|
The Path of the MasterAll steps on this path are fully conscious and measured choices. The first step is the most important. DisidentifyNever lose your sense of identity in anything – your nation, politics, beliefs, teams, even family …anything! The first moment of attraction is also the first moment of identification. Identify with the flower, the team, the flag and you have, for that moment, just lost your self. Be attractive to others and you are inviting them to lose themselves in you. Is that healthy? Is that the kind of mastery you want? Or is that just power over others weakness, which is no power at all, and another false turn into the slavery of dependence? Do you respect yourself when you become dependant on the obeject of your identification? Do you respect others when you become their object of identification? A master is vigilant at every moment. A master is attractive but not attracting. A master is attracted but never subsumed by the object of his or her attraction. A master never identifies with anyone or any thing except their own self. This choice allows them the next luxury.DetachmentIs paradoxically what gives you back your power, for while you are attached you lose your power to the object of attachment Next time you are in an art gallery watch people watching the paintings. Seldom do you see anyone with their nose inches from the canvas. Detachment simply means standing back and observing. Big picture consciousness is then possible and meaning is better discerned, and more likely to be accurate and complete. This inner skill of detachment is not taught by our parents or teachers, so our journey becomes a series of nose scraping experiences as we get too close to the canvas of life. Masters never get too close to anyone or situation but they never turn their back and walk away. Masters never consume the emotions and moods of others but never deny their validity. Master never invite themselves to help but never deny assistance when invited. Detachment allows perspective, meaning, understanding and action to flow in one seamless movement. Why? Because it creates inner space and feeds accurate and more complete information to a masters most important ability.DiscriminationIs your ability to discern right from wrong, true from false Can you tell the difference between a genuine Rolex and an immitation, between mineral water and tap water, between someone telling a lie and telling the truth? In matters of truth masters of the art of discrimination have a strong connection to their own conscience. That’s the space inside that knows what is right and wrong, what is true and what is false. This is our source of innate wisdom from where the voice of intuition will speak. Hearing this voice is impossible when the mind and intellect are clouded with the noise of desire and dependency. Knowing the value of self sensitivity, masters cultivate this quiet inner voice and learn to trust its guidance when faced with the challenge of making decisions.DecisionIs your capacity to see and consciously choose the correct action/direction With hundreds of small, medium and large decision in every day, where each decision is like a fork in the road ahead, where there is no turning back because time only knows how to go forward, where each decision will affect the lives of others – how important is a decision. If governed by attraction and attachment, and the voice of innate wisdom is quietly strangled, life will be a series of wrong turns and unfortunate accidents. Purpose will be absent, meaning impossible, destiny will be in the hands of mere chance and pain will be our companion. Masters understand that each decision is created by the inner artist. It is a painting, a sculpture, a symphony drawn and moulded on the canvas of a quiet mind which allows experience, wisdom, care and purpose to be united and shaped by the highest intentions. This process is beyond time. If rushed by an external clock it is will be coloured by fear. And fear is the darkest cloud. A fear driven decision is no decision, it is only either panic or compulsion. But if the decision is fear free, the master has available an energy and a capacity which knows no price.DeterminationIs your ability to something through to completion With the energy sucking hindrances of dependency and addiction now off the menu, power is available to ‘make things happen’. Powerful, important and focused decisions attract their own obstacles and tests. Determination means to de – terminate or never stop. To have no end to forward movement. Faced with the obstacles of others resistance or disapproval, faced with the outer tests of unexpected circumstance and the inner tests of their own not yet fully healed weaknesses, masters can continue to determine their own chosen destiny. No thing and nobody can stop them. Force is never used to overcome. Instead, patient conversation and intelligent persuasion are the surgical tools of determination. And so the path is chosen, consciously, wisely and freely. And true freedom is tasted. To a master, freedom is not a noun, it is a verb. Choice is not a task it is a process. And mastery is not an option, it is a natural way to live.
|
