7-Day Meditation Course: Insights for Life, Total Meditation

7-DAY MEDITATION COURSE:

Insights for Life

INSIGHT AND THE SEVEN GOALS IN LIFE

So far total meditation has made several truths quite clear:

The mind naturally rebalances itself.

When you are balanced, you are in meditation mode.

It takes no effort to achieve inner silence.

Inner silence is meant to be useful.

The last point launches us into this section of the book, which tells you how to make silence personally useful. What drives your life? No matter how different we are from one another, for thousands of years human beings have gotten out of bed in the morning to pursue the same goals and achieve the same dreams. If inner silence is to be useful, it must make these goals attainable and our dreams come true.

WHAT DOES EVERYONE REALLY WANT?

Let me first list the seven basic goals that drive us all:

Safety and security

Success and achievement

Love and belonging

Personal meaning and value

Creativity and discovery

Higher purpose and spirituality

Wholeness and unity

Today, as with every day in the past and every day in the future, you will be pursuing these seven goals. Human nature is complicated, and you are capable of seeking more than one of these goals at the same time. Sometimes they are jumbled together. For example, you can work at a job that makes you feel secure, brings success, and makes you feel worthy. You have found a purpose that includes all three things. If your job is also creative, another dimension is added.

In your marriage or other primary relationship, you naturally want to feel safe and secure. You want the other person to provide love and to make you feel you belong. Is that enough to give your life meaning? For many generations, women were told (by men) that such a life was enough. Now the situation for both men and women is more complicated and confusing than ever.

It helps to clear up some of the confusion by accepting that traditional models no longer define what a relationship should be. Realistically, there is no blueprint for living that fits everyone. The ultimate aim is to fulfill the seven goals in a way that makes them personal. You and your life are one, a unique merger of mind, body, and spirit.

Nothing is achieved in life except through consciousness. You cannot blindly stumble into love, meaning, success, and creativity. Rather, you must evolve into these areas of your consciousness. It would satisfy the logical part of the mind if everything good and useful came in a straight line, but that’s not how it works. Children are not seedlings. They don’t grow up on schedule to produce apples and roses. Some people sit down and write out “Where I want to be in five years.” They may or may not wind up five years later in the place they foresaw. But one thing is certain: The most valuable things in life arrive unpredictably.

INSIGHT MAKES IT HAPPEN

I propose that all seven goals can be achieved. Your true self exists to get you there, following your own unique path. At this moment, your true self is ready to provide anything you need to know in order to reach your goals. This knowledge comes in the form of insight, not just one insight but a whole string of them on a daily basis. Insight can be defined as a moment when you ask for the truth and it is given to you. Consciousness comes alive. Silence becomes useful. The moment can deliver such an important truth that you go “Aha!” You realize your purpose in life or who you want to marry—in other words, the big decisions. But insight doesn’t have to be big. Insight is contained in any message from your silent awareness.

If this statement sounds too abstract or idealistic, you need to notice that you have been seeking—and getting—insights from your silent awareness all the time. You dip into silent awareness whenever you do the following:

You ask yourself how you really feel.

You want to know if you should take a relationship to a deeper level of commitment.

You need a bright idea.

You pray for someone or yourself.

You ask an unseen power for higher guidance.

You want to find out how someone else really feels.

You want to figure out how to motivate someone to do what you want.

You are curious about what makes another person tick.

You want clarity about what your life is about and where you are headed.

You want to foresee what lies ahead.

As you can see, everyone engages in the search for insight, and how well your life turns out depends on your skill at seeking your own truth. All the skill you need is already present inside you, because at the level of the true self, you are fully conscious.

A WEEK OF INSIGHTS

Insights come naturally, but not always from the same level. It takes deep insight to fulfill the seven goals of life. Fortunately, deep insight, the kind that allows you to achieve your life goals, is available. Your true self has a clear vision of possibilities that your ego cannot duplicate. Meditation takes you close to your true self. Centered and calm, you make the connection. Now all you have to do is use it.

The insights are there for the asking, but no one taught us how to organize our life by seeking insight. Instead, we make choices based on a jumbled collection of habits, received opinions, social conditioning, and the whole mass of beliefs, experiences, and memories that everyone carries around inside. Insight, however, is almost absurdly easy to learn. You can throw out the confusing jumble of habits, conditioning, and belief right now, simply by going into meditation mode and asking your true self the questions that are actually important for reaching a goal.

THREE QUESTIONS THAT ACTUALLY MATTER

What am I doing right?

What isn’t working for me?

What is my next step?

If you had the answers to these three questions whenever you wanted them, your life would thrive. You would grow and evolve. Your cherished goals will be consciously reached. In Sanskrit, you would be in your dharma, the path that most naturally and effectively supports your desires.

Since there are seven major goals, it is useful to organize your insight meditations as a seven-day course. In this course your true self is the teacher and you are the student or seeker. There is no set schedule, and in keeping with the main principles of total meditation, you don’t need to exert effort. On Day 1, the focus is on safety and security; on Day 2, the focus is on success and achievement; and so on.

The seven-day course is meant to be your constant guide. Ideally it will become a lifestyle. Your true self has a truth to reveal in any situation. Once you learn to seek answers in silent awareness, you will discover that this method is the right way to make choices. The more you organize your week around the seven goals in life, the faster you will achieve them, using the power and knowledge of pure consciousness.

You know yourself better than anyone else does. Through insight meditation you get to know yourself better. As you reflect on the three questions that matter, you are seeking the truth, not simply a casual opinion or a thought you’ve had many times before. The mind is prone to habit—it gives us mostly the same thoughts over and over. These thoughts are generally good enough to get by with in life, but they don’t reveal anything new. Asking for an insight is a conscious process, and once you learn how to do it, the process comes naturally. You’ll be astonished by how the world around you reveals itself in new and beautiful ways.

HOW TO ASK FOR INSIGHT

Sit alone in a quiet place and center yourself. Do this by closing your eyes, taking a few deep breaths, and placing your attention in the region of your heart.

You silently pose a question to yourself.

You let go of the question and wait for a response.

You trust that the answer will be given.

At some time, either quickly or later, the response comes spontaneously.

There is nothing arcane about this process. Countless times in our life we stand back and ask, usually in bewilderment, “What am I doing wrong?” or “What should I do next?” Most of the time, however, we don’t ask the question in the right frame of mind. We are usually stuck or confused. We’ve met with resistance and need a way out. The situation is already putting pressure on us, and therefore we are trying to find an answer while feeling stressed. This is what I call being stuck at the level of the problem. Insight meditation is about going to the level of the solution, which is where your true self is located. When you intentionally ask an important question or ask for insight in a relaxed state, you open a doorway to increased consciousness and hence answers are more likely to come to you.

The bodymind is a whole; therefore, insights aren’t just mental. You can feel them as sensations. At least one or two of the following will occur.

WHAT AN INSIGHT FEELS LIKE

You are surprised and usually delighted.

There is an “Aha!” moment of making a new discovery.

You feel certainty about your insight.

You feel no need for second guessing or doubts.

The insight has meaning for you.

You feel that you have reached a turning point.

You might feel a physical tingling or lightness.

These indications can help you tell how insights differ from everyday thoughts. The beauty of having your own insight is that it will excite and motivate you. I have said before that the “Aha!” can be so striking that it is life-changing, but a small “aha!” counts, too. Just look for any of these indicators in your meditation, and as time passes, they will become very familiar. You can feel it in your heart and in your bones when you are waking up.

Be alert for changes in perception, too. By this I mean feeling some kind of physical sensation like lightness in your body or pleasant relaxation. Visually, the world around you might look brighter, or familiar sights might suddenly be worth noticing afresh. Keep in mind that such experiences are leading you closer to being awake.

We’ve covered the basics, so now there’s nothing left but to start. You will need patience at first, because looking for insights is something new and for most people very foreign. When you act without insight, you are asleep, and you make many choices unconsciously, which is why your life has fallen into predictable patterns. Thus if you try to ask your true self for an insight out of the blue, the results won’t necessarily be forthcoming. There is a gap between “I,” the ego personality you have grown accustomed to, and your true self.

To fill in this gap, I’ve begun each day with a handful of insights to get you started. Some are insights gained from my own journey. Others are the insights of saints, sages, and spiritual guides in the world’s wisdom traditions. The words in all these insights come from the true self, which speaks for pure consciousness. Just read them over before you start your meditation, as a way to focus your mind on the goal of the day. I am not asking you to accept them as ready-made insights. Secondhand wisdom is no replacement for firsthand insight.

There is nothing better, however, than aligning yourself with the highest spiritual truths. Generation after generation, they have served to help others to wake up. I always keep in mind a spiritual adage I grew up with in India: “It takes only a spark to burn down the forest.” In other words, once you have the first insight about your true self, you will be motivated to wake up completely. Let these meditations be your spark. The flame of enlightenment is waiting to leap up, and you are that flame.

DAY 1: SAFETY AND SECURITY

YOUR GOAL: To feel completely safe and secure

Today’s Insights:

You are only as safe as you feel.

Your true self is never under threat.

The world reflects your inner safety or inner insecurity.

When you are whole, you are totally safe.

To be safe is to be present here and now.

At the level of the true self you are perfectly safe and secure. There is no threat that can shake your true self from this knowledge, because it is innate, coming directly from pure consciousness. Obviously, everyday life brings situations that feel the exact opposite. The news is filled with stories about disaster and imminent danger. Worst-case scenarios run through our mind when we feel threatened. Stress itself is a threat, even in small doses, because it triggers the stress response, which we inherited as a way to cope with threats by running away (flight) or physically standing up to danger (fight).

A breakthrough occurs in total meditation, because you begin to experience the truth: Being safe is a state of awareness. Today you can get closer to living in a state of awareness that makes you totally safe and secure.

The three questions that matter

Today you can promote your safety and security by reflecting on the three questions that matter. It will probably be most effective simply to choose one question. Let your attention be attracted to the issues that are calling out to you personally.

What am I doing right?

Any step that gets you feeling safe in yourself is right. The basic move is to go into meditation mode whenever you start to feel pressured or insecure. By doing this, you shift your awareness away from stress.

Get to a quiet place, take a few deep breaths, and pay attention to your body’s signals. When you feel tightness, strain, discomfort, or pain, attend to these sensations. Let your attention go to the area of discomfort as you breathe slowly and evenly. Don’t force anything. Be patient and let your awareness ease the discomfort naturally.

Notice the people around you and their state of awareness. Stress goes viral very easily. You want to minimize how much time you spend with people who feel pressured or put pressure on you.

We are all in the habit of being fascinated by bad news, natural disasters, and all kinds of catastrophes. Get in the habit of paying the least attention you can to such stories. If they make you feel anxious or unsafe, say silently “I am not in danger here” and wait until you feel safe again.

