The Essential Attitude in the Pursuit of Self-Mastery
» Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 10:46am |
To the best of my knowledge, Self-Mastery is the foundation of Mastership, wherein the dormant potentialities or spiritual faculties and powers of man are unfolded and placed at his conscious, deliberate command.
In "Grow Rich! with Peace of Mind", Napoleon Hill revealed that the Masters from the Great Parent School of Knowledge are aware of all those who have taken on the Pursuit of Self-Mastery, and that their progress is being monitored — through methods unknown to the men of the masses.
He further goes on to say that when a man achieves Self-Mastery, he automatically becomes an Initiate of the Great Parent School and is directly notified by a Master of the School, with the purpose of assuring him he has made the First Great Achievement.
And should he desire Mastership, a Great Master is placed at his side for the Instruction in taking on the Second Great Achievement.
It seems to me that each Great Achievement carries with it a specific benefit, not only to himself, but to everyone who comes within his influence — as we've seen with those Masters who were commissioned to take the Instruction public:
SELF-MASTERY frees a man of his Destructive Impulses, the real cause of pain and suffering in Life, which, in turn, allows him to instill a harmonious union in his Marriage with his wife, and be a true Friend and encouragement to all who are open and receptive to Truth.
MASTERSHIP allows a man to prove to himself, without doubt, that Life continues after Death, along with the definiteness of what events occur thereafter, which he may pass on to those who have Faith in him, giving them Peace in their "hour of need".
Though I have not made either of these Great Achievements, I have accumulated a definite stock of knowledge, backed by direct personal experience, concerning the ESSENTIAL ATTITUDE required in the Pursuit of Self-Mastery, that First Great Achievement upon which Happiness is founded.
I want to share my findings with you by laying down the critical attributes I've discovered to make up this Essential Attitude, and perhaps save you some time — should this be an aim in your life.
It will likely be found that the Pursuit of Self-Mastery or the construction of a Moral Character follows this progression:
STEP 1: Knowledge of Human Nature
STEP 2: Self-Awareness
STEP 3: Self-Acceptance
STEP 4: Self-Initiative
Let's take them up one at a time:
STEP 1: Knowledge of Human Nature
This concerns itself with knowing the impulses which motivate the Soul, and perhaps, through observation, learning to recognize the ways in which they manifest themselves, along with the effects those expressions tend to have not only upon the state of mind and body of ourselves but also, through their Instinctive Channel, upon others.
It will be found that the Dangerous Dynamic often serves as the "Classroom of Morality".
Within, the Wisdom concerning the wicked ways of Man is learned, whereby means of protection can further be constructed.
Laid out simply:
Knowledge of Human Nature involves the understanding of both the Destructive and Constructive Impulses of which make up Man, compounded with the understanding of their corresponding expressions and the Instinctive Responses they naturally elicit from others.
And since the Pursuit of Self-Mastery is a matter of Morality, which could be said to be the act of deliberately stopping off or redirecting the Destructive Impulses along constructive lines, aiding and allowing the Constructive Impulses to better come to dominate one's Consciousness, knowledge of and the ability to identify the Impulses of Man is the starting point.
For without it, is it not impossible to see the truth about others and the ways in which their behavior tends to affect us, with emphasis put upon how it may tear us down unconsciously?
And perhaps more importantly:
How are we to see ourselves as we truly are if we are ignorant of what motivates our thoughts and actions, along with the knowledge of how giving expression to them destroys or builds our lives, and transforms others into Antagonists, where the fault is on us — or Allies, through our sympathetic and cooperative effort?
STEP 2: Self-Acceptance
There is perhaps no greater flaw in our natures than our reluctance — or at least our initial reluctance to acknowledge the negative or destructive tendencies within ourselves, which, through Cause and Effect, stops us from gaining the Self-Awareness required to see ourselves, not as we may believe, but as we are.
It will be found that our inability or instinctive hesitance to see ourselves as we truly are is perhaps the greatest roadblock in the Pursuit of Self-Mastery.
For without knowing our starting point, how is it possible to direct our efforts toward our aim and so finally arrive at the gateway of the First Great Achievement?
Since the crux of civilized man seems to be his desire to separate and label all things as either good or bad and right or wrong, often administering great penalties to those things we term bad and wrong, it will be observed that the result is the fear of making mistakes.
And with the fear of being bad and wrong, two problems arise:
FIRST, in our fear of being a bad person — lest we unintentionally do the wrong thing — we place that great barrier between Self-Ignorance and Self-Awareness in position.
