Opportunities and Seeing Changes by Looking Back

I write this blog entry to cover two important issues within the Work that I’ve seen recently – one being that of opportunities and the other of seeing progress.

Opportunities to face egos, however they might come up, are real blessings and it’s essential to make good use of them.

Recently I faced some rather painful circumstances psychologically. Nothing life threatening. Nothing that could make or break me financially. And essentially nothing important. Notwithstanding, due to my own irritation and pride among other undesirable subconscious states, these circumstances really made me feel awful.

What a wonderful opportunity I received! The pain I felt really showed me the terrible ugliness of these inner demons; this was something I needed to see. I was given the chance to gain understanding of these unpleasant states and overcome them once and for all, and to replace them with something better – virtues like humility and love (essentially what this spiritual work is all about).

Then the big question is... did I honestly make the best use of this suffering to move forward, or did I just work half-heartedly to overcome these states?

Overall, I could have done better and I could have fought harder against this inner darkness. Had I known like I do now that the opportunity would be over so soon then I probably would have worked harder.

In the actual circumstances I was deceived by the impression that things would never change so I justified the negativity through feeling helpless. But in the blink of an eye the opportunity left and things started to improve.

For me, the overall moral is that even if things don’t go our way, they are not going our way for a reason. In these times a lot of learning can take place and we never know how long we have to learn the lessons before we miss out on the opportunity. No time to waste.

But I thought I’d finish this on a more uplifting note and that’s on looking back. I find if we have events in our lives that occasionally repeat, it can be a wonderful opportunity for self-discovery to see how we have changed over time (an introspective study of our spiritual progress).

For the fourth year in a row I volunteered as a judge at a science fair – I’ve been doing it since I started university. Each year I’m put in essentially the same ‘psychological gymnasium’ – having to interact with students, ask them questions, work as a team with other judges, make decisions on the winning projects, follow some basic orders from coordinators, and other such activities.

And I find it is fruitful to see how I respond to the circumstances. Am I proud? Am I nervous? Does something irritate me? How am I interacting with the others around me? What sorts of inner states come up within me during my hours at the fair?

Each year, thanks to the wonderful techniques in these courses, I can happily say that I have seen improvements within, in terms of how I behaved and what I experienced internally. The changes are hard to articulate but I’ve found, as some examples, more peace and happiness amidst all my interactions at the fair (being more self-aware), more patience, more humility, etc.

Noting changes is something I’d really recommend if you get these sorts of recurring events. I find the results are quite encouraging and give a lot of strength to continue with the spiritual work since the internal results are very tangible.

All the best, everyone!

Mike