Be around people who are secure and confident in themselves. Often they are the quietest, most comforting kind of people.

Create a surrounding that reflects the state of inner security. Focus on peace and quiet, orderliness, visual beauty, and light.

What isn’t working for me?

Any step that makes you feel unsafe in yourself isn’t working for you.
Being worried or anxious never resolves a situation. At the first sign of worry, center yourself and find your calmness again.
Being around insecure, anxious, and defensive people may make you feel stronger or give you the sense that you belong. But this is the wrong kind of belonging. It reinforces the belief that the world is unsafe and you are unsafe in it.
Dwelling on worst-case scenarios doesn’t work. You waste time and energy on something that needlessly takes you out of your inner comfort zone.
Avoid the urge to justify yourself to others. Being defensive is no protection. The more defensive you are, the more insecure is your inner life.
Giving in to someone else makes you feel you are not strong enough in yourself. Avoid anyone who doesn’t treat you as an equal, with respect and consideration.
Taking outside threats personally doesn’t work to keep you safe. If bad news doesn’t actually affect you, send hopeful and compassionate thoughts to those who are affected, then turn your attention to something else.
Latching on to someone else’s strength doesn’t work to make you safer. You will become dependent, and whenever you have to stand up for yourself, you will feel self-doubt and insecurity.
Relying on more money, status, power, or possessions to make you safe doesn’t work. You are only hiding from your own fear and insecurity. Make inner security your goal, always.

What is my next step?

First priority: Do more of whatever you are doing right. Do less of whatever isn’t working for you.

Visualize white light in the area of your heart. Sit quietly and commune with this light.

Set aside time to go somewhere that feels totally peaceful and safe. Take sanctuary in this place, shutting out any external threat or pressure. Let the feeling of this place merge with you, so that inside and outside both radiate the same peace.

Take time to support someone you know who needs help. Bring a sense of comforting, reassuring, and being of service to this person. In this way you share your own inner sense of security. Being an anchor for someone else expresses your inner strength and security.

Look at your area of greatest stress: work, family, or relationships. Find one way today to reduce the stress. Examples: Talk to a person causing you stress and calmly ask for help. Avoid office politics by making yourself available to anyone without taking sides. Reduce the noise and distraction at home. Honestly share feelings with your partner, avoiding accusations and blame.

Your insight today:

DAY 2: SUCCESS AND ACHIEVEMENT

YOUR GOAL: To radiate consciousness through the work you do

Today’s Insights:

Work expresses your level of awareness. (Work broadly includes the main activity that occupies you during the day.)

Work and life expand together or contract together.

The more awareness you bring to work, the more fulfilled you will be.

The work you do represents what you think you deserve.

Being awake is the greatest kind of success.

Work and life bring the same joy when you are awake.

If you bring your true self to work with you, any job will be fulfilling. For most people, Day 2 centers on their occupation, but success applies to retired people and stay-at-home parents as well. At any age, we all seek satisfaction and achievement from the main activity that occupies us every day.

You can find a way every day to expand your awareness, thereby giving work, and daily activity in general, deeper meaning. Through expanded awareness, stress and boredom will be a thing of the past. I’m not painting a fairy-tale picture. The reason that millions of people are stressed, bored, and unfulfilled at work is that they are making their expectations come true. This happens unconsciously for the most part, but if you scratch just beneath the surface, you will find the truth: Work is seen as a place where authority rules and insecurity festers. Bored by their job but afraid of losing it, people lower their head, get to work, and look forward to the weekend.

Not every day and not every job are this bad, of course. There’s a natural inclination to make the best of things, and, generally speaking, people like the work they do. Yet even here, the self we bring to work is our social self. It’s the image we want to project in order to fit in and get along. All images are artificial. They don’t express anything close to the true self. The true self exists so that you can expand your awareness, wake up, and find fulfillment no matter what you are doing.

You have the choice to expand or contract your awareness at work. Nothing prevents you from expressing your true self. In fact, it will be welcomed if you display kindness, empathy, acceptance, respect for everyone, and any other sign of wakefulness. No matter what, your work represents your level of consciousness.

A breakthrough occurs in total meditation, because you begin to experience the truth: Work and life expand together or contract together. There’s no getting around this fact. Contracted awareness limits your fulfillment, not just at work but in your whole life. Expanded awareness gives you opportunities to evolve through your work, finding success and fulfillment from the inside out.

The three questions that matter

Today you can promote success and achievement by reflecting on the three questions that matter. It will probably be most effective simply to choose one question. Let your attention be attracted to the issues that are calling out to you personally.

What am I doing right?

Any step that gets you feeling more fulfilled is right. By going into meditation mode, you experience inner calm and silence, which are really just the threshold of fulfillment, because the true self is already fulfilled.

Fulfillment is expressed as bliss. Any blissful experience is a mark of success. Put a high value on blissful experiences, and realize that how you feel at work is important.

Take a moment to be proud of the work you do, and praise someone else’s work so that they can have their own share of pride.

If you notice that you are bored, go into meditation mode and restore your sense of well-being.

Show empathy for how coworkers or members of your family feel. When you have the impulse to be closer to someone on a personal basis (I am not talking about office romance), be open to the impulse.

Take a few moments at work or during the day for alone time and downtime. If you have a chance, walk outside in Nature to refresh yourself.

Stand up and walk around regularly during the day to keep your body feeling energized.

