by Vernon Howard
Offers the mystical route to lasting happiness
Howard teaches that suffering comes from a variety of causes. Much of our pain is caused by resistance to the truth of our inner poverty. Other causes are mistaking thoughts for reality, living in the past or the future, mistaking the false, conditioned self for the True Self and, most importantly, fear. Some tools for spiritual advancement include self-knowledge, receptivity, and present-moment awareness.
Howard contends that the message of mysticism is:
Happiness is yours in the here and now. The painful states of anxiety and loneliness are abolished permanently. Financial affairs are not financial problems. You are at ease with yourself. You are not at the mercy of unfulfilled cravings. Confusion is replaced with clarity. There is a relieving answer to every tormenting question. You possess a True Self. Something can be done about every unhappy condition. While living in the world you can be inwardly detached from its sorrows to live with personal peace and sanity.
Pretty heady promises. Mystics have always taught that our emotions are not a result of outside events but of how we interpret those events, and our interpretations may be conditioned by parents, peers, society, etc. They may spring from outdated beliefs and values that we thought served us in less than ideal circumstances.
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First and foremost, we must become self-aware. And we must not mistake the false self for the True Self that is divinely inspired. It takes courage to see one’s own flaws, and it takes wisdom to realize that these do not emanate from the True Self. No condemnation need follow such honest appraisal. After all, we can only release flaws we know about.
Since reading this book and separating myself from my thoughts and judgments and viewing them uncritically, I’ve learned quite a few things about myself. I’m embarrassed by some of what I’ve learned, or rather, my ego is embarrassed. My True Self is elated. Because I can choose now to judge differently, respond differently.
5 stars!
Buy The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power.
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