Posted on Facebook by Samoa Lualima
(Based on the book titled The Inner Power of Silence by Mark Thurston)
The second condition of meditation is learning to release the thought patterns that have been controlling us and limiting our understanding of who we are. These patterns include our habitual fears, resentments, desires, judgments and emotional reactions. When repeated often enough, they begin to operate automatically. We may then mistake these acquired patterns for our true identity, saying, “This is simply who I am,” when they are actually habits that have become deeply established within consciousness.
A habit begins as a thought, desire or response that we repeatedly choose. Through repetition, it becomes easier to follow and more difficult to resist. Eventually, we may react without pausing to consider whether the reaction agrees with our spiritual ideal. Fear automatically expects the worst. Resentment immediately remembers an old injury. Pride defends itself before understanding the other person. Anxiety repeatedly imagines what might go wrong. These patterns divide the mind and keep us reacting to life from a limited sense of self.
The spiritual importance of thought is expressed very clearly: “Thoughts ARE deeds, and as their currents run bring either those of MIRACLES or crimes” (281-3). Thoughts may be invisible, but they are not inactive. Repeated thought creates an inner current. That current influences our emotions, speech, decisions and behaviour. What begins as a private mental pattern may eventually become a visible way of living.
This is why meditation involves more than temporarily becoming calm. It allows us to observe the inner currents that normally carry us along without our full awareness. In the quiet, we begin to notice the thoughts we repeatedly entertain, the feelings we continually revive and the stories we habitually tell ourselves. Once a pattern becomes conscious, we gain the opportunity to choose whether we will continue feeding it.
The principle that “mind is the builder” is central to understanding this process. “The spirit maketh alive, the mind is the builder, the application is the experience in the individual life” (262-119). Spirit provides the life and the ideal, but the mind determines how that spiritual potential will be interpreted and expressed. Through repeated choices, the mind builds attitudes, habits, character and eventually the circumstances through which the soul learns.
Karma may therefore be understood, in part, as the accumulated consequences of our habitual choices. It is not simply a punishment imposed upon us from outside. It is the continuation of causes we have set in motion through thought, desire and action. Patterns that remain unresolved return in some form because the soul must eventually meet, understand and transform what it has created.
When asked whether a person working through karma should be helped, the answer rejected the idea that karma requires people to suffer without assistance. A Christ-like spirit is shown “not only in praying for them, holding meditation for them, but aiding, helping, in every manner that the works of God may be manifest in their lives” (281-4). Karma is therefore not an excuse for judgment or indifference. It provides an opportunity for awakening, loving assistance and transformation.
The readings also indicate that karmic conditions may be overcome. They are not unchangeable sentences. What has been built through thought and action may be met by a new direction of thought, desire and conduct. This is possible because every soul possesses free will. The past influences us, but it does not have to control our future.
Meditation helps us move from automatic reaction to conscious choice. Instead of immediately identifying with every thought, we learn to observe it. We may notice fear without declaring, “I am fear.” We may recognize resentment without accepting it as our permanent nature. We may experience anxiety without allowing it to define the whole of our being. A thought can be present in consciousness without becoming the ruler of consciousness.
The purpose is not to condemn ourselves for having negative thoughts. Self-condemnation can become another controlling pattern. The purpose is to recognize which thoughts lead toward peace, love and wholeness, and which thoughts lead toward separation, confusion and fear. Meditation creates an inner pause in which a different response becomes possible.
This requires purification. “Purify thy mind if ye would meditate” (281-41). We are also instructed to approach meditation by “purging the body, the mind of those things that ye know or even conceive of as being hindrances” (281-41). These hindrances are not limited to outward distractions. They include the inner attitudes, desires and emotional reactions that repeatedly draw consciousness away from its spiritual centre.
Purification does not mean violently suppressing unwanted thoughts. A thought that is pushed away through fear may return with even greater force. Purification begins with honest recognition. We see the pattern, acknowledge its presence and understand the effect it has been producing. We then place it beside our spiritual ideal and decide whether it deserves to remain part of our life.
