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The vital nature generally craves praise and becomes upset with criticism. This habit has been increased by the rise of social media with the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ that appear on various posts, videos and blogs. People work hard to increase their ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ and make that almost an end in itself to justify their activities, ideas, actions and reactions to themselves through this exte al form of validation.

Those individuals who take up the practice of yoga for the purpose of transformation of the nature and the development of wider and higher states of consciousness inevitably find that the influence of the physical and vital basis upon which human life is based represents one of the greatest, if not actually the greatest, obstacles to their spiritual development. The idea of changing human nature, overcoming the embedded habits, the atavistic tendencies, the ingrained responses bred into human existence for many millennia is one that most people consider to be essentially impossible.

In recent years there has been a lot of focus on what is called the ‘law of attraction’. It has been mainly used to act as some kind of a ‘wish-fulfilling action’ that one undertakes by focusing on specific affirmations or visualizing results which then are ‘attracted’ to your focus and create the result you are seeking. This is, however, a very limited application of a much more general action of the universal consciousness of oneness.

One of the core principles of spiritual growth is the development of ‘equality’ in the sense of accepting whatever comes into one’s life with equanimity. This does not mean that the proper standpoint excludes action against injustice or oppression; rather, that one recognises that sometimes the forces that come in the form of obstruction, harmful intentions or interference are there to galvanize one into action and progress.

There is a tendency among human beings to react with extremes. Something is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. ‘black’ or ‘white’, ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. This occurs due to the linear nature of the mental consciousness aided by a vital nature that wants to assert itself by being ‘right’.

It is difficult for an individual to see his own shortcomings or faults. Many times we see them reflected in others and we exte alise them to such a degree that we take exception to the other person, not recognising that we are seeing our own faults displayed in front of us. If we have a confrontation with someone they may point out these faults, but we are generally less receptive to hearing it when it comes from a perceived opponent or enemy.

A lesson in control of impulses was described by Homer in The Odyssey. The protagonist, Odysseus is on his ship trying to return home after the Trojan War. He approaches an area that was home to the Sirens, whose alluring voices would lure sailors to their death as the ships crashed among the rocks. He wanted to experience the call of the Sirens without succumbing to their force. He had his crew stuff their ears with wax, and then had himself tied firmly to the mast so that he could not do anything to steer the ship towards them.

When we travel on a major highway, we do not doubt or question that the destination at the end of that road is where we will eventually end up. We may need to face various difficulties along the way. There may be stops for food or fuel, there may be automobile breakdowns and needed repairs, there may be storms and temporary halts or diversions. But if we remain focused on the objective, and continue to stay on the highway, we will one day reach the end.r

Modern civilization puts a premium on the mental process. We educate our children with a focus on the mind. We want them to learn verbal skills, reading skills, logical skills and measure them on their abilities in these areas with various forms of standardized tests by which we then classify them based on their capabilities in this regard. We under-value different forms of intelligence that may be based on the capacities of the physical body, the vital nature or the emotional being. Empathy and insight are less valued than mental, linear logic.

The question of how to achieve the status of inner equality to all outward circumstances is one that occupies the attention of spiritual seekers everywhere. In his book Bases of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo devotes the first chapter to the questions of achieving calm, peace and equality, as these are foundational for spiritual development. Some individuals try to establish a philosophical approach based in the mind. They become analytical about situations and work to defuse vital reactions that arise through applying a deeper insight to the situation.

All life, our entire existence, whether we are actively involved in a conscious spiritual discipline, or living a ‘normal’ life in the world following the demands of our needs, desires, relationships and ambitions, etc. is a field of growth, experience and develop. We respond to opportunities, pressures, and difficulties and as we do so, some part of our being gathers that experience and grows through the process.

We have previously explored the attitudes of the exte al, outer being in relation to these various issues. This is the opportunity to compare that view with the attitude of the inner being. At a certain point in an individual’s journey the development takes him beyond his initial fixation with the things that the exte al life can offer.

The vital nature in particular has a strong hold over the mentality. It uses this hold to find ways for the mind to justify various things that the vital desires. In many cases this occurs through a process of deflection and in others through a process of development of excuses and justifications.

The physical body has an ingrained response, for most people, to vibrations that precipitate illnesses. The vector carrying that vibration (whether one calls it ‘germs’, ‘bacteria’, ‘virus’, or ‘suggestion’) strikes the protective vital envelope, or aura, surrounding the body. If it finds an opening, or if it can create an opening, it enters into the physical body and begins the process of activation of its characteristic vibration, leading to the appearance of symptoms.

Food for Thought: President Trump recently was speculating about how he can eventually earn his way into heaven. He speculated that achieving peace in Ukraine and winning the Nobel Peace Prize might help him get his wish.r

One reason we do not have a sense of our purpose or role in the world, generally, is that we do not examine deeply our inner predilections or the trajectory of our lives. We interpret our lives based on exte al criteria and motives without appreciating that there is another driving force behind that helps to create the circumstances, opportunities and directions we wind up taking in our lives. In some cases, we interpret ‘negative’ events as interfering with our lives, when in fact, they may be the prod that moves us into a more certain direction to grow into our life’s work.

The drive in the human individual to find out who he is, what he is here for, and how he can grow and become what he is intended to be in the creation sets him apart from the animal. Even in the midst of an almost complete immersion in the exte al life and its lures, somewhere deep inside, the person knows that this is not all, that this is not enough, and eventually, this brings about a sense of dissatisfaction or discontentedness which pushes him beyond the limits set by the body, life-force and mind.

When we rely on our surface impressions, which are very much based on and influenced by our background, family, society and the values inculcated into us by those relationships, we only are able to truly understand a fraction of what is actually occurring, and generally this is conditioned by our desires, wishes and preconceived ideas based on our ego-consciousness. It is thus, necessarily, not truly possible to get a real sense of the larger perspective that encompasses our growth, and the developmental trend that is working itself out within us and in our environs.

The mental framework frequently wants to find an “either/or” option rather than looking at the nuance needed to resolve multiple views of pending questions. Thus, when we are asked to consider achieving a poise of equality in the face of provocation of any sort, positive or negative, we will tend to shift toward a poise of indifference and thereby give up the initiative to action. It is difficult for us to conceive of maintaining such a standpoint and at the same time engaging in the action needed to fight for a principle or to achieve the evolutionary goal before us.

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Trust is frequently built on the basis of experience. We gain trust by confirmation of a particular development or response from our interactions. Trust is thus primarily based in the mental process. Through a process that develops credibility, an individual gains trust in the action and outcome. We view and analyze what takes place, and with repeated similar results, a measure of trust is built up. Sometimes trust is gained through measures taken to provide support or protection as a “fail safe” mechanism.

We often do not recognise that there are different parts of our being that may be at different stages in terms of the spiritual focus, the dedication, the