At meetings, be supportive of plans you genuinely value. Be willing to speak your truth when it has positive value.

Check in often to see what your feeling level is at work or when you are fully occupied at home. Be aware of your mood—this is an essential part of waking up.

Accept new challenges that expand your contribution to a project.

What isn’t working for me?

Any step that makes you feel blocked, frustrated, and unfulfilled in your work isn’t working for you.

Passively going along when you actually don’t like what is happening isn’t working for you.

Complaining, gossiping, and engaging in office politics only increases inner discontent.

Resist the urge to focus on the demands of your job by working too many hours and bringing work home with you. Those habits turn work into a source of pressure and obligation that has nothing to do with feeling fulfilled.

It doesn’t help to grit your teeth and plow ahead at a job you hate just to earn your daily bread. The only thing you will accomplish is to contract your awareness, and the more contracted you are, the less you will be able to break out of the grind.

Being the hardest worker is productive only if it makes you feel more worthy and fulfilled. It isn’t working if you feel driven and compelled—you are then treating yourself like a machine.

Resist the urge to label people as winners and losers. Even if you try to be one of the winners, you will be haunted by the fear that you will become one of the losers.

If you constantly look forward to the weekend, you are either in the wrong job or working compulsively at the right job. Being compulsive at work will over time make you compulsive in the rest of your life.

What is my next step?

First priority: Do more of whatever you are doing right. Do less of whatever isn’t working for you.
Ask someone you trust at work to give you an honest opinion about whether you seem to be fulfilling your potential.
Ask someone close to you personally if you seem happy about your work and speak of it positively.
Check for unconscious symptoms of being unfulfilled, such as needing a drink after work, griping about coworkers, looking bored or tired, and rarely if ever talking about your dream goals.
Have a dream goal, and take a step, however small, toward achieving it.

Your insight today:

DAY 3: LOVE AND BONDING

YOUR GOAL: To experience unconditional love

Today’s Insights:

Love is an expression of pure consciousness, which is eternal.

Your true self transmits unconditional love.

In unconditional love, there is no difference between you and another.

Love wants to share, and so it is eager to bond with another.

Devotion is the attitude of unconditional love.

The height of devotion is uninterrupted bliss.

Every moment of bliss gives a glimpse of unconditional love.

When you live from your true self, unconditional love is yours to give and receive. For this to happen, you must be completely awake. In wakefulness you are always connected to your true self, and so the flow of love never lapses. If you are sometimes awake and sometimes not, love comes and goes. This is natural. There will be lapses when you do not experience love, but any moment of love gives you a glimpse of the goal. Love is therefore one of the most positive paths.

Before you are fully awake, the love you give and the love you receive is conditional. It can change or even be lost from sight. For many people, love becomes a transaction—there is a give-and-take with someone else. The beloved has to satisfy the ego personality of the lover. In meditation mode there is a breakthrough: The give-and-take ends. Instead, you experience yourself as the source of unconditional love. As this realization deepens, you can love another person without dependency or demands. Being enough in yourself, your love is a gift with no strings attached.

Since unconditional love is eternal, it never comes and goes but is always the same. Since you do not have to deserve this unchanging love, it is identified with grace. Whether you call it divine grace or the grace of pure consciousness is up to you. Many people find it easier to be devoted to God because they seek a human form, a divine mother or father, to receive their devotion. In the purest wisdom traditions, God is a form that pure consciousness has taken, and you can choose to experience grace and bliss entirely from your true self. Whatever fills you with love is right for you, because everyone’s path to unconditional love is unique. The only thing to remember is that love isn’t separate from you. Any lapse of love or loss of love indicates a gap between you and your true self, and in total meditation you can heal this gap permanently. Love’s eagerness to bond with another is symbolic of its deepest impulse, which is to reside eternally in the true self.

The three questions that matter

Today you can get closer to unconditional love by reflecting on the three questions that matter. It will probably be most effective simply to choose one question. Let your attention be attracted to the issues that are calling out to you personally.

What am I doing right?

Any step that gives you a loving experience is right. By going into meditation mode, you experience the impulse of bliss that arises easily from inner silence. Bliss, joy, and ecstasy, however fleeting, are glimpses of unconditional love.

Take the opportunity to be kind and sympathetic. Because kind behavior asks for nothing in return, it expresses selfless love. Unconditional love is always selfless.

Devotion is an expression of love. Anyone or anything to which you give your devotion is right for you if it is loving devotion.

The heart is the most sensitive area of the bodymind where love is concerned. Several times today, place your attention on your heart and rest there to feel its warm, loving radiance. If this warm, loving sensation is slight or even absent, give yourself an experience that brings it back. The best choice is to connect in person with someone you love (the ideal is to do this for at least an hour a day). But any joyful experience of Nature, art, music, children at play, or inspirational writing also nourishes the heart.

Think of six people, including friends and family, that you feel bonded to. Take time to renew this connection at least once a week, preferably face-to-face or with a phone call.

Any time you make a connection, give of yourself generously, beginning with a smile and a sympathetic word.

Radiate the love in your heart. Visualize the person you are sending your love to and see a bond of light connecting you. This heart-to-heart connection is silent and only needs a moment. But at the level of the true self, you are enriching yourself and the other person.

Send loving thoughts and sympathy to people outside your immediate circle. Do this whenever your heart is touched by their situation. Following this up with loving action is even better. You can offer a silent blessing whenever you feel the impulse, even to a stranger.

