Understanding the Circuit of Life

Much of the quality of our lives depends on how we react to what were aware of in life. Every moment we face the choice to either allow our negative emotions to distort how we treat others or let the free flow of love, goodness, and acceptance bathe others with spiritual blessings.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Much of the quality of our lives depends on how we react to what were aware of in life. Every moment we face the choice to either allow our negative emotions to distort how we treat others or let the free flow of love, goodness, and acceptance bathe others with spiritual blessings. Although a great deal of life is imposed upon us by what we can't control, another side to this equation is that every moment offers us the liberty to freely choose the attitude we need to react to our situations.

To an extent, life presents circumstances that reveal our limitations. This should be taken as part of our pre-scripted purpose. However, within the bounds of our purpose lies a dramatic level of liberty at our disposal, waiting to discharge limitless possibilities into the world. As humans, we're loaded with emotions that can infringe upon our natural response to our fellow man's success or rewards. We can't escape it. It's part of the fabric of the human heart.

The instant we notice someone being recognized for their talents, praised for their achievements, extolled for their beauty, and loved for their character, feelings surface that will either direct us toward accepting the honor others receive or disrupting the experience of our inner unity. It's what we do and how we handle this pivotal moment that will determine the enrichment our lives will ultimately obtain.

As social beings, we are never without these moments in our lives, so we can basically alter the quality of our lives at any given moment. The quality of our lives can be impoverished or enriched, depending on how well we respond to or how much were responsible for the success of others. The emotions we project into the world set in order a corresponding effect from the world around us. If other people's success restrains our natural expression of love and forces us to be emotionally stagnate, our potential for fulfillment will be limited because we have already conditioned ourselves to contract the free flow of love from others.

It's the moral principle of "you reap what you sow." This is the reason why Jesus Christ has said, "With the measure you use to give it shall be measured to you." This is a universal principle that applies to all actions of human behavior. The quality of energy you radiate is the quality of the energy you shall in turn receive. Humanity is contained by a circuit of reciprocating energy. "Short circuits" arise when we're not aware of how our emotions influences how we treat other people.

This is why spiritual development is a vital discipline to harness. It allows one to understand the essential components of positive energy. When we condition our instincts in the pursuit of higher moral principles, our energy output is optimized and this will ensure that other people respond to our needs in a manner advantageous for our well-being. A hard and seldom known fact is that much of our well-being is based on the implicit appreciation we receive from other people. Humans cannot genuinely feel good about themselves without acknowledging how their actions are positively affecting other people.

Were it not for the validation we receive from other people, our identities would be void of content; we wouldn't know who we truly are. The only certainty we have for connecting with other people is that we sincerely support their best interests. Any emotion that sets us apart from achieving that goal impedes the satisfaction of our own spiritual interests. When we envision other people, were actually seeing a distinct form of ourselves. Every person is an extension of everyone else. There are no concrete forms of separation just distinct shades of unity within humanity. As Eckhart Tolle said, "Separation is the basis for the ego's sense of identity." Differences are only illusions the ego conjures up to feel important. If we remain emotionally unresponsive toward the needs of other people, we drift ourselves further away from the source of our own good.

When Jesus Christ said, "Do to others as you would want them to do to you," in essence he's actually teaching that other people are really alternating reflections of our own character. People are the transparent device from which we observe and account for our own nature. So when we harm or wish ill will upon another person, we're implicitly harming ourselves. The value of our internal state is determined by the measure of love and goodness we show to others. By allowing love, faith, and hope to be the conditioning influences of our spirit, we set ourselves on course to enhance our own livelihood.

For more by Raymond Torres, click here.

For more on spiritual development, click here.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE