You Can’t Do It By Yourself
Content
Most of us desire to change for the better. And in our quest for self-mastery, we often turn to others for support, knowledge, and understanding because we realize we can’t always do it on our own. This ongoing demand for moral and spiritual guidance has given rise to hundreds of self-help books and websites dealing with mental control, developing good habits, achieving life-changing goals, and unlocking our potential for success.
Verily, verily, I say to you, he who rules his own self is greater than he who captures a city.
– Jesus of Nazareth
We can succeed in any profession by mastering our emotions, having intellectual focus, and honing our skills. Nonetheless, career or financial success does not necessarily imply spiritual achievement.
In the God experience, success means spiritual success; growth is spiritual growth; intellectual control is spiritual control; and intellectual focus is spiritual focus. A successful life, therefore, is a life guided by the Spirit Within.
Self-mastery, to be spiritually beneficial, must be spiritually dominated. So instead of attempting to whip yourself into shape, submit yourself to what is true and right. Think less of seizing control of yourself with an iron fist, and more of embracing the Way of God with all your heart and soul.
Self-mastery is the measure of man’s moral nature and the indicator of his spiritual development.
– The Urantia Book
Self-mastery is the art of self-control—not an act of self-denial. It’s not an attempt to dominate the mind with the mind. Achieving true self-mastery comes about by actively following the guidance of the Divine Spirit, all the while having complete faith that it can and will transform you. You need to make only one choice—to freely align all your choices with those of a higher Source. Whenever you heed spiritual direction, every choice is the right choice.
The Spirit Will Transform You
There is no need to be a slave to self-denial by keeping an incessant, self-conscious vigilance over the desires of the flesh. Instead, learn to trust in the guidance of the Spirit within you. Rather than trying to change yourself by force of mind or by the application of fear and guilt, learn to love God’s Spirit of Love. When you come to love and adore all that God is, you will discover the inner strength to live a masterful life in the spirit.
Read: Intelligent Worship – How It Works
True self-mastery rests on our faith in the Spirit to accomplish what we cannot do alone. It’s learning to accept and trust this loving and wise counsel. This doesn’t mean that everything about our lives is preordained or that no effort is required on our part. We can choose many different careers and many different paths to God. But on each path, there are moral and spiritual decisions to be made according to the Way of God—the way of love.
Your secret of the mastery of self is bound up with your faith in the indwelling spirit, which ever works by love.
– The Urantia Book
You enhance the ability of the Spirit to transform you—to spiritualize you—once you truly believe it can transform you. Come to realize that your undaunted faith in the power of God to change you actually allows God to change you.
Read: What Is Spiritual Faith?
Whenever you hesitate to accept the guidance of your Spirit Teacher, take some time to evaluate how well your choices have served you to date. If on reflection, you realize your decisions have led you to a life of anxiety, depression, anger, grief, or any kind of mental anguish, then what do you have to lose by beginning a new, invigorated life in which you allow yourself to be guided by an all-loving and all-wise Spirit?
Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved, is that of overcoming self.
– Francis of Assisi
Self-mastery is not an effort to enforce self-righteousness on ourselves; more so, it’s the free and willful act of living out our highest ideals. We reach these high ideals through spiritual insight, all of which comes to us by meditating on divine values, praying for strength and courage, and having faith in the goodness of God—the perfect, magnificent, and glorious Source of all creation.
Read: Divine Meditation – An 8 Week Method
Self-Evaluation
Self-mastery begins with our faith in the power of Spirit to transform us, but it also requires some measure of self-knowledge. If we have no idea what needs to change, then what is there to master? And if we are convinced that we are adequate enough as we are, then attaining true self-knowledge will be difficult. Such self-satisfied convictions will forever confine us to a life of mediocrity and stagnation
To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around.
– Flannery O’Connor
Self-evaluation is not self-criticism, but it is self-critique. It entails an honest assessment of our thoughts and actions and how they impact our lives and the lives of others. We can gain some perspective by asking others how they view us and our ideas—but prepare to be humbled!
Indeed, humility is an essential state of mind to achieve true self-knowledge. Humility, sincerity, and courage are spiritual qualities that allow us to see ourselves as we truly are. And we can get to know ourselves even better when we couple these inclinations with meditation, prayer, and worship.
Read: Meditation – Its Mystic Roots
Any type of communion helps you to attain self-mastery because it makes you more receptive to the workings of your soul and the guidance of your inner Spirit, providing you with spiritual perspectives and the ability to conduct a more objective evaluation of your spiritual life—it is seeing yourself not only as others see you, but as the angels see you.
Know yourself as angels know you.
– The Urantia Book
Self-Realization
Self-realization, or self-actualization, is an integral part of self-mastery. It is a popular term in both Eastern philosophies and Western psychology, and is often associated with self-improvement.
One meaning of to realize is to become fully aware of something—to understand it clearly. But the word also means to bring something into existence, to make it a reality, to real-ize it. In this sense, realization is the act of making something real, whether it is a mental state or a spiritual existence.
Self-realization is, therefore, the process of making our personal potential a reality. Whenever we consider a person’s potential, we often think about their physical abilities, intelligence, acquired skills, and ways to realize this potential through their careers and other endeavors in life. These are valid interpretations of self-realization.
But in the God experience, we emphasize the act of becoming more spiritually real because spiritual reality is the ultimate personal reality. From this perspective, the most important act of self-realization is to make our spiritual potential a reality. And, once again, this comes about by identifying ourselves with Spirit.
The goal of human self-realization should be spiritual, not material.
– The Urantia Book
In Hinduism, the ultimate goal of realization is to transcend the ego to identify with Atman (the soul or a greater Self), which is considered the self-existent essence of being; something beyond the mind and personality. This task is accomplished by attaining self-knowledge, which is viewed as the knowledge of this greater Self. This knowledge eventually leads to moksha, or liberation.
In the God experience, Atman is represented by the inner Spirit—our God connector—while self-knowledge is equivalent to knowing God, and self-realization is the act of identifying with the nature of God, which is becoming more Godlike.
Cosmic Self-Realization
Cosmic self-realization is the realization of our full potential as cosmic citizens. It begins with our recognition that we truly are spiritual children of an eternal Creator and that we live in a friendly universe. This is a personal discovery that inevitably leads us to accept the truth that we are all spiritual sisters and brothers. This is the first step to broadening our worldview beyond the limits of community or nation. The whole world becomes our home. This is the club of humanity.
The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.
– Baha’u’llah
As members of this Earth Club, we acknowledge the world’s problems as our problems, the world’s challenges as our challenges, and the world’s solutions as our solutions.
Even deeper realizations can be reached when we begin to enlarge our worldview to a universal field of vision by acknowledging an even greater club than planet Earth. This is the Universe Club—a universal spiritual club open to all who wish to join.
All members of this cosmic circle are lifelong students enrolled in a magnificent universe school pursuing divine perfection, greater knowledge, and superior skills.
Allow the Spirit to Help You
Once again, neither God nor his angels will ever interfere with our free will. Spiritual beings will never drive us along a righteous path by beating us with truncheons of fear, guilt, or shame. Instead, they entice us to follow this high moral road with carrots of love, understanding, and compassion. And if we sincerely search for this desirable path, spiritual forces are always ready and willing to clear the way.
The enlightened path of self-mastery and spiritual liberation is forever open. It is always accessible. There is no one and no thing in the entire universe that can prevent you from walking the path of love and faith—no one but yourself. You enter and follow of your own free will, not because you think you should or because you feel guilty, but because you wholeheartedly desire to.
Believe the Spirit Is Helping You
Most spiritual achievements occur unconsciously, and consequently, it may be frustrating at times to think that nothing of any import is happening, causing us to lose heart in our quest for self-mastery. This is one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome.
But our doubts and fears are the only real enemies, and we must refuse to entertain them. To succeed, we learn to put aside our troubled past and stop dwelling on apparent failures, past regrets, or being confused. Take heart in the truth that the more we believe God is helping us, the more we are helped, regardless of our fears and failures, or whether or not we understand how it works.
If you don’t feel any spiritual inspiration, you can ask for it. The spiritual powers within you and around you will do everything they can to assist you, but they can do little until you make a conscious and sincere decision to allow them to help you—and then have faith, believe they are helping you. When you truly seek wisdom and divine assistance, have no doubt, you will receive it.
Imagine, accept, and believe that God is helping you.
– A. K. Mozumdar
We use the power of faith to change ourselves and our world. By believing and trusting that the Spirit Within can bring out the best in us, we open a spiritual channel that allows it to do exactly that. We simply believe God is helping us, and then, with complete confidence, we sit back and listen, being receptive to the spiritual energies that will transform us.
Over time and with some reflection, you will come to recognize the amazing changes within yourself. You will soon discover that your spiritual accomplishments are genuine, spontaneous, and progressive.
Make Courageous Choices
All choices, spiritual or otherwise, determine the consequences and direction of our lives. The exercise of choice is the greatest power of change we possess in our quest for self-mastery.
Every decision you make either impedes or facilitates the function of the [Spirit].
– The Urantia Book
Make courageous choices to cultivate your soul growth by becoming more receptive to the continuous stream of spiritual forces trying to help you. Make the daring choice to cooperate with your Spirit Teacher.
Be bold with life! Go out and do something worthwhile, not just for yourself, but for everyone else—do it for the world. Choose to be better. Choose the spiritual life. Choose courage over fear. Choose good over evil. Choose love over hate. Choose compassion over intolerance. Choose truth over error. Choose beauty over ugliness. Choose to follow the Spirit wherever it may lead you. These are courageous choices.
I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.
– Oprah Winfrey
Make the supreme choice to consecrate your life to the Spirit Way. Risk everything you are and everything you have for the discovery of truth, for the advancement of spirit, and for the love of God.
For related topics, see Creative Imagination, Mindfulness, and Your Mind.