Thus, when fully erected, we prevent ourselves from looking at ourselves, and identifying and acknowledging our Sins — or our dominant Destructive Impulses.
This sad condition makes Personal Responsibility impossible, which is why Dogmatism (and its sibbling sister, Intellectualism) is that deadly advocate of Immorality.
SECOND, when we do make mistakes or, through our ignorance, tread upon the rights of others, we ignore them — or if they assert their terms, we justify our crimes with the hope that we will not be held accountable for our transgressions.
Thus, we attempt to convince and prove to others — through the creation of any number of what we deem "logical" reasons and arguments — that they are the problem (only to generate resentment from them) instead of accepting that we were at fault. Then perhaps using that experience as incentive to take greater responsibility for the thoughts we admit into our minds, which caused the outward expression of our crimes to begin with.
Upon these facts, the KEY SHIFT in perspective I've found critical is to start looking at things not as good and bad or right and wrong, but as Causes and Effects.
The effects can then be taken and separated, without judgment, as either Constructive or Destructive, not through condemnation but through the observation of the nature of effect:
Does it build up? Or does it tear down?
And with this criteria in mind, the motive for change shifts from not wanting to be a bad, wrong person to wanting to live a constructive, altruistic life by removing the destructive barriers.
STEP 3: Self-Awareness
Only with the Knowledge of Human Nature as the foundation along with the removal of the "dogmatic stigma" of being bad (or the "intellecualist stigma" of being stupid), does it becomes possible, accompanied by the aid of courage and humility, to begin seeing ourselves as we truly are.
The Knowledge of Human Nature becomes that lens upon which all Self-Evaluation can be made, with definite accuracy.
Human Nature is constant and immutable; the opinions of Man are variable and whimsical, often twisted by a stock of snap-judgments and prejudices.
Self-Evaluation founded on Human Nature is the only path by which a man can begin to see himself, not as others — or even himself — may have come to believe himself to be, but upon the truth of who he actually is, based on the facts of his Moral Character, orchestrated by Nature's Laws.
And through careful Self-Analysis, based upon our understanding of Human Nature and the elimination of Pride, Vanity, or Egotism through their "psychical solvent" — Self-Acceptance — we can begin to observe the current state of our Moral Characters and identify our dominant Destructive Impulses.
It is with these realizations that we can also start recognizing the many ways in which we let them, through their unconscious admission or deliberate expression, tear down our constructive faculties and powers, along with the detrimental Instinctive Responses they elicit from others.
This reveals to us our personal path and individualized effort necessary in our Pursuit of Self-Mastery, the Master-Key to the Greater Life.
And since the Greater Life is found in mastering the dominant Destructive Impulses of our Natures — those things which repel Prosperity and Love, back of Happiness — the solution has been set down and all that is left to be done is to take upon ourselves the Great Work.
STEP 4: Self-Initiative
After the above conditions have been setup in the mind:
- A workable knowledge of Human Nature has been gained, namely the individual identification and operations of the Destructive Impulses of Man,
- Acceptance that the presence of the Destructive Impulses of our natures is a problem to be solved instead of hidden, ignored, and compensated for — or deliberately welcomed and acted upon, with the Conscience put aside — and
- Identification of the dominant Destructive Impulses individual to and prevalent within ourselves, along with the expressions they manifest and the negative effects they have on others through the Law of Transmission...
But one thing remains:
Self-Initiative to work-out this Great Problem, backed by adequate Self-Disipline required to follow this course of action through to completion.
For I wager, through Reason and Intuition (since I have not yet proved it to myself) that to solve this Great Problem and achieve Self-Mastery establishes the fundamental conditions necessary to living the Greater Life:
PROSPERITY is found through the cooperative effort with others in working toward the Service of Humanity.
Yet while there exists a domineering Destructive Impulse in any of the minds of those leading the Act of Service, it will, and must meet its demise due to competition, that bastard offspring of Greed and Envy, of one upon the other.
LOVE is found through the harmonious partnership between husband and wife in taking on Nature's Second Obligation, the Family.
Yet with any dominant Destructive Impulses present in the mind of those making up the Marriage, the marital Union will soon sour, which will be permeated into the children and undermine Nature's Second Obligation, as most often tends to be the case where a marriage is wrought-out with the Impulses of Jealousy and Anger.
This is what I can gather from the facts available to me, but I do not yet know on every account mentioned.
However, I suspect that he who has lived it will vouch for its accuracy.
| Published by Jay Julio under Character and Personality |
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