Page 35 - NAMAH-Jul-2024

Namah Walk Away from Self-Pity

Replay the events leading to the affliction as If the work becomes a strain, it is only your
faithfully as possible. Watch the play unfold ego complaining. Acknowledge the present
as disinterestedly as possible, like someone reality and leave it for a moment, initially at
viewing a film. It is a production of your own least. Do something else for a while. Take
making. Engage in the emotions and the drama up a mundane task if you wish, but go back
but understand that you are also a spectator. whenever you feel ready again.
Do not identify with what you see. Connect
and keep your station above the play. Try to sense this, ‘Something’ which is quietly
working behind the play. If you feel it, identify
Looking at things in this manner makes it with it. It wants to help you; it wants to
easier to interpret such movements. Realise nourish and direct your growth. If you have
what has caused this self-pity in the first the slightest inkling of this Presence, offer
place. There should be a sense of distance, and give yourself to it. Consciously accept
although the one you are watching is its guidance. This action will help it step
yourself. Knowing the cause will be a major forward even more! Collaborate with it.
breakthrough. Knowing where the malaise Hold onto it. This is a decisive moment in
comes from will allow you to move forward your practice.
in a more aligned way. You cannot change
the preceding plot, but the conclusion is You will have to do this many times. We are
entirely in your hands. You can project into constantly playing hide and seek with the
the future and modify the outcome. Instil the Divine. The process has been likened by Sri
trust and self-confidence that was missing Aurobindo to straightening a dog’s tail. No
in your real-time experience. You will walk matter how many times you straighten it,
away armed with a greater trust in what life it always returns to its old shape. Until one
throws at you. day, after much persistence, the tail becomes
straight! Trust in the process and be grateful.
Continuity of practice There is no space for self-pity in gratitude.

Sustaining our practice is sometimes difficult. One key is to find and appreciate the joy in the
The truth is, we switch ourselves on and then effort. Quietly invoke the Divine Presence
we switch ourselves off. We find ourselves before you apply any effort. Something
repeatedly doing this. This is inevitable, but new silently takes over. It will make a huge
we have to work against a current which has difference. Look for the permanent in you.
been reinforced by our own ignorant nature. The breath is something more lasting. It is
We are all growing souls. Practice is about with you always, right up to the moment
joining all the dots. It is about maintaining a that you leave your body. Be with your
continuous flow of aspiration. We are nothing natural breath and open the gaps for the
without aspiration. It is a way of bridging indwelling Presence to enter. Observe it
those gaps in awareness. It is about laying a all happening. Watch it rise and fall; feel it
foundation where no affliction (be it self-pity balancing and calming your being. Try to
even) is allowed to enter. be conscious of it always. For a long time,
you will not succeed. When you falter and

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