interplay of dynamics within the self. Outer truths merely mirror inner facts. Be sure to always bring it home, not leaving a projected part of the self in the person and behavior of an other. Take full responsibility for owning, suffering the torments of, and living your wholeness.
We, each individual, are the world. Every character upon the world stage is within us. The energetics without are the energetics within.
The playing field for our Promethean debt is the structure and dynamics of our inner world. Find the balance within; advance the world without.
In so doing, perhaps the usual course of history might be averted. Grab the opportunity to truly make a difference.
Going for it, Chuck
*Essays On A Science Of Mythology, C. G. Jung and C. Kerenyi, p. 82.
It’s never too late to take a different path, to find a path of heart, a path that seeks love, compassion and kindness as its moral principles rather than greed and selfishness. A path of heart includes a nonjudgmental way of life. For once upon a path of heart it becomes clear that you are just one of the many on the same path through life, that all are as one, seeking to fulfill life in the best way possible. But a path of heart is a path of awareness and that is the difference between that and any other path. For once you have awareness then everything is meaningful in the context of past, present and future karma. Once upon a path of heart no other path will do.
