"Bring out the best in yourself and live your ideal life."
What do you think? After all, there is much suffering in the world, and even in our personal lives, we suffer from stress, relationship problems, illness, and death.
One of the reasons I am so passionate about the Vedas (the oldest non-dual philosophical wisdom from India) is that they provide answers to these questions.
The Vedas teach us that the day is always followed by the night, rain by sunshine, happiness by misfortune, and death by birth. Polarity in every aspect. It’s a zero-sum game. Everything is in constant motion, nothing remains the same, and therefore nothing is without pain or duality.
Not exactly an uplifting thought. Despite all progress, war and setbacks, according to the Vedas, will never completely disappear.
So, how do you bring out the best in yourself and live your ideal life?
The Vedas say, and later so did the Stoics: Life itself is not under your control, but how you respond to it is!
And indeed, you can learn to control your response. The closer you are to yourself, the more self-knowledge and self-awareness you develop, and the greater your self-love, the better you can bring out the best in yourself and deal with life, so that you can still create your ideal life. The level of attachment you have plays a big role.
It’s not easy, and there is no step-by-step formula. It’s about having trust and belief that the best is already within you. It’s about humility in recognizing that everyone has a role to play, including you. That people, things, and events come into your life to help you grow. The challenge, and perhaps the purpose of life, lies in your experience and your response to it.
Challenges
In fact, you should welcome challenges with open arms. It is through these challenges that we learn, it is precisely through them that we can appreciate and enjoy the beautiful things in our lives. It is through these challenges that qualities such as patience, tolerance, courage, and bravery have meaning. Because even challenges are finite. What use is life if we let ourselves be blinded by adversity? Only when we positively embrace the pain and difficulties in our lives do they lose their power over us, and we can live our lives as we envision them.
The best is already within you, but how can you find it?
Besides the distractions and attachments from and in the outside world, we are also strongly influenced by our own senses and our body. Often, we act as if our mind is separate from our body and we fail to realize that this is not the case. We behave as if we are our thoughts, while in reality, we only have thoughts. We are not our thoughts. Similarly, we have a body, but we are not our body.
What you can observe, you cannot be. So, what are you then? Your soul. When you learn to experience, act, and respond from your soul, you can truly bring out the best in yourself. Then you are able to create your ideal life. You move toward the light, and life literally becomes lighter.
It requires daily practice to look at yourself and others with compassion and without judgment. Because we forget quickly and unknowingly fall back into old patterns. Without pain, there is no happiness.
What’s your perspective?
For those who endlessly worry about difficulties, life is a curse. For those who helplessly carry their problems, life is a burden. Life is a battlefield for those who face it bravely, while life is a blessing for those who accept both adversity and joy with the same attitude.
Knowledge is power, and inner knowledge is strength. When you understand your own mind, you can change your world. Experience less stress, release limiting beliefs, bring out the best in yourself, and create your ideal life. Is it easy? No. Achievable? Absolutely!
Master Your Mind!
On Thursday evening, January 16th, I will be holding a free introductory workshop “Master Your Mind” in Haarlem, as a precursor to the five-week training starting three weeks later.
During this training, we will work on this for 40 days. You will gain more self-knowledge, increase your self-awareness, and learn tools to cultivate more self-love and achieve inner peace. Through all of this, you will not only become more balanced but also learn to respond better to the world around you, and act and lead from your authentic self.
Inspired by the lecture of Swami Satyananda Saraswati – Yoga Vedanta 1956
