When we purchase something that requires assembly, it generally
comes with instructions. I purchased a teapot recently and inside were
instructions, for a teapot! Now the instruction sheet for that Christmas
morning bicycle years ago was considerably longer, and I still maintain
wrong, both the bike and teapot instruction sheets had numbered steps,
the teapot two with the additional warning that hot water is, well, hot,
the bicycle four hundred and fifty seven, in Latin.
Our consciousness requires assembly as well; the question is what “instruction” sheet we follow. With the exception of some notable examples directly touched by the Divine, we build our consciousness, for good or ill, step by step by the actions we take and the thoughts we entertain, our level of awareness and understanding waxing and waning dependent on what we say, do, consider and act upon, experience building upon experience, good and bad. Habits of thinking and living do not change by simply assenting to them as needing to be changed; it requires action and perseverance on our part. To borrow from Wayne Dyer: “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.”
Consider those who suffer from addiction. Many who initially recover, seemingly having cast their “habit” out the window, new instructions embraced, then relapse and are often baffled as to why. They are fooled by the delusion those years of thinking and living in the addiction will disappear in a twinkling because the alcohol and drugs are out of their system. In reality the “instruction” sheet they have been following for years is all about addiction and is well memorized. It will take years of contrary action and consistent vigilance of motive, of following a completely new set of directions to remain free of their addiction.
Let’s look at a different way. Many of my peers, including myself, are a little rounder than they would like. Now the weight didn’t appear over night. I didn’t go to bed with a twenty year olds twenty eight inch waist and wake up with a fifty something’s forty. Yet when it comes to losing weight, typically if it can’t be dropped in a week or two we lose interest and fall back into old habits, patterns of thinking. Diets are hard; require real long-term change and different thinking patterns, while cheeseburgers are easy, requiring only fries.
We choose the path, the instruction sheet we follow. The choice is always ours.
Our spiritual development is a mental diet, we choose the directions to follow, the nourishment we ingest, and though eating healthy is important, a healthy mental diet is of infinitely more consequence than waist size. Years of fuzzy thinking, false belief and fear driven action do not disappear overnight, the process continues for our lifetime and though our consciousness is eternal, assembly is required, so what instruction sheet will you follow?
Our consciousness requires assembly as well; the question is what “instruction” sheet we follow. With the exception of some notable examples directly touched by the Divine, we build our consciousness, for good or ill, step by step by the actions we take and the thoughts we entertain, our level of awareness and understanding waxing and waning dependent on what we say, do, consider and act upon, experience building upon experience, good and bad. Habits of thinking and living do not change by simply assenting to them as needing to be changed; it requires action and perseverance on our part. To borrow from Wayne Dyer: “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.”
Consider those who suffer from addiction. Many who initially recover, seemingly having cast their “habit” out the window, new instructions embraced, then relapse and are often baffled as to why. They are fooled by the delusion those years of thinking and living in the addiction will disappear in a twinkling because the alcohol and drugs are out of their system. In reality the “instruction” sheet they have been following for years is all about addiction and is well memorized. It will take years of contrary action and consistent vigilance of motive, of following a completely new set of directions to remain free of their addiction.
Let’s look at a different way. Many of my peers, including myself, are a little rounder than they would like. Now the weight didn’t appear over night. I didn’t go to bed with a twenty year olds twenty eight inch waist and wake up with a fifty something’s forty. Yet when it comes to losing weight, typically if it can’t be dropped in a week or two we lose interest and fall back into old habits, patterns of thinking. Diets are hard; require real long-term change and different thinking patterns, while cheeseburgers are easy, requiring only fries.
We choose the path, the instruction sheet we follow. The choice is always ours.
Our spiritual development is a mental diet, we choose the directions to follow, the nourishment we ingest, and though eating healthy is important, a healthy mental diet is of infinitely more consequence than waist size. Years of fuzzy thinking, false belief and fear driven action do not disappear overnight, the process continues for our lifetime and though our consciousness is eternal, assembly is required, so what instruction sheet will you follow?
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