What are the moment-to-moment thoughts we are projecting every day?
From the soul's perspective, there is no more practical question than this, since the way we are thinking and feeling all the time forms our spiritual relationship with the world.
The more superficial sense of "I" that we experience as our private, individual, personality is formed by the thoughts, emotions and memories we habitually fall back into whenever we are not actively engaged with the outer world. This habit-mind is a kind of default stance that we are most familiar with, the stream of consciousness we "hear" when we silently "talk to ourselves." We are most familiar with this "me" because we have lived with it our whole life: It is, of course, the sum of all the body's experiences. The thoughts we think, the emotions we feel and the memories we relive by habit -- these are the components of our personal life-mood, the relatively constant way we have felt about our life since childhood that determines how we respond to what happens to us.
Our life-mood -- our personal demeanor, our lifelong disposition -- pours out of us into the invisible world of spiritual cause-and-effect that creates change in the visible world. In the long term, these ingrained attitudes create a stagnant relationship with the world around us: When our moment-to-moment thoughts remain the same, our personal power and success and luck remain the same. The consistent inner actions we are habitually producing radiate out into the spiritual environment, where they interact with those of others. It is in this realm that we can change our life for the better: When we change our moment-to-moment thoughts, we change our personal power and success and luck.
Soul-thoughts express the soul's intention to live in harmony with our spiritual environment: They are inner actions that we consciously take up to replace our habitual thoughts, emotions and memories. They are ancient thoughts that evoke new emotions and memories, thereby opening the door for a new moment-to-moment stream of consciousness to pour out of us into the realm of spiritual cause-and-effect.
Such soul-thoughts are timeless lessons of wisdom that have for ages been used to align the personality with the soul. They attune our personality to the laws of spiritual cause-and-effect, bringing it into harmony with the underlying harmony of the world. By concentrating on soul-thoughts instead of allowing our habit mind to run away with us, we change our relationship to the world -- by thinking soul-thoughts instead of habit-thoughts, we rise above the pettiness of self-centeredness that has been holding us back from experiencing our birthright of full personal power, success and luck.
Soul-thoughts, then, orient the personality to the compass points of the spiritual landscape. The practice of concentrating on each in turn evokes more sublime sensitivities and engenders more profound experiences -- it allows us, in other words, to respond to events in creative, spontaneous and beneficial ways rather than continuing to react in predictable and habitual ways. By shifting our attention away from the narrow view of the personality's self-interest, we paradoxically make the personality more successful. This occurs because soul-thoughts resonate with the underlying harmony of the spiritual laws of cause-and-effect, thereby unlocking the hidden doors leading to greater personal power, success and luck. In this sense, working with soul-thoughts enhances the way we interact with others and allows us to make new kinds of decisions -- not simply more effective ones, but startling and surprising decisions that carry us into a new and more exciting life.
Try replacing your self-defeating thoughts with the statements in italics below for extended periods of time -- thinking them in your heart, feeling them in your mind -- to both calm the negative habits of your personality and experience the presence of your soul closer to the surface of everyday awareness.
Five Soul-Thoughts for a Radiant Life
1. Assessing Present Thoughts:
As an immortal spirit, are these the thoughts, feelings and memories I choose to carry for eternity?
2. Attaining Inner Freedom:
What is most important is not how others are treating me -- what is most important is how I am treating others.
3. Expressing Inner Power:
I am a well of happiness, overflowing into the lives of others.
4. Attuning to Good Fortune:
I am part of a Living Whole that wants the best for me and all others at the same time.
5. Ennobling this Lifetime:
Because everything is sacred, so am I.
By orienting us within the realm of spiritual cause-and-effect, soul-thoughts transform our moment-to-moment inclination toward what we are about to experience. They allow us to lean into the coming moment with a more open-minded, open-hearted and dynamic personality. Instead of leaning into the coming moment with the kind of self-defeating thoughts, emotions and memories that lead us to keep trying the same failed strategies over and over, we find ourselves attuned to the whole and moving along with it conscientiously.
Ultimately, the primary lesson we learn from concentrating on soul-thoughts is this: What we are looking for is not something we wait to learn or understand or receive -- it is something that we ourselves produce in our hearts and send forth to shine on the furthest horizons of the spiritual universe.
For more by William Horden, click here.
For more on the spirit, click here.
'The Toltec I Ching,' by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden, has been released by Larson Publications. It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams. Its subtitle, "64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World," hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.
Two companion volumes, The Five Emanations, and The Spiritual Basis of Good Fortune, have recently been published, in print and e-book formats, that expand on carrying the practices forward in the modern world. http://williamdouglashorden.com
Thanks William.
Thank you for the very rewarding comment--as you might imagine, nothing could make me happier. I love your name: out of the cocoon, free to flit from blossom to blossom, sipping just the nectar of beauty! What a glorious life!
Wishing you more of all the best,
William
Thank you for the kind thoughts.
Mirth: yes, I think each of us shares a private joke with the universe.
Campbell said, Follow Your Bliss.
A great Chan teacher said, After my enlightenment, I never stopped laughing.
