Who do you think you are?

Are You Here To Be A Successful Author? 167
Coming out of that I quickly re-immersed myself in the world.
During my “time off” there was a program of celibacy, so I hadn’t been
in any relationship at all for ten years. Within a few months I married,
and five years later I got a divorce. I went through a series of jobs that
my mind told me I could do, and I was able to do reasonably well, but
they were not things that I loved to do.
After about eight years, I finally began to rediscover the things I
really enjoyed doing. I was able to go back to working in a way that
fulfilled me and I enjoyed great success for a while. Then I realized it
was time to take a break again, so I went back to the previous program
for a year.
After another year of extended TM practice, I was introduced to
a woman by the name of Byron Katie and “The Work.” I was introduced
to The Work through my ex-wife Janet, who is now my business partner
and co-authored The Passion Test with me. Katie created a very simple
process of self-investigation she calls “The Work,” and doing this simple
process I found myself very quickly investigating the truth of concepts
and ideas that I had held to be true for a long time. It was through this
process of investigation that I came to let go of beliefs that had previously
prevented me from being able to really experience and enjoy life.
In the Vedic Literature there is a reference to things that are called
Vasanas. It’s a Sanskrit term essentially meaning habits, the mental,
physical, and emotional habits that we form. The Vedic literature talks
about good Vasanas and bad Vasanas. Bad Vasanas may be things like
addictions, alcoholism or drug use, the things that don’t help us to
understand or to realize our own nature.
Good Vasanas are habits that help and support us in coming to
realize who we really are. Good Vasanas are things that many of us have
heard of or maybe already do, like yoga, breathing exercises, meditation,
going to bed at a reasonable hour, or getting up early. The whole field of
Ayurveda, the ancient system of health in the Vedic literature, is built
upon the concepts of good Vasanas, things that support our health and
support our experience of life.
In the Vedic literature there is a statement that good Vasanas are
helpful, and are useful along the path to realization of the self with a big
‘S.’ Yet, in the end, liberation requires letting go even of the good Vasanas.
Letting go means letting go of our attachment to them, letting go of our
belief that these things are necessary or required for us to live a happy,
fulfilled, or joy-filled life, that these things are somehow necessary for
us to know who we really are.