Friday 13 September 2013

The Word of the Week - Know Thyself

In the inner sanctum of the great Luxor Temple in Egypt, there are many proverbs inscribed around the entrance, one of the inscriptions is as follows:

“Man, know thyself……..and thou shalt know the gods.” 

This morning as I meditated, my “small self” was trying to dominate my thoughts with my anxieties and fears.  I felt a little bit perturbed by my train of thoughts but, having now trained my internal muscle not to succumb to the many machinations of my small mind, I handed this dilemma over to my big self.  Now, for clarity, when I talk about my small self, I refer to this as my egoic fearful mind whose thoughts cause me anxiety, feelings of lack and tell me that I am not quite good enough.  My big self however is my spiritual, all knowing, loving connection to the All there is; the Universal energy that is limitless, powerful and unafraid.  My habitual small self who tried to control situations, scenarios, people etc. is frankly rubbish at it; therefore, I have learned that this part of me needs to get out of my own way and hand the controls over to someone more capable. 

We all have the voices in our heads that either empower or debilitate us to some degree. It is however, learning to trust that big voice, leaning into it for guidance rather than using the other voice that has been fed from the world of fear.  A great tool from the book A Course in Miracles was made very simple by the author Gabrielle Bernstein in her book May Cause Miracles.  It describes a meditation that encourages you to permit this small voice to vent all of its anxieties and fears based thoughts.  That simply means, you think of all your worst-case scenarios as if they are actually happening and ascertain where the physical manifestation occurs in your body.  For example, you think about not being able pay your rent this month and there is a tightening in your stomach.  Once you have pinpointed where in your body the feeling occurs you simply affirm:

“Inner guide, I give this situation to you for healing and I am willing to see this differently.”

You then hold on to this mantra mentally in your mind until the “physical” feeling dissipates.  After which, either immediately or sometime in the future, you will be guided by thoughts and feelings from your inner guide giving you solution-orientated action with which to take.  

This is the true meaning of knowing thyself; it is learning to trust that innate wisdom from within.

Just for today, surrender your small self’s control to the beautiful, all powerful being that is your reflection in the mirror, for when you know thyself…..you shall know the God within you!

Namaste

No comments:

Post a Comment