As we all know, an untroubled spirit is untroubled no matter how difficult things are, whereas a troubled spirit is troubled no matter how good things are.
Light-heartedness, It seems to me, is a hallmark of the untroubled spirit.
Wishing you all the best--and many smiles,
William
It is always such a pleasure to read and re-read your comments, watch the connections between principles, and see where (like a flock of homing pigeons) you land.
Agreed and Doubly Agreed: "the disguise over that which never needed a disguise". It's the VOLUNTARY relinquishment of the disguise that brings matters to rest, isn't it?
Thanks as always for sharing your embodied vision of the Dharma,
William
Be assured my behavior has not been exemplary. If I live long enough I might be able to bring the destructiveness of my youth into an ameliorated balance. I am all for congruency. A challenge I have observed is within the filtering system of the internal messaging. As the bubbles rise out of the primordial ooze, they expand and float above the bogs bed though messy murky water. Since the eradication of the alligator infestation, it has been less hazardous to work at draining that swamp. I think I’ll leave the section over there unaltered; Lotus Blossoms have begun to pervade and flourish.
Namaste - Have a nice Day @viasammilaw or http://gemsviathailand.com
So pleased that Lotus Blossoms have begun to pervade and flourish!
As the ancient Chan admonition goes: Look for the perfections of mind.
Love the story-telling and authenticity!
Thanks for your contribution!!
William
The literal translation is actually "I am becoming what I am becoming" implying that "God" is a consciousness in progress, in evolution if you will. Even better!!
Ally
Even better, indeed!
Many Thanks & Blessings,
Wm
thanks for this. very interesting: "why did your mind move in the first place?"
this carries us back to the previous conversation in The Inner Compass of Being article, doesn't it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-horden/thinking-being_b_1462502.html?
wonderful clarification of the Dharma.
Many thanks again,
William
You have a wonderful ability to roll our soul train along that beautiful Great Spirit Line that runs through Paradise. You constantly give us passengers a chance to look down at our tickets and read Hellatron and think, “What am I doing going to Hellatron? I was in Paradise. What am I doing? I have to change trains now. I want to be on the main Spirit Line riding along smoothly in the luxurious, joyful club car having more fun than anybody should be having with all of my friends and family as we roll through Paradise with good stops everywhere for everyone.”
I am with you Brother. Let’s be the best time ever.
Blaze
I always enjoy your comments, as well. Your outpouring of enthusiastic positivity and light-hearted goodwill is an example for all. So contagious your life-mood! I'm left grinning ear-to-ear!
Thanks for the companionship on The Way, Brother,
William
I disagree..not everything is sacred. If that was true, then nothing is sacred.
I am new to your writings, but I find much wisdom and beauty here, so Thank you. I think I felt them all intuitively except #3 where I hit some inner resistance due to problems I am working on now. Any suggestions there on how to override the ego/personality/mind when it comes to this belief?
Kind Regards,
skt
Thank you for your kind thoughts and words.
The key to #3 is that we work to distill all our intentions down to a single intent: "To be of benefit to the Whole". Opening ourselves up to embodying this intention has a couple of immediate consequences. First, it makes us aware of our soul's outpouring of universal goodwill. And second, it shifts our focus away from the fear-based sense that we don't have enough (of "something" we carry from the past) and into the realization that the soul has enough. Forever.
By benefiting all that we touch, we benefit the Whole. When we benefit the Whole, we consciously align ourselves with the direction and momentum of the intention of the Whole. For the soul, this alignment is as physical a sensation as the body diving into a deep river, swimming underwater, being carried along by the strength and purpose of the current flowing toward its goal.
The soul is itself happiness.
It is not happy one moment, sad the next, angry the next, and so on, depending on whether things are going its way or not.
Its unbounded joy is that of a living being aware of its indestructible belonging-together with all other beings making up the indivisible Living Mystery carrying us all from an unimaginable past to an unimaginable future.
Hope this is somewhat helpful.
The article is an excerpt from my book, "The Five Emanations" which has more details.
All the best, skt!
William
This is precisely the kind of real-world, everyday practice that our soul-thoughts address—first by identifying the habitual thoughts creating a wound and second by healing that wound from a position of inner power and enlightened goodwill.
Blessings to you and all your relations,
William
With love and deep respect,
Jeanie
Thank you. I so appreciate your tying this our common effort to "transcend our self-imposed limitations and grow into a fuller and more fulfilling life". I think that with time and effort, our ability to sense the difference between the personality and soul grows sharper and more discerning. As we concentrate more on soul-thoughts, paradoxically, we fuse the personality and soul in a higher unity. As the ancient alchemical formula goes: "Separate to Unite".
All the very best with your work,
William
Thank you for the kindness of sharing your wisdom. You are so right that addressing this matter of self-defeating thoughts & behavior is "important work". We are already repeating sentences in our head 24/7, so it is only a single step sideways to take charge and consciously choose the kind of sentences we wish to hear ourselves saying.
Wishing you all the very best in your endeavors, which I know are bearing fruit,
William