Saturday, August 19, 2017

Happiness Directions: Step Ten: Commit to Finding the True Self

If we only look within, we will see the Light as if we were seeing our own image in a mirror...Turn in! Look within!  Know thyself!
Satchidananda  (The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, page 115)

Hmm!  The last step to take...the one that will ultimately take us to our destination...is a commitment to find the true Self or what Patanjali referred to as the Purusa.  We begin that path home when we turn inward.  We can read all the scriptures from all the great religions, study the teachings of all the  great philosophers, explore and examine the scientific  breakthroughs of all the greatest minds in the world...but we will never know truth until we commit to finding it within us. We will, as Satchidananda explains in his translation of the Yoga sutras, be wasting our time.

If we want happiness we will find it on our road to enlightenment. The light that guides the world is not out there...it is inside you.  Peace is found in stillness.  Happiness is found in peace...and the joyous rapture of being is found when we discover who we really are.

It is a process...it will require practice and a commitment on our part to get there.  First we must be willing to sit still and turn our focus inward so many times a day and eventually we will see the light. We must commit to a prayer, meditation, mindfulness practice...whatever works in turning our focus away from the externals and inward toward the Truth.

That doesn't mean we cannot read the scriptures or study the greats.  Oh no...the teachings of others can be a great aid to our understanding, guiding us inward.  But stillness, quiet and soulful reflection are the only things that will truly get us there.

Seek the true Self within you and you will soon find yourself to be far on your journey towards the happiness that is yours for the asking.

All is well in my world!

References

Sri Swami Sathidananda (2012) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Buckingham: Integral Yoga Publications

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