When you notice an unloving thought or impulse that has begun to repeat itself, go into meditation mode, become still inside, and tell the thought that it is no longer needed. Repeat until it fades away, not fighting against the unloving thought but informing it that you are no longer receptive.

What isn’t working for me?

Any step that makes you want to withhold your love isn’t working for you.
Isolating yourself makes you isolated from the flow of love you could be experiencing.
Asking someone else to do what you want in order to get your love won’t work in the end. The other person can always find a better bargain from somebody else.
Neediness doesn’t work to get others to love you. However obliging and sympathetic they might be, resentment will begin to mount up.
If you aren’t willing to give of yourself, you cannot experience selfless love, which is what your true self is trying to give you.
Withholding love, including sex, as a form of revenge will disrupt a loving relationship.
Meaningless sex is never the path to love. Sexuality can be gratifying on its own, but it acquires meaning, value, and fulfillment when combined with love.
It doesn’t work to ask for love from someone who doesn’t have it to give, no matter how much you wish they did.
If you find it much easier to give love than to receive it, your love is likely based on insecurity. You are compensating for the feeling deep down that you are not lovable.

What is my next step?

First priority: Do more of whatever you are doing right. Do less of whatever isn’t working for you.
In a way that is easy for you, express more appreciation to others.
If you sense a bond forming with someone else, encourage it with affection and sympathy. Don’t expect or predict anything. Let the bond develop on its own.
Let others be who they are without judgment. If you judge against someone else, at least be willing to be neutral. You aren’t asked to love everyone you know, but you can stop giving signs of disapproval and withholding love.
Read inspiring scriptures and poetry that exalts unconditional love. Doing so will renew your vision of eternal love as experienced here on earth.
Find a way to radiate selfless love through service. Alleviating someone else’s loneliness, isolation, or poverty is a step toward unconditional love.
Begin to notice signs of self-judgment. You do not need to try to love yourself—that is usually just the ego personality trying to bolster its image. Instead, go into meditation mode and let the self-judgment fade away. You don’t have to fight it—just stop listening.

Your insight today:

DAY 4: PERSONAL MEANING AND VALUE

YOUR GOAL: To live with certainty about your self-worth

Today’s Insights:

Self-worth is achieved by living your truth.

When you look to your true self, your life has meaning.

Every value in your true self adds another layer to your life’s meaning.

The ultimate purpose of anyone’s life is to be fully conscious.

When you are fully awake, you express every truth.

The meaning of life is found in the present moment and how you respond to it.

Pure consciousness is the reservoir of infinite possibilities, the source of purpose and meaning.

As long as you exist, your life has meaning. Total consciousness is flowing through every cell. The entire universe is conspiring to make the present moment possible. At the level of your true self, the truth of these concepts is very clear. There is no mistaking how worthy you are. Life finds a purpose in every individual simply by your being aware. But when your awareness is limited, self-worth comes into doubt. The ego personality is in a state of disconnect from the true self. Therefore, it always doubts whether it is worthy. To live from the ego is to wonder if you really matter.

In total meditation, the state of inner calm and silence justifies itself. You don’t have to work for it or deserve it. The same principle holds true outside meditation mode. If you only realized it, your existence has been meaningful every moment since you were born. Realization is the key. You must see and feel how worthy you are. Most people look in the wrong place for validation. They seek approval outside before they feel self-worth, and if the approval turns to criticism, they are devastated. Being tied to the approval and criticism of others can never achieve lasting, unshakable self-worth.

The ability of the ego personality to feel worthy is shaky and temporary. Typically, “I” looks to externals like money, possessions, and status to prove that it is worthy, but they are a facade. The only times the ego feels genuinely worthy are when it has connected with the values of the true self. Everyone experiences this connection off and on, which demonstrates that the true self is always trying to communicate with us.

That’s why we feel impulses of loving kindness, the absence of self-doubt, a desire to show gratitude, and a sense of complete well-being. “I am enough” becomes the underlying attitude no matter what you are doing. By making the connection permanent, which happens once you are completely awake, you find yourself in a unique position. Your life expresses everything that the ego tries to achieve through self-importance. Yet in reality you feel humble and selfless. You have become the instrument of higher consciousness as it radiates its truth in the world.

The three questions that matter

Today you can get closer to unshakable self-worth and meaning by reflecting on the three questions that matter. It will probably be most effective simply to choose one question. Let your attention be attracted to the issues that are calling out to you personally.

What am I doing right?

Any step that gives you a sense of purpose is right. By going into meditation mode, you experience something very simple and yet all important: a sense of self. No matter what you think, say, feel, or do, your sense of self silently watches and never changes.

Enjoy being who you are. Take a moment to feel how good it is simply to be here. “I am” is the foundation of the true self.

Aim for self-reliance in everything: how you feel, the beliefs you express, your work, your role in the family. These things belong to you alone. Appreciate them and give them value.

Let others praise you and show their appreciation. It may be hard to receive love and praise, but they reflect your inner worth.

Undertake a project that really means something to you. Self-worth needs to express itself by going out into the world. Silently thinking about how great you could be, or how little you matter, is a sham constructed by the ego. When you immerse yourself in a meaningful project, you allow your inner worth to expand and evolve.

To be modest and humble about yourself is a sign of great self-esteem when those feelings come from the true self.

The guiding principle is to respect others as you would respect yourself. This is the true self’s natural attitude, because in everyone the true self is equal.

What isn’t working for me?

