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the parts that make you up: the body, mind, and the soul are unified in that oneness, then you are whole. You are one. This wholeness, this oneness of being is the prerequisite for self-mastery. Self-mastery is a road, a path that leads to greater and greater control of our self, our environment, and our destiny.
Initially, self-mastery is just learning to control one's self. Being able to control one's body and mind so as to be able to go where one wants and to do what one wants. To take one's own advice. To be able to follow one's highest leadings. It is basically a simple thing. Why can't we control our own body and mind? Why can't someone wishing to stop smoking unable to do so? Why can't some people stay on diets? Why can't people simply make themselves do the things they want to do? Why are people who have mastery over themselves considered exceptional? This shouldn't be the exception, this should be the norm.
Pause and think for a moment or two on this. It is quite appalling. We, humans, can't control ourselves.
Again, lets look at this closely. When we say "being able to control one's body and mind," who are we talking about? Who is doing the controlling? Who is the self and what is it trying to master?
This is an important question. Who are you that wants to be master? You must have a good idea of who you are, your "self", before you can have self-mastery. So who are you? This basic knowledge is crucial to self-mastery and the possibility of eternal life, as we shall see. This is self-awareness, the foundation of the soul, and is the beginning of everything.
So who are you? Who wants who to stop smoking? Who can't stop who from drinking or eating too much? We all have a body that needs to be controlled but sometimes it doesn't respond to our commands. If you want to stop your car, you step on the brake pedal and you come to a stop. Why can't we do that with our bodies? Once we decide upon a course of action, why can't we stick to it?
We like to change our minds. It is our right, an expression of freedom, and we do it often. But in many things we don't change our minds. Our loyalties, our principles and our values change slowly. Activities revolving around those traits are the ones that we stick to for the longest duration. Activity spurred on by the soul are based on eternal values, they last. Activity desired by the body provide for immediate needs and are often transitory in nature. Activity thought up by the mind can be logical and intellectually appealing but without attachment to long lasting values will fade. That is why programs that work to control substance abuse have spiritual overtones.
So we can control ourselves, as long as we have a good enough reason to. What constitutes good reason? It all depends on who is doing the driving. Who drives the human vehicle determines not only how you master yourself, but also your ability to control yourself and bring out your highest potential.
So who's doing the driving? Taken as a whole, we are an aggregate of body, mind and soul/spirit, the Personality matrix. But the mind within our Personality matrix is the thinking arena in which we make our decisions; how we think and what we think determines to a large degree who and what we are. The mind determines what it wants to identify with, how it sees itself. And how you see yourself determines to a great degree what aspect of yourself you are placing in the driver's seat.. How do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as pure mind? Or do you identify more with your body? Or your soul?
If you see yourself as just your body, your mind gives authority to the body's wants and desires over all other considerations. You are concerned only with pleasing yourself and the biological urges of the body. To a person who sees himself as body, self-mastery would mean the ability to get everything the body wants. Satisfaction of basic physical needs such as food, stimuli, sex and comfort would be part and parcel of this life condition. The body becomes the master of the human vehicle.
In the past, many ascetics blamed the body's desires as being an obstacle to spiritual growth. Their error was in trying to totally negate the wants of the flesh in an effort to disenfranchise the body from the wholeness of personality. This watchcare of the flesh is an isolating and separating practice but was a necessary experiment in the evolution of spiritual self-mastery. It is true that the body must be controlled so that its desires not overwhelm the aims and goals of the spirit lead entity. The correct way to achieve this is through love and respect of the whole organism: body, mind and soul. The autocratic demands of the mind must give way to tolerance, understanding, respect and love for the natural desires and wants of our human vehicle. We must be one and whole, not separating, rejecting or repressing any part of us as being evil or unnecessary.
If you think of yourself as your intellect, you live according to the dictates of your mind. You are mainly concerned with doing the things your mind has figured out for you. It tells you what is right and wrong and how to act based on your intellectual abilities. To a person who sees himself only as mind, self-mastery would mean the ability to acquire those things that his mind has decided is desirable. Those things could be philosophical, ideological, symbolic, accomplishments, degrees, glory, wealth. The mind has power to overrule the wants of the body, given the effort. A person that identifies only with mind has made logic and intellect the master of the human vehicle.
However, the self is composed of more than just the body and mind, there exists a soul and spirit. The existence of the soul and spirit cannot be proven by science. It is a completely subjective experience. Either one feels the spirit within or one doesn't. Either one believes or doesn't. However, one can prove, circumstantially, the reality of spirit by seeing the effects of believing in spirit and living accordingly.
Because science as we know it is unable to prove the existence of spirit, we have to take it on faith, our own experiences, and from the recounted experiences of countless individuals that there is within all people, a divine spirit, the still voice, the Christ Consciousness, a fragment of the Creator that resides within our hearts. This divine spark guides us and leads the way toward unity and harmony in our lives. When the mind recognizes this spirit and follows its leadings, there is created what is often known as the soul. The soul is the direct offspring of mind and spirit. The soul is the very best part of you that was created when you first realized the difference between right and wrong and continues to grow and evolve with each new moral decision that you make. This soul is the part of you that will survive after the death of your material
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