This process is gradual. “When I would do right the spirit of unrest is ever present. As day by day this is put out of the mind, and more and more the mind of harmony, peace, understanding…so does this become the manner in which self is giving expression of that being sought” (262-3). The reading does not suggest that every destructive pattern disappears immediately. It describes a daily process of withdrawing energy from unrest and giving greater strength to harmony, peace and understanding.
Letting go must therefore be followed by renewal. If we remove an old pattern without establishing a higher one, the old habit may return to fill the empty space. Meditation does not merely empty the mind. It redirects the mind toward a more complete understanding of the self.
A helpful affirmation asks: “CREATE IN ME A RIGHTEOUS SPIRIT, A CORRECT UNDERSTANDING, O LORD…RENEWING A RIGHT SPIRIT IN ME, CREATING A NEW HEART AND PURPOSE IN ME.”—281-18 Another asks: “CREATE IN ME THAT PURPOSE THAT WILL RENEW THE RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN ME.”—281-18
These affirmations describe genuine transformation. The old pattern is not merely resisted. A new purpose is created. Fear is replaced by trust, resentment by forgiveness, self-centredness by service and inner division by spiritual unity.
We are also given this affirmation: “FATHER, GOD! IN THY MERCY, IN THY LOVE, CAST OUT FEAR, HATE AND MALICE FROM MY OWN THOUGHTS, MY OWN PURPOSES: THAT THY PEACE, THY LOVE, MAY WHOLLY DIRECT MY LIFE.”—281-45
This prayer identifies both sides of the process. Fear, hatred and malice are released, while peace and love are invited to become the directing influences. Letting go is therefore not passive. It is a deliberate transfer of authority from the habitual personality to the spiritual ideal.
Some patterns are connected with the superficial identity we have created. We may identify ourselves through our occupation, social position, appearance, possessions, past failures or the opinions of others. These things may describe parts of our earthly experience, but they do not reveal the complete identity of the soul.
The soul was created in the image of its Maker. “Not thy body, no—not thy mind, but thy SOUL was in the image of thy Creator” (281-41). This does not make the body or mind unimportant. It places them within a greater understanding. The body is an instrument through which we experience material life. The mind is the builder that interprets experience and directs the will. But the soul has a deeper origin and a greater destiny than the temporary personality can fully comprehend.
Meditation shifts our centre of identity. We gradually move from “I am my fear,” “I am my past,” or “I am what others think of me,” toward the awareness that we are spiritual beings learning through physical experience. We possess habits, but we are more than our habits. We have made mistakes, but we are more than our mistakes. We experience limitations, but those limitations do not define the whole soul.
This expanded identity does not encourage us to avoid responsibility. On the contrary, recognizing ourselves as souls makes us more responsible for how we use thought and free will. If thoughts are deeds and mind is the builder, then every repeated mental choice contributes to the person we are becoming.
Freedom begins when we realize that an old pattern does not have to receive our continued cooperation. The pattern may still appear, but we can choose not to feed it. Every time we respond differently, we weaken the old pathway and strengthen a new one. “As day by day this is put out of the mind,” the mind of peace and understanding becomes increasingly active (262-3).
The will has an essential role in this transformation. Spiritual growth does not occur through denial alone. We must actively choose the ideal we wish to express. “By Choice we know His companionship, and by will we exercise our Choice” (262-114). Meditation strengthens the space in which this choice can be made.
At first, a habitual response may appear almost immediately. Someone criticizes us, and defensiveness arises. We remember an injury, and resentment returns. We face uncertainty, and fear begins imagining the worst. Meditation teaches us to recognize the pattern before it completely possesses our response. In the inner pause, we can ask: Does this thought agree with my ideal? Does it lead toward love or separation? Is this the person I truly wish to become?
The aim is not to create a false personality that pretends never to feel anger, fear or pain. Spiritual honesty requires us to acknowledge what is present. Letting go means refusing to allow the feeling to become the final authority. We bring it into the light of the ideal and ask how it may be transformed.