Any step that makes you feel small and insignificant isn’t working for you.
Attaching yourself to someone who is strong and accomplished can be a great experience, but it doesn’t add to your self-worth. Most of the time you will only be trying to fill a hole in yourself. Take away that strong person, and the hole will be just as empty as before.
Making yourself seem big by making others look smaller doesn’t work. You won’t convince anyone, and your behavior will create resentment. Making someone else your inferior reflects your own insecurity.
Self-image isn’t the same as the true self. Polishing your self-image will satisfy the ego personality while keeping you disconnected from your true self. By its very nature a person’s self-image is deceptive, because it masks what lies beneath. The ego thinks it is doing itself some good by hiding what it is ashamed of and doesn’t want the public to see. But the greater loss is that self-image hides the true self, which can heal any weakness or wound.
Trying to make yourself important in other people’s eyes doesn’t work. They will always have their private opinions of you, fair or unfair. Let others make you great in their eyes, or not. It isn’t your job.

What is my next step?

First priority: Do more of whatever you are doing right. Do less of whatever isn’t working for you.
In a way that is easy for you, be modest and unassuming. At the level of the true self, pure consciousness has made you what you are, not your ego.
Being the best you can be is more important than doing the best you can do. It is desirable to do your best, of course, but your being, meaning your state of consciousness, determines your self-worth beyond anything you will ever do.
Be grateful to your source for every gift it has given you. No one’s ego ever created the things we cherish in life.
If you find yourself repeating the word “I” very often, go into meditation mode and reconnect with who you really are. Your true nature is selfless.

Your insight today:

DAY 5: CREATIVITY AND DISCOVERY

YOUR GOAL: To make your life a journey of discovery

Today’s Insights:

As long as you follow your curiosity, you will never grow old.

Renewal is the eternal secret of life.

Anything you pay attention to can reveal a mystery.

When you explore the world, you are really exploring yourself.

Every new discovery is also a self-discovery.

Consciousness by its very nature is creative and curious.

To lead a creative life, be fascinated by change.

Every moment brings you to the threshold of a new discovery.

You were assigned a creative life the moment you were born. The assignment came from consciousness, which by its very nature craves to know and understand. This is why children are so fascinated by the world. They are immersed in the wonder of knowing new things. Life never runs out of new things to show us. Anything you turn your attention to can reveal something you never knew before. But if you stop paying attention, wonder vanishes and life becomes predictable and routine.

Are you afraid of change or fascinated by it? People who resist change are secretly afraid of it (or not so secretly). They are forced to pretend that safety lies in making their life as routine and predictable as possible. This strategy flies in the face of reality, because life is nothing but change. Every day is a new world. Either you wake up to this fact and embrace it or you sentence yourself to constricted awareness, increasing boredom, and becoming tired of your own life.

Your true self sees life as a journey of discovery. It wants to explore all the possibilities that make each day new. There is no secret behind this—your true self is simply expressing the curiosity and wonder you were born with. To be awake is an unpredictable state. It has to be, since consciousness seeks a creative outlet at every moment.

We crave watching the news so eagerly that it is fed to us 24/7 on television and in social media. We can’t wait to hear what is happening to other people, yet somehow we don’t tune in to the news about ourselves. The ego personality is afraid to look inside too deeply, anxious about what it might discover. To avoid true self-discovery, the ego is telling you a story based on the past. “I” is constructed from old memories. When you get out of bed to repeat the same story you lived yesterday, you are just putting old wine in new bottles, as the saying goes.

To truly renew yourself, the place to start is in meditation mode. When you connect with your true self, every perception feels fresh and new. The true self lives in the present moment, which is the only place where discoveries can be made. The eternal now is the eternal you. That’s the most important discovery anyone can make.

The three questions that matter

Today you can renew yourself by reflecting on the three questions that matter. It will probably be most effective simply to choose one question. Let your attention be attracted to the issues that are calling out to you personally.

What am I doing right?

Any step that follows your sense of curiosity is right. By going into meditation mode, you refresh your mind in silence. Only a fresh mind can have fresh perceptions—this is how all discoveries begin.

Be open to everyone you meet, without preconceptions or judgments. They are as fascinating as you are to yourself once you open your awareness.

Get in the habit of paying attention. Life is only boring if you stop paying attention to the newness in every moment.

At every moment you can be centered in yourself, awaiting the next surprising discovery. Because inner silence is awake, it is constantly aware that something new lies just around the corner.

When you discover something really meaningful, it feels totally personal. You are seeing yourself reflected in the world “out there.” In the end, what delights everyone the most is to find something new in themselves. When something you see makes you suddenly surprised, joyful, or fascinated, you are bringing those qualities of the true self to light.

It is more important to explore yourself than to explore the world. Every real value in life—truth, beauty, meaning, purpose, love, compassion, or any other spiritual value—awaits in your true self. Getting more and more in touch with these values in your true self is your goal when you embark on the journey of self-discovery.

What isn’t working for me?

Any step that makes you feel that life is boring, routine, and predictable isn’t working for you.

Taking other people for granted doesn’t work. You are denying them the capacity to be new, which is the very thing you want for yourself.

If nothing really interests or excites you anymore, you are living from the level of the ego personality. You have lapsed into routine, because keeping things the same is the ego’s primary defense mechanism. A predictable life gives “I” the false sense of being in control. In reality, the ego has settled for a very limited existence.

Resisting change won’t work in the end. You are only bolstering the ego’s insecurity and fear. Reality is in the process of eternal change. Once you accept this fact, you can begin to embrace change without anxiety. Resist this fact, and change won’t stop producing anxiety.

