There are methods to help us make important perceptual changes to achieve our natural potential without unwanted influences getting in our way. Even those who are clear already, without harmful obstacles, will still need to work hard to understand what they are already experiencing.
· One valuable perception we can cultivate right now is giving ourselves permission to change.
A friend said recently they felt doomed to failure because their lack of confidence is combined with not feeling as if they deserved the positive changes. Perhaps someone suffering from confidence paralysis could leap from that position by using positive affirmations that have worked for others such as:
"I am good enough to be the best me possible, in fact, I was born to be me! I hereby give myself authorization to change."
"Change is happening already. I know that because I have changed my mind a dozen times just today!
By giving myself formal permission to change, I am placing a healthy pressure on beneficial changes, rather than just allowing ordinary change to take place."
This is not like hippy philosophy, "You have got to just go with the flow, man." We are not going to go with the flow, man. We make effort so that the changes are the ones we want.
· Make space and time for preparation of the arrival of the new you.
For example, set up a meditation place. Even if you do not have a formal meditation practice yet, just for welcoming it, set up a sacred space. Get a special bookshelf for only Buddhist books or ones related to your special goal. Set aside minutes at a regular time to quietly discover by contemplation, as well as finding and disinviting poor influences.
· Keep a journal of ideas and plans you are working on, as well as recording successes and failures to remind yourself of inner work and what you need to change to realize your goal.
· Attend seminars, workshops, spiritual teachings and retreats in person.
It is useful to understand spiritual goals and how to get there by the powerful examples and inspiration that still exist in this world. If you do not receive teachings or trainings, do not have time or make effort to go to retreat, then it is not so easy to create the supportive environment where changes can take place.
· Spend time thinking about the special challenges you need to be immersed in right now and what you personally need to work on.
For example, reducing anger or connecting the reality of the goal to the reality of your life creates new cues and clues in your daily life that will remind you of new strategies by observing yourself and others in action.
· Develop a strong determination to get rid of harmful influences to whole-heartedly want to work on habits that have been holding you imprisoned.
For example, a lack of self-respect or not completing what you have promised to do, is debilitating. Many of us suffer from the effects of our own bad habits preventing us from following through, even small things. What to say of big things like becoming the one they want to be? If I are supposed to meet someone at a certain a time or promised to do a Dharma activity by preparing a paper or making a few phone calls for a Dharma event, and do not do it, what to say about my enlightenment potential?
Perhaps you still hang onto a poor habit that has been holding you imprisoned. Perhaps it is a lack of value placed on the goal of fullfillment rather than the importance placed on money making or social status. Some believe that those goals have higher value than the freedom of the awakened state of enlightenment. This confusion or conflicting goals can hold them imprisoned in a life no different from an ox. The farmer puts a ring in its nose, ties it to a post, and uses it by making it walk in a circle around the post, threshing grains from chaff as it is still done in some third world countries. Marching around and around in a circle, the ox receives no benefit or goes anywhere in its long walk. There is something more valuable than just moneymaking and social status and that is higher development.
· Perhaps what has been holding you prisoner is a belief that it might take more time and effort than you are willing to give.
You should make a promise to yourself to break this stalemate. A good method is in the daily Buddhist refuge, the promise you make to yourself to attain the goal of full enlightenment in order to be someone of real benefit to others who are so much in need.
· Visit regularly with someone you get along with who encourages your practice. Be inspired by others, so that you can learn how to become an inspiration also.
· Rejoice that you are in the process of becoming the new you by your own efforts and determination.
No one will try to control you when you are feeling more successful. By your own efforts and determination, you will change. Do not give up! Do not give up just because old dynamics, harsh habits, or defective criteria, are still somewhat alive in you. If you falter by beginning meditation practice, and one day realize that you have not meditated in four days, do not beat yourself up. Just begin again fresh! Do not worry! Just begin again.
· Overcome irrational fear.
Courageously seek in your own mind any crossed wires that inappropriately link concepts; for example, status and spirituality. Confusion of conflicting goals need to be destroyed because they will cause fear that does not seem to have a reasonable basis.
· Watch out for signs of Santa Claus thinking.
This deep-rooted influence is inside many fine people; on one level they are certain that an implanted belief does not exist, but pray to it to give them something they want without making effort. They do this because they want the goodies under the tree, like the certainty that it is Santa Claus who brings them what they want. This fantasy is often imbedded in the excited and happy mind at a young age.
Santa Claus is coming….oooooooh! Kids are excited about Santa and want to believe so much in the magic of getting anything with no effort. Something happens in the way memories change into beliefs will cause this to internalize. For many adults, this becomes an important dynamic in their interaction with the world. This is why some people find it difficult to be grounded and realistic. Perhaps you do not understand friends who are like this; their actions don't relate with the reality of the situation. They often find life difficult because they don't get what they feel they deserve or expect. They make poor choices because there is something they desire, and are innately sure their faith is going to give it to them. This faith is not built upon spiritual values but built upon craving and inappropriate desire. This relates to important judgments some people make that influence how they approach spiritual life as well.
The high energy of, for example, believing in Santa Claus as a child might imprint the inner mind with an error dynamic applied to life. This is important and deep inner work: the uprooting of errors to clear the way for new growth. Defective dynamics make us sick and cause us to remain ordinary. Healthy elements that could recreate us might already exist in us in a natural way, but are covered by errors caused by wrong influences.
In this way, unhappily, we might develop strategies in spiritual search that interfer with what we need to do. Many spiritual search patterns, I believe, enhance "Santa Claus thinking" and do not leave room for the actual work; the clarification and purification of perceptions. Now the goodies become spiritual experiences or craving "feel-good feelings." These are the new goodies under the tree we want to find there with no effort on our part. This is the Santa Claus that does not exist!
Lastly, begin to act like the new you, and abandon old, defective dynamics.
For example, tell others that you are a meditator; don't hide. More importantly, rejoice that you are doing your part to make it happen. Your experiences on the path of perfection will be a delight and effortless as you remember that the goal is valuable; not only valuable, but it is only gained step by step. This makes your current efforts a treasure, isn't that so?
http://www.satisfiedbuddhist.blogspot.com/
http://www.hermitagebuddhistpublishing.com/
http://www.grandtransitions.org/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/domo-geshe-rinpoche-teachings/id387058479
Domo Geshe Rinpoche is a reincarnate Lama of the Geluk tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Domo Geshe Rinpoche lineage includes Je Pabongka Rinpoche, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and the great Geshe Jampa Chombe. As a reincarnate, Domo Geshe Rinpoche has accomplished extensive training and retreats in the traditional manner. Rinpoche's current incarnation has been teaching in the United States for a number of years, held numerous retreats and given other spiritual training from the Geluk and tantric lineage.
