Quantcast
Channel: tesshughes.com
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 23

An example of self-inquiry

0
0

 

The first step in self inquiry is self observation. If you don’t see your own inner workings you cannot analyse them. What you cannot see about yourself, you are unconscious of. I think it was Carl Jung who said that what we are unconscious of rules us but we take control of ourselves by becoming conscious of our inner workings. Self observation is the first step in making what is unconscious conscious. It is the first step on spiritual change or growth.

Since the human mind is home to many, many ideas, beliefs, assumptions,  etc. we have to perform this process of self-inquiry many many times, to uncover all of them. Self-inquiry is a skill that is likely to develop awkwardly at first, hit and miss observation of some inner goings on. Like any skill, with practice it becomes second nature, to the point where you wonder how you could have ever lived in ignorance of your own minds functioning, and how it dictates your emotional life.

 

Monasteries are dedicated to self-inquiry

 

Let me describe for you here where one observation led me. 

What I noticed was that I was not engaging fully and authentically with someone who was telling me about a book she had read, a “spiritual” book. I was holding back in terms of meeting her enthusiasm for this book and her understanding of the spiritual message in it. But, and this is an important aspect of self-observation, I was aware that I was polite enough to not show this. I was acting interested enough to make the social interaction pleasant and acceptable. I was aware of my own socialisation, this same socialisation that usually spared or prevented me from looking deeper into my own inner workings. The function of socialisation is to oil the wheels of interactions between people. The normal agenda when visiting with a friend would be to have a pleasant social interaction. But, with self-inquiry, the agenda is to become able to see one’s own inner workings, how your personal mind functions and remember it functions best in normal everyday interactions.

So, having first noticed that I was holding back from full engagement, I asked myself what I was holding back on and why. It emerged that I felt/thought that my understanding was superior to my friends. This led me to wondering if there is such a thing as one perfect understanding for any idea and that I in comparing her understanding with mine, I felt mine was superior.  So, if there is one perfect understanding, where does it come from or how would one know if they had it? This led me to realising that each of us understands what we understand as a result of our total life experiences and intellectual ideas at any specific time. So, her understanding was perfect for her and mine was for me. I uncovered a hidden assumption about what understanding is. I had been operating on the basis that “understanding” was some kind of universal idea and that there was a perfect goal to be reached with it.

This led me to see clearly that each person is on their own journey, and always working on the place that is right for them at that time. There is no comparison. 

Each person has their own direct connection with their inner Self and their journey is about getting back to That. 

We don’t feel superior to a child who has a limited understanding of the world. We recognise that they are a “half formed thing”. 

But, we act as if all other adults should be fully formed things and then find them wanting in comparison to ourselves, or else we find ourselves wanting in comparison to the other. Ego thrives on comparing. 

I also saw that I had been using the interaction as a way of fuelling my sense of superiority, while keeping this under cover. This is a definition of ego in action.

Ego uses every situation to enhance or consolidate its own position or sense of self, be that positive or negative.

We have been socialised to cover over this, to the extent that we lose sight of our own agendas.

No matter how well you understand this idea, it does not compare in effect to the actuality of seeing yourself acting out of the ego mindset. Self observation is catching yourself (ego) in the act. This is how you uncover the hidden assumptions, motivations, beliefs, etc.

The change that happened to me as a result of this bit of inquiry was to see the falsity of comparison of one person with another, most notably myself. This does not mean that we can’t compare each other on mundane skills but in terms of our essential nature, there is no comparison. 

No human being, in essence, is superior or inferior to another but ego operates from a different perspective. Ego acts from the perspective of the relative, where all is comparison. 

Each persons life journey is a movement from the relative back to the universal and this means losing the false notions we have been acting from. But, first we have to catch them in action in ourselves.

Below is a link to my memoir, which is really about a life of self-inquiry and how it led me from unconsciousness to consciousness to Self-Realisation. It is the journey that is available to everyone and that answers our deepest need. To say that it is life changing is an understatement, life changing in the best possible way.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Above-All-Journey-Self-Discovery/dp/0986445711/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530966593&sr=1-2&keywords=this+above+all

The post An example of self-inquiry appeared first on tesshughes.com.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 23

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images