Giving in to the people who don’t want you to change isn’t working. Someone else might want you to be in a box, but the only person who can box you in is yourself. You know you are in a box when you have grown tired of yourself. Your become bored with yourself when you are motivated to go along, fit in, earn the approval of others, and submit to social conventions.

What is my next step?

First priority: Do more of whatever you are doing right. Do less of whatever isn’t working for you.
In a way that is easy for you, be more open to new people and experiences.
Find something new in every relationship. Renewed interest doesn’t happen because the other person changes. It happens because you start noticing and paying attention.
Shrug off the tendency to repeat yourself. The same old thoughts, same old attitudes, and same old choices are symptoms of the same thing: being asleep.
Take time to relish the light of life. It appears in children, art, music, the wonders of Nature, the light of pure consciousness, and the lightness of being.

Your insight today:

DAY 6: HIGHER PURPOSE AND SPIRITUALITY

YOUR GOAL: To radiate your cherished spiritual values

Today’s Insights:

Everyone’s higher purpose is to wake up completely.

Higher consciousness and spirituality are the same.

Living in separation is an illusion you can wake up from.

Your connection to pure consciousness is always present.

Your true self radiates divine presence.

Your highest purpose depends on who you are, not what you do.

In your very being you are infinitely valuable.

Every spiritual attainment is found in your true self, waiting to be awakened.

Your true self radiates every spiritual value you yearn to experience. When you are awakened, you radiate the same values of love, compassion, mercy, empathy, and forgiveness without effort. Already you have had glimpses of these values in yourself. By practicing total meditation you expand these glimpses, making them deeper and more frequent.

In modern life, many people are facing a frustrating dilemma: they yearn for spirituality but feel blocked from leading a spiritual life. As organized religion has become less satisfying in many ways, spirituality has become a lonely venture, filling people with high hopes, but also a kind of shaky uncertainty about the inner journey. In addition, the demands and complexity of everyone’s busy life makes it difficult to find time to “be spiritual.”

The answer to this dilemma is to remain in your spiritual core all the time, a state of awareness that unfolds through total meditation. There is no real separation between the worldly and the spiritual, even though centuries of organized religion have gotten us into the habit of respecting such a division, even going so far as condemning worldly existence as being contrary to God and devotion. However, everything happens in consciousness. You don’t have one consciousness for raising a family, going to work, and buying groceries and another consciousness for praying and carrying out your devotions. The true self expresses the most cherished human values. As viewed from the true self, love is love, devotion is devotion.

Seen this way, the spiritual values people crave to experience are seamlessly woven into everyday life and are accessed simply by being awake. The more awake you are, the more you will radiate spirit. The true self will shine through everything you do, because doing isn’t the important part. The important part is being. Who you are has more spiritual value than even the most reverent thoughts and deeds. What the true self gives you is presence. We can call it divine presence, but I consider it the presence of pure Being. God and pure Being are both absolute, infinite, all-knowing, and all-powerful—they are simply different names for the source of creation.

The nearer you are to your source, the nearer you are to the source of creation. The two are the same. This fact gives your existence infinite value. You share the true self with anointed saints and sages. Once you accept this as true, the spiritual journey is no longer frustrating and distant. Every glimpse of the true self tells you who you really are, and you don’t have to follow an arduous journey to discover it.

The three questions that matter

Today you can live from your spiritual core by reflecting on the three questions that matter. It will probably be most effective simply to choose one question. Let your attention be attracted to the issues that are calling out to you personally.

What am I doing right?

Any step that makes you feel a spiritual presence in yourself is right. By going into meditation mode, you open a channel for any and all spiritual values to radiate.
It is right to accept that every person shares a true self, which means that no one is without the potential to express the higher values of love, compassion, and forgiveness. Glimpses of awakening are sent to everyone even if these are not valued as much as they should be.
Get in the habit of noticing and appreciating any glimpse of your true self. You might even pause to tell yourself, “This is who I really am.”
It is right not to define other people by their behavior, moods, habits, and weaknesses. Everyone suffers from a disconnect with the true self. Be grateful that you are healing your disconnect without judging someone else for theirs.
Act from your heart as much as you can. This is the surest way to reconnect with your true self. The heart heals wounds and encourages acceptance, which all of us need.

What isn’t working for me?

Any step that makes you feel isolated, alone, and insignificant isn’t working for you.
Trying to be spiritual doesn’t work. It is no substitute for the true self, which is effortlessly spiritual by its very nature.
Making someone else feel unworthy doesn’t work. You are denying that they have a true self. Be patient and forgiving whenever you can. This is made easier by never forgetting that you are not in perfect connection with your true self either. Everyone is ready for healing.
It doesn’t work to worship a God that is merciless, vengeful, and unforgiving. God is meant to be a model for humanity, and this world would be hellish without grace and mercy.
If you lose faith that you really matter, you are feeling a disconnect with your true self. You are of infinite worth, needing only to connect with this truth in order to feel it. Keeping faith in your spiritual value is one of the best uses of faith.

What is my next step?

First priority: Do more of whatever you are doing right. Do less of whatever isn’t working for you.
Define yourself by the best that is in you. Reject demeaning thoughts. It works to address such thoughts by saying, “I do not need you. This isn’t who I really am.”
Humility is a spiritual quality, but self-deprecation isn’t. It is a sign that you are judging against yourself. Be sure never to join in any comment or joke that makes you small or less than worthy. Know that you are above both the criticism and the approval of others.
In a way that is easy for you, make other people feel as valued as you value yourself.

