Dear Lovely, Energetic and Voracious Readers,
Today is my first article. I hope my newsletter will be meaningful, valuable and positive in many ways.
I'll share my knowledge from life lessons, life experiences and spiritual lessons. I'll also add in some of my stories published on Medium.
Let's begin.
Today I'm going to talk about doing spiritual self-inquiry. Self-inquiry is imperative for personal growth, spiritual growth, self-healing, and transcendence to the higher self.
To work towards the path of self-inquiry, it's good to know the four pillars that support one’s spiritual journey.
According to a revered mystical Sage Vashita, these are the four pillars:
Self-inquiry (Knowing deeply and honestly about self; Self-knowledge; Self-awareness.)
Self-control
Contentment
Satsang (Satsang in Sanskrit means spending time with the good/holy people.)
Self-inquiry
I will start with self-inquiry in this article.
Self-inquiry isn't just about doing basic self-reflection to understand the self. Let me use donuts to explain what it means by basic level reflection.
For example,
“I’m aware that I’m a kind, loving and sensitive person who likes eating donuts. I like sharing donuts because I’m a kind-hearted and loving person. But I get angry when someone snatches my donuts from me because in my childhood I struggled to find good-tasting donuts at nearby shops, and my parents didn't buy me any. So now I value the importance of donuts and have become a strong protector of my donuts.”
In these type of reflections, I reflect on my thoughts and emotions and justify my actions with rationalizations and values.
Self-inquiry is about gradually moving from a basic stage to an advanced stage of self-reflection, to understand the self. Self-inquiry is studying myself to understand:
a) how did I become the kind of soul I’m today?
b) how do I have some unique innate qualities. For example, I study why some of my personal qualities have no relation to my genetics or social conditioning?
c) what is my purpose in this universe?
d) what is the purpose of my birth?
e) what does the universe want from me?
f) what is the spiritual message behind my life suffering and happiness?
g) is the universe providing me lessons or blessings, or are these punishments?
Above are just some examples of self-inquiry questions.
To master self-inquiry, it is good to self-witness the three powerful seeds that facilitate this process.
What are The Three Seeds of Self-inquiry?
They are the mind, the body and the heart.
Mind
The mind is a pool of thoughts. Thoughts generate emotions and emotions generate thoughts.
Body
Our physical body is the medium through which we survive. It's where we eat, move, work, and experience pain and pleasure. According to yogi philosophy, we also have a subtle body and a causal body. I'll talk about the subtle body and the causal body in a separate article.
Heart
When I say heart, I'm referring to the center for intuition and wisdom.
Understanding The Three Seeds
Self-inquiry and spiritual growth are greatly influenced by how the mind, body and heart function. Therefore, it's important to pay attention to what's happening in these three seeds when it comes to nurturing and promoting spiritual growth. In other words, if these three seeds (mind, heart and body) are witnessed and nurtured daily, one can develop higher consciousness, wisdom, strong personality, and intelligence.
Witnessing means, watching and observing yourself deeply from moment to moment. You watch the workings and functioning of your own mind and body. I"ll talk about the methods of witnessing separately.
The Body. The physical body represents vitality and instincts. The condition of the physical body determines health and well-being. The physical body stands for instincts because it has reflexes and reacts first and faster in case of danger. It reacts faster than the mind, especially when it perceives a life-threatening danger or risks. The body's fight or flight mode is an example.
The body is like a vehicle and the owner of the body is like the driver. The body works best when it's in a good condition. The body must maintain its vitality so that it can perform at its best. If I’m spending most of my time battling problems from my body, then I’m limiting my time and energy to work on self-inquiry, personal and spiritual growth.
The Mind. The mind is the storehouse of knowledge. It collects information and memories. The mind functions in actions like learning, studying, working and performing. The challenge of the mind is that it's also the center of suffering, pain, and many dysfunctions. Pain and suffering from the mind cloud emotions and affect perceptions, communication and actions.
The conscious mind is like our letterbox and the subconscious mind is like our giant letterbox.
The Heart. The heart is the subtle body, a communication channel between us and the universe. The heart is the inner body of bliss. The heart is the center that's free from judgments, full of acceptance and love.
For the heart (intuitive point) to function well, the mind and body must be healthy. For example, let's say an electrical switch is the body. The charging cord is the mind and the cell phone is the heart. If the switch and the charging cord are faulty or broken, you won't get a good supply of electricity to charge your cell phone. Likewise, if the mind and body are unhealthy, the spiritual cosmic energies from the universe cannot flow freely and connect with the person, and it affects one’s intuitive abilities. Intuition works best with clarity.
Here is a simple way to remember:
Physical Body: Instincts—Vitality
Mind: Intellect—Stability
Heart: Intuition— Clarity
Mind, body and heart reflect a person’s overall energy; aura. Aura is like a color code that reflects the type of energy that you are holding, or the type of energy that your environment holds.
That's enough for today.
Thank you for reading my insights.
Why is the newsletter called, The Golden Halo?
I named my newsletter, The Golden Halo. The Golden Halo is the name that describes the aura of this newsletter because my goal is to work with the universe, to deliver content that elevates the energies of enthusiastic readers. Golden Halo is the aura of self-realization.
Stay tuned to more stories of awakening from The Golden Halo.
Wishing everyone love and light.
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