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Spiritual Self-Mastery
Spiritual mastery is, in essence, to be centered, one and whole, by alleviating the inner conflicts of body, mind and soul. This allows effort, reason and faith to act as one.
Self-mastery is often misunderstood. It is NOT self-dictatorship. It is a harmonizing and coordinating of the body, mind and soul, led by the spirit, and not a situation where either the body, mind or spirit, assumes control over the other two. It is NOT the iron hand of sheer will power forcing the body and soul into submission.
Spiritual self-mastery starts when the mind and body, as one, wholeheartedly allows spirit to lead. It is the body, mind, and soul working as a single unit under the gentle and unforced love and guidance of the Creator spirit within us. It is being liberated from the scrutiny of the flesh by realizing the relationships between local convention and universe values.
Industrialized society has conditioned us to think that the analytical mind should be dominant over the body and soul. This has resulted in people as well as the society in which they exist being unbalanced and dysfunctional. It is the analytical mind without the balancing force of the spirit that has produced such horrors as pollution, global warming, and weapons of mass destruction with disregard to the health of the body and soul. We can change this trend but it must be initiated on an individual basis so that it will penetrate into society organically from the roots. It must start from you. When we are whole, the larger holonic unit which we compose is also whole.
To accomplish a great task, one must be in the zone of qi: effort, reason and faith united as one, with a singularity of purpose and will in the moment, and carried through in the course of time. All great accomplishments have this in common. Failure results from distractions, from the wavering of intent and focus due to stress caused by conflicts between the body, mind and soul.
Faith must be relaxed - while effort must be exerted - in a singular focus that lasts from each moment to every successive moment until the goal is accomplished. This can be seen and experienced in those moments in athletics, music, science or in any endeavor when we are in the zone of qi. These are moments of eternity compressed into moments of united purpose, will and faith. This is what gets it done. And you can practice this by being mindful of it each time it happens, and by extending it moment by moment through meditation, so that those great deeds that are meaningful and of utmost value can be accomplished.
Consider yourself a committee of three: the body, mind and soul. The mind has free will to do what it wants and the common wisdom of our society says the intellect should take over. For instance, it decides it needs to work and makes the body get up an go. Of course, the body objects to many of the things the mind wants it to do, such as work that is drudgery and activities that cause discomfort. The soul is also often unhappy with where the mind is going. The soul wants to be creative, "smell the flowers" and follow the spirit. But the mind maintains control like a dictator and you are stuck in drudgery, disregarding the wants of the body and soul.
This creates stress for the body and soul. They don't like the life that they have to live, the life that the mind dictated to them, and they are going to do something about it. The body decides to get sick so it can rest, and the soul decides to be free in order to relieve the stress, which can mean indulgence in drink, drugs, sex, gambling and other risky behavior.
So now, we have a situation where there is a war going on inside you. And this is the situation for many people. From the outside they look like whole people but deep inside, they are split into warring factions with lots of blame, guilt, shame, chaos and confusion. With so much energy being spent fighting their own selves, it's no surprise that most people are unable to overcome their bad habits. How can you move in any direction if you, yourself, is divided and at a standstill fighting yourself?
The thing to do is to become whole. Become one with yourself. Don't boss the other parts of yourself around. They are equal partners during this part of the journey. When making a decision, achieve a consensus. When you work with other people in a committee, you don't treat them like slaves or peons (hopefully). So why treat the other parts of yourself as slaves? Work in harmony. Be one. Be whole.
To recognize the divine spirit within and to follow it faithfully, without conflict or reservation, is wholeness. To be not whole is to allow the body to be an automaton, a robot, disregarding both mind and spirit. Habitual drinking or overeating is a good example.
To be not whole is to also be a slave to the overbearing intellect, ignoring the needs of the body and the leadings of the spirit. A capitalist warmonger is a good example for this situation.
One can also be not whole by following an illusory spirit, by putting faith in scriptures and religious dogma instead of having faith in the personal relationship with the divine spirit within. In believing in a fear-based deity rather than on a love-based deity. Hypocritical religionists are an example of this.
However, in being whole, there must still be a place of central command, the driver of the vehicle. Since the key is balance of the whole, the soul that is at the focal point between the inner and outer realms of our Personality matrix is perfect for the job.
Who Is The Driver?
Or, who is the master when we talk of self-mastery?
Who or what is that part of you that is operating your human vehicle?
Whatever, or whomever that is, it is YOU!
That part must be obeyed by the rest of yourself. That part is the central unit, the core of decision making. Oneness with that core is the beginning of self-mastery, because that core is your Self. When all
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