Your insight today:

DAY 7: WHOLENESS AND UNITY

YOUR GOAL: To exist in total freedom and bliss

Today’s Insights:

Your true self was never born and never dies.

Being eternal, you are whole. Being unbounded, you are whole.

Being here now is enough. There is nothing more to seek once you realize this.

Pure consciousness is complete, and you are pure consciousness.

Beyond light and dark, good and evil, all opposites melt away. Then your existence is pure bliss.

In wholeness you are free, because there is nothing to oppose you and nothing for you to oppose.

There are many things you can strive for, and life is filled with all kinds of achievements. The one thing you can’t strive for is wholeness. Either you are whole or you aren’t. Wholeness isn’t measured by anything you have ever done or will ever do. Wholeness is something you realize. It is like looking into a spiritual mirror and seeing the truth reflected back at you.

Until you are fully awakened, wholeness is difficult to conceive. We were all trained to live in separation. We split our experiences into pairs of opposites like good and evil, “you” and “me,” and all manner of things we like and dislike. The constant activity of accepting X and rejecting Y occupies the ego personality incessantly. There seems to be no choice except to define “I” as a jumble of all the things we accept and reject. As long as you identify with the ego personality, there is no doubt that you will anchor your identity this way.

There is an alternative, however, which can be described simply as “It’s all okay.” In those three words, freedom is hidden. If everything is okay, there can be an end to struggle, resistance, fear, and limitation. Those things exist only because the ego personality views some things as not okay. It is impossible for everything to be okay as long as you identify with “I,” and since all of us do identify with “I,” reaching a different viewpoint is almost impossible or, at the very least, confusing.

“It’s all okay” is the natural state of a healthy body. Every cell is coordinated with every other. All internal processes mesh into one whole. Why is it so hard to translate this wholeness into the rest of life? The answer isn’t in blaming human nature or the lamentable condition of the world. Both reflect a state of consciousness that is attuned only to separation. The world proceeds by the clash of opposites because we approach our own life this way.

I realize that the reader might react instinctively against “It’s all okay,” because we are all conditioned to navigate through the state of separation. We see bad things and want to correct them. We see good things and want to encourage them. It seems only right to live that way, but the whole point of waking up is different and requires a shift internally.

Wholeness is as natural to the mind as it is to the body, because the bodymind is one thing. When either aspect of the bodymind goes into imbalance, it returns to balance of its own accord. The return to wholeness takes time because some imbalances are stuck in place, but the process of returning to wholeness is always with us. Nothing can make imbalances worse, or permanent, except the ego personality.

The hallmarks of wholeness are present in you now. You glimpse wholeness in moments of freedom, calm, settled quiet, and bliss. Bliss stands out in particular, because the other signs are passive. Quiet and calm are the absence of disturbance. Bliss is a vibrant experience. Its joy and ecstasy are unmistakable. As grateful as we are when we receive an experience of bliss, the real goal is permanent, unchanging bliss. Your true self feels it already, and as you wake up, you will merge with your true self and feel that bliss is constant, never to be taken away.

The three questions that matter

Today you can live from your bliss by reflecting on the three questions that matter. It will probably be most effective simply to choose one question. Let your attention be attracted to the issues that are calling out to you personally.

What am I doing right?

Any step that makes you feel blissful is right. Going into meditation mode makes that possible at will. You can trigger the experience of bliss by sitting quietly and recalling past moments of delight and joy. You are inducing what psychologists call “unprovoked happiness,” meaning that you, and not the outside world, are making the bliss happen. Without your realizing it, this has always been true. Bliss occurs in consciousness and nowhere else.

To be blissful you must have no inner conflict. Inner conflict takes the form of self-doubt, mixed feelings, putting up resistance or feeling resistance from others, and harboring old grievances. Be aware when any of these signs appear, and have the intention that they go away. Don’t dwell on them. Stop nursing any grudges you might feel.

Get in the habit of being inclusive. Wholeness puts up no barriers of rejection, and your true self doesn’t either.

Invent your own form of “follow your bliss.” The path to wholeness lies in that direction. Take time every day, and preferably many times a day, to refresh your sense of bliss.

What isn’t working for me?

Any step that makes you feel conflicted inside isn’t working for you.
You are inciting conflict by us-versus-them thinking.
You will be surrounded by conflict if you believe that it is you against the world.
Believing that happiness is for other people won’t work. Happiness is the natural result of feeling “I’m okay.” The root cause of your own unhappiness lies in self-judgment.
Taking the bitter with the sweet is usually a sign that you expect life to be bitter just as often as it is sweet. In your true self there is no bitterness, because bitterness is born of regret and resentment from the past. That the true nature of consciousness is blissful must be kept in mind even when life presents difficulties. One sour apple isn’t reason for throwing out the whole harvest.

What is my next step?

First priority: Do more of whatever you are doing right. Do less of whatever isn’t working for you.
Define your goal as the highest thing possible, which is freedom and bliss. Celebrate every time you escape a self-imposed limitation.
Do your best to think about any situation without turning it into winners and losers, us versus them, and other forms of divisiveness. All divisions arise inside you and are abolished inside you.
Immerse yourself in the world’s inspirational literature that expresses ecstasy and freedom. Nothing is quite so powerful as a means to increase your own bliss whenever you wish.

Your insight today: