I believe in self development. That is what all life-forms do. Plants develop themselves, animals develop themselves, human beings develop themselves. Growth and development is the nature of life. Along with physical qualities, also mental capacities develop themselves.
At a certain stage of mental development, there comes a point where the mind becomes só sensitive, that it can become aware of its own source.
At some point in our mental development we start to notice that thoughts and feelings come automatically, and that they arise spontaneously from some inner source.
A natural curiosity makes us wonder what that silent source of thought actually is!
Then we notice, that the more silent we become, the more near to the source we feel. The source of thought gives us more and more authentic thoughts, more original thoughts, thoughts that really feel as 'our' thoughts.
When we want to know more about the source of our thoughts, we notice that a kind of surrender is required. A sense of devotion grows in us, when we want to get closer to what feels as our essence. This development also requires an increasing amount of relaxation. Less and less we dó the development; more and more we experience it happening inside ourselves.
From this natural and universal experience, that takes place as soon as we allow our mind-body system to deeply relax, comes the sense of surrender to a 'higher power.' This surrender involves a shift of our sense of identity! Naturally as a child we started out by identifying ourselves with our mind-body system, but now that we are grown up, there arises the identification with the source of our thoughts! This source is experienced as our real self, our true I-dentity. Arriving at this sense of identity, feels like really coming home.
Notice how the sense of identity becomes increasingly abstract. First it was our body, then it was our mind, now it is the source of our mind-body system, with wich we identify ourselves!
The self is experienced as consciousness, nothing but pure consciousness. Pure awareness, we may also call it. There are no thoughts in consciousness! It is the source of thoughts! In this state of self-awareness, we are free to chose any thought we like! As such, it is a field of freedom and all possibilities. Here we are free to create any thought and any feeling we want!
Thus, paradoxically, the experience of surrender, devotion, letting go of control, has brought us to a level where we have much more control over our lives than what we previously considered possible. Formerly we spent much energy and effort in order to develop and control ourselves or our environment, but now we take it easy and allow our thoughts, wishes and desires to manifest themselves effortlessly.
This is the style of living for which the human mind-body system was originally designed. It is a balanced and wise state of self-awareness, in which we feel constantly surrendered and connected to a higher Power. This higher Power is the universal and cosmic nature of pure consciousness, which by religions is referred to as God, Shiva, Allah, Tao, etc. Religions lose their fanatic side and confusing nature, as soon as they are interpreted in the light of this personal but also universal experience.
Drs. Frans Langenkamp Ph.D. Cultural Anthropologist and Vedanta expert.