Sometimes the very patterns we want to release will appear more strongly during meditation. This does not necessarily mean the meditation is failing. When the surface mind becomes quiet, buried thoughts and emotions may become more visible. Their appearance gives us an opportunity to recognize what has been operating beneath conscious awareness.
We should neither become fascinated with these patterns nor condemn ourselves for discovering them. We observe them, offer them to God and return to the affirmation. In this way, meditation becomes a place of honest encounter and gradual release.
The instruction is simple: “Put away those things that would cause fear or doubt. KNOW in thy inner self that He IS the way, the truth, the light” (262-129). Putting away fear does not mean pretending that danger or difficulty does not exist. It means refusing to make fear the centre from which we interpret everything.
Another affirmation asks: “Help me, O Father, to put away—more and more—the cares of this world and look to thee as the author and the finisher of faith.”—262-117
The words “more and more” recognize that release is progressive. Some patterns have been strengthened over many years and will not disappear after one meditation. Each sincere effort, however, changes the direction of consciousness. What we repeatedly release becomes weaker. What we repeatedly choose becomes stronger.
Service also helps loosen the superficial identity. We are encouraged to “lose self in love and service to others” (281-1) and to “LOSE self in service” (262-116). This does not mean losing our individuality or allowing others to misuse us. It means releasing the constant preoccupation with defending, glorifying and satisfying the personal self. As attention turns toward constructive service, many patterns of pride, resentment and self-pity begin to lose their power.
The true self is not destroyed through this process. It is uncovered. What is lost is the false identity built from fear, comparison, pride and material attachment. What remains is the soul’s capacity to love, choose, create and cooperate with God.
Letting go of habitual thought patterns may therefore be defined as the conscious recognition and release of repeated thoughts, feelings, desires and reactions that keep us identified with a limited personality. In meditation, we observe these patterns without condemnation, withdraw the attention that has sustained them and redirect the mind toward a spiritual ideal. Through free will, prayer and daily application, destructive habits are gradually replaced by peace, love, understanding and a renewed sense of spiritual identity.
A simple practice can help begin this process. Sit quietly and allow the body to relax. Bring to mind one recurring pattern that you sincerely wish to understand and release. It may be fear, resentment, self-criticism, impatience or the need for approval. Do not attempt to work on every problem at once.
Observe how the pattern usually begins. What thought awakens it? What feeling follows? What reaction does it normally produce? Acknowledge the pattern without making it your identity. Silently say, “This is a pattern within my consciousness, but it is not the whole of who I am.” Then repeat slowly: “Father, reveal the thought patterns that limit me. Help me release fear, resentment and false identification. Create within me a new heart and purpose, and let Thy peace and love direct my life.”
When the old thought returns, do not argue with it. Recognize it, release it and gently return to the affirmation. Then become still. Allow the consciousness of peace, love or forgiveness to occupy the space previously held by the habit.
Before ending the meditation, choose one practical way to express the new pattern. If you are releasing resentment, choose forgiveness in one conversation. If you are releasing fear, take one constructive step you have been avoiding. If you are releasing self-condemnation, speak to yourself with the patience you would offer another person.
Meditation does not free us from old patterns through one dramatic experience. It awakens us to the choices through which those patterns were formed and through which they can be transformed. “Not that man is awakened all at once, but here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept” (262-119).
As these truths are applied and “become a part of the experience of the soul,” the soul increasingly finds “its rest, its peace, its hope in Him” (262-119). This is the deeper freedom offered through meditation: we cease being unconsciously ruled by the habits of the past and begin consciously building a life that reflects the spiritual being we are capable of becoming.
“The spirit maketh alive, the mind is the builder, the application is the experience in the individual life.”—262-119
Meaning of Image
The dark ribbons represent habitual thoughts, fears and emotional reactions that have repeatedly controlled the mind. As they loosen and dissolve, the golden light within the person becomes visible, symbolising the deeper spiritual self beyond these patterns. The sunrise represents renewal and the freedom to choose a more loving, peaceful and constructive way of thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment