Boon or bane

Boon or bane

September 2012

One evening I was trying to meditate. But somehow I could not succeed in calming my monkey mind enough to feel the peace and expansion of awareness. Frustration welled up.

Disappointed, I said aloud, “I will never become self-realised.” And WHAM….out of the blue, I heard, “How do you know you are not self-realised?” I was stunned. I thought, “How could I be self-realised? I am such an ordinary person…or could I be?”

Finally I truthfully answered, “I do not know.” The advice that I got was, “You are creating limitations based on your beliefs. Break free from the chain of beliefs and transcend the limitations. Start anew. Your destiny awaits you.”

In the beginning I was confused, not sure how to practice this simple sounding advice. But slowly and surely things started to change. My basic perceptions changed. I realised, a lot of things I considered absolute truths, were simply my beliefs!

Beliefs which were so deeply ingrained that I never bothered to check or question them. Perhaps because I had inherited them from my parents, my family, society or religion.

Positive thinking and affirmation are very much in vogue for bringing about changes and for achieving goals, but quite often, the carefully thought-out affirmation does not work. It is because your belief, unknown to your conscious mind, is countermanding the affirmation. Belief can be a boon or a bane. So keep a watch.

- Sumila Bahadur via email