FOUR STEPS TO GREATER SELF
RELIANCE
A zillion years ago in 1950
when I was a senior in college, I took a comparative religion
course. At the time the popular perception of God around me
was of someone "out there"- someone to pray to. When
I ran into an ex-priest at a party I asked him, "If you
believe that God is inside and you get in trouble, who you pay
too?" He said," You simple dig deeper within yourself
and pull yourself up by your bootstraps."
So for the majority of my life,
I did it alone, by myself-not asking for help, not relying on
anyone. But someplace in the last ten years of my metaphysical
study, I began to understand how to feel the support that surrounds
me and how to call on it in my time of indecision. It was a
huge relief. I had been living in self-sufficiency. What I needed
to do was live in self-reliance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the father
of New Thought, has an incredible essay called "Self Reliance"
in which he suggests these four steps to greater self-reliance:
Know Oneness
Where I had gone wrong is that
I forgot about my Invisible Self, the part of me that extends
into and is a part of the Infinite All-That-Is. When I truly
understand that I exist in a cosmic soup in which everyone and
everything is a valued ingredient, I understand that I have
access to everything and anything I need and desire. Without
asking for it, without needing it first. When I stay open to
the organic flow of life, the perfect opportunities and circumstances
appear. I do not have to ask. I do not have to beg. I only need
to accept.
To direct the flow, I make choices.
Choices on where to focus, focus on what to think, focus on
what I accept or reject.
Emerson says, "Prayer that
craves a particular commodity, anything less than all good,
is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life
from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding
and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works
good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness
and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness.
As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will
then see prayer in all action."
All prayer is in our action.
It is in our choices, our intensions and our embracing everything
as One.
Seek The Stillness Within
The answers lie only within.
They do not lie in the words of other people, they do not lie
in books and speeches. Every answer we need lies within our
own hearts, assessable by moving into that serene stillness
within. Emerson says, "The soul is no traveler; the wise
man stays at home…My giant goes with me wherever I go."
What home we make, what peace
we find, is created by ourselves, within ourselves. If I focus
on the love and kindness and beauty around me I will live immersed
in a world of love and kindness and beauty. If I spend my time
being angry, or mad or focusing on what is not working my giant
stays with me until, though love, I bring it down to size.
Cultivate inner peace through
inner stillness.
Know Your Own Truth
Insist on being your glorious,
unique, precious self; never imitate. Emerson says, "Your
own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force
of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of
another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That
which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him…Do
that which is assigned you and you cannot hope too much or dare
too much."
When we recognize our own value,
when we honor that value, we draw to us others who love and
value us in return. Then we are in our greatest power and can
give unconditionally.
Be True To Your Calling and Principles
Stand alone. Stand alone and
be true to your values, your passion, your heart, your talents
and the inner urge that directs your action.
Emerson tells us, "It is
only as a man puts off all foreign support and stands alone
that I see him to be strong and to prevail. The great genius
returns to essential man. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."
When we embrace our essence
which is divine, follow its guidance and inner wisdom, honor
and respect our unique gifts and contributions, and let every
choice direct us along the path of our true calling, we will
become self-reliant.
Enlightened people have perceived the truth
that all life in its essential nature is indivisible.
-The Three Pillars of Zen, Edited by Philip
Kapleau.
© 2006 Cara Lumen
