Three Extraordinary Ideas to Help You Find Lasting Freedom
In those quiet, but magnificent moments of life––where we are suddenly given a glimpse of something so beautiful that it quiets the mind––we know that we stand in the presence of something that represents a new and higher order of ourselves. What we’ve yet to understand about these fleeting experiences is that they are an invitation to become fully conscious of these timeless and vital forces as a living part of who and what we are in reality. In such moments we know, without having to think about it, that as beautiful as the world around us may be, it pales in comparison to the world that awaits us within us. Let’s illustrate this last idea.
If you’ve ever taken a walk through a deep wood on the sunlit day and stood in the silent shafts of light streaming down and through the trees, then you know, even though these bright beams seem to appear randomly and separately, each ray of light comes from a common source: the sun. The same holds true with these beautiful timeless qualities that sometimes streak into and through our hearts and minds. These celestial characteristics are the fleeting expressions of our own yet to be realized True Self. But if this is true, which it is, what is it that keeps us from permanently entering into this extraordinary life? As you’ll see, the answer is surprising!
We don’t really know where to look! Or perhaps, more clearly stated, we tend to be looking in the wrong places because, at present, we see our life through a part of us–our senses–that “tell” us that we live apart from all that we see. The sorry result of this incomplete perception is undeniable: instead of an undivided relationship with the extraordinary life within us, we are reduced to a frantic search outside of ourselves, at best finding only temporary fragments of the freedom for which we so long.
How do we regain–—realize––our relationship with the innermost truth of ourselves? What must we do to enter into a conscious relationship with the extraordinary life within us? Use the following three simple exercises to do two things at once: first, to reveal what stands between you and the higher freedom you seek, and then to release you from the same. There’s an old saying that “rain follows the plow.” So is it true that realizing our true higher possibilities follows the interior work necessary to realize them.
3 Tips for Lasting Freedom
[dropcap]1.[/dropcap] Open Up To Real Life: Dare to see and experience yourself as you are without giving names to any of the myriad states of self that present themselves before your inner eyes. Resist the temptation to interrupt whatever thoughts and feelings are rushing through you by trying to explain to yourself why you’re having the experience that you are. Why open yourself up to life in this way? Because it’s the only way to see that the true extraordinary you can no more be defined by a single thought or feeling then can the sun be known through a solitary beam of light.
[dropcap]2. [/dropcap] Do What You Fear Doing: every time you will take the leap into what you are psychologically afraid of doing, the extraordinary life within you will prove that it’s unshakable ground is everywhere beneath you at all times. To know that you can’t fail as long as you’re willing to learn what the moment reveals about yourself is the same as understanding there’s nowhere for you to go but up!
[dropcap]3.[/dropcap] Take Time Once A Day For Your Self: What we must remember is that the extraordinary life is timeless, and if we would share its life, we must enter into its world. Here’s a good place to start: whenever you can remember to do so, choose to consciously step out of that gilded, but self confining, cage called “thinking about yourself.” At least once a day sit quietly with the intention of observing the movement of your own mind. Learning to watch your thoughts in this impersonal way gradually teaches you what can be discovered in no other way: just as the hands of a clock can only go around and around, so it holds true for the level of mind always frantically searching for highest possibilities in passing time. Who you really are is timeless, and only this realization can grant you the extraordinary peace of being who you really are.
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About the Author
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of more than 40 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. For more information, visit www.guyfinley.org.
