Most people are unaware of the preciousness of their daily dose of energy and use it up very quickly throughout the course of their everyday lives. How? Through the release of that energy in negative spurts, from the moment they wake up to the moment they pass out from exhaustion at night. By remaining completely unaware of their actions and reactions, the day becomes one long leakage of the precious gold that is our primal vitality, our chi, our life force. Everyone knows what one moment of rage will do with the limited resources of energy available to us: it will vaporize that life force for the whole day, maybe longer. Pop culture, in its astonishing lack of wisdom, enshrines and worships outbursts of anger and all kinds of misuses of vitality. Such behavior is often perceived as strength, while it is merely a sign of profound inner weakness. Self-control, self-accountability, and self-mastery are not understood in terms of serenity, inner peace, and stability in this society, yet this understanding is at the heart of all perennial spiritual teachings. Such a lifestyle can therefore be achieved, if you are willing to put the effort into it. Here is a simple approach: Just try one morning not becoming impatient at the traffic light or at the ever-increasing volume of vehicles that you encounter during rush hour. Try getting to work without responding to stimuli in your typical ways, and sustain a self-awareness and presence of mind that can seal you from all the influences that conspire to steal your vitality. If you are a person who wishes to or claims to live a more spiritual life, one more conscious of the meaning and mysteries of existence, you have to go through this crucible of knowing yourself with enough searing honesty to recognize your habitual behavior and its consequences. You will need to summon up a great deal of willpower to struggle against it, to go against the current of the myriad forms of energy leakages that occur each and every day. This is as stern a discipline as athletes or monks must impose on themselves. Trying such methods of self-change will quickly reveal to you how much energy is actually available when intentionally used. What was once just habitual response will now be seen as a horrific waste of the substance of your existence. Most people are addicted to their habitual behaviors, take them for granted, and even imagine that they feel their vitality more strongly by reacting in negative ways throughout the day, but what they are really feeling is the evaporation of their most precious possession. In slowing down, you will find healing. None of us can break out of the vicious cycle of being what we are or finding something sacred and wonderful about life if we don’t create some opportunity internally to slow down, to go deeper into our own center, where we will find the great mysteries of life. When you carry inner observation with you, you are laying the groundwork for building an inner sanctuary within all circumstances. This ultimately means consciousness of the Divine in the midst of the chaos that all of our lives have. To one degree or another, we are all in the same boat, and we all have the same possibility of finding an oasis. We are not meant to be frazzled, confused, and unhappy. You can generate this transformation by setting your psychological house in order and by stopping the massive hemorrhaging of your energy that takes place relentlessly. If within 15 minutes after you get out of bed, you are wired or all caught up in something, you are done for. The momentum will, most likely, last all day long. Religious, philosophical, and esoteric people throughout the world say that you must get to a point where, many times during the day, you can have a moment of stopping and re-centering so that you are not just carried along by what is happening. If your day has a lot of frustration and busywork in it, where are you going to find room for the peace that passes understanding, the state of mind that is receptive to the more mysterious aspects of life, the higher self within you that is not just an office employee and has a right to just be? Becoming attentive to and responsible for how you act and react in the most mundane circumstances of daily life is the secret of the ages, the inner teaching of all religions and esoteric practices, the core of wisdom. This is the hope for your own development into the person you are meant to be. Stop polluting yourself by your own misbehavior, and you will find the inner resources to achieve your true potential and find joy, peace, and purpose. Then your cup will run over with a vitality that can fill each day with new opportunities to enjoy your existence and express right action in the world. Theodore J. Nottingham is the author of a number of books, fiction and nonfiction, as well as a television producer. More information on this topic and additional works can be found at <http://tedn.hypermart.net/>. |
An ancient prophet once described certain people as "leaking cisterns that can hold no water." If you want to access your life force and use it to its maximum benefit, one of the first things you have to do is stop wasting it.