Step 2: Rate your inner pursuits
In another column, make a list of the
inner activities that you put effort into.
Rate these things, too, with a number,
reflecting the value you put on each one
or how much time you devote to it.Here are some examples:
Meditation
Contemplation
Prayer or self-reflection
Stress management
Reading spiritual literature
Psychotherapy and personal growth
Bonding with someone else empathically
Appreciation and gratitude, toward
yourself and others
Exploring the world’s wisdom traditions
Taking a period of silence
Going on a spiritual retreatStep 3: Compare your priorities
Now compare the two lists. They will give
you a rough sense of where your allegiance
lies between the inner and outer. I’m not
suggesting you play a spiritual blame
game—almost everyone predominantly
pursues outward activities. The material
world holds us fast. And remember, it’s
alright for inward activities to take place
in the material world; they can be part
of one’s daily routine.Step 4: Assess your life’s focus
and set goals
Unless you devote time and attention to
inward things, you are not seeking. Being
pious and doing good works are not a
substitute. They remain all too often on the
external plane. If you wish to set spiritual
goals, I’d begin with two that have nothing
to do with religion and everything to do
with getting real: Find your center, and
then run your life from there. Both goals
are necessary. If you leave out one, the
other will have limited use.
Finding your center means settling
into a stable, coherent state of awareness.
Outer forces do not dominate you. You’re
not restless, anxious, worried, or unfo-
cused. The second goal is running your
life from your center, which means obey-
ing your subtle inner guidance, such as
instinct, intuition, love, self-knowledge,
trust, and compassion.
Take a look at your life and assess which
of these two lists sounds like you right now:You are finding your center when you:
Act with integrity
Speak your truth
Remain unswayed by the need to be liked
Do not fear authority
Respect your personal dignity and others’
Remain self-reliant, not dependent on others
Do not blind yourself with denial and
self-deceptions
Practice tolerance
Become slow to anger and quick to forgive
Aim to understand others as well as you
understand yourselfYou aren’t living from your center when you:
Focus on external rewards
Crave approval from others
Open yourself easily to outside influences
Put too much emphasis on rules
Set yourself up as an authority
Compete as if winning is the only thing
that matters
Gossip and belittle others
Hold on to prejudice or ideology
Seek revenge
Skirt the truth
Keep your inner world a secretOnce you achieve the two goals, your
material world will hold together in the
same way that you hold together. Inner
and outer will no longer be two separate
domains; you will have made them con-
nect. You can operate from a core of integ-
rity and express your true self. That’s how
a person learns to overcome the material
world’s chaos and fragmentation.
This project of seeking that I’ve out-
lined is existential, to put it in a word.
The courage to be has traced a path to
a solid sense of what it means to be real.
When you begin to suspect that you are
the author of your own existence, seeking
has begun.
When you use your awareness to actively
shape your life, seeking has brought answers.
When you look around and know that real-
ity is based entirely on consciousness, seeking
has reached its goal.
The next stage is to journey deeper,
always moving toward the source of cre-
ation, which is where real power lies.
Seeking takes place in the
material world, but finding
happens somewhere else.Reprinted from The Future of God,
Harmony Books, an imprint of Random
House, November 2014.Mateo Madani
Yoga Master and author of
“Forever Now” breaks down
the fundamentals in conscious
thinking, directing us towards
a mental and emotional
liberation from our ego.Come enjoy a
sacred, secluded
valley in Hawaii
TEACHER TRAINING:
December 1-14, 2014
January 3-17, 2015
February 7-21, 2015
March 7-21, 2015
April 4-18, 2015
May 9-23, 2015
June 6-20, 2015
September 5-19, 2015For more information contact
[email protected]
1.808.371.1327
or visit http://www.mateomadani.com
Mention this ad & receive 10% off your visit!be well
WISDOM28
december2014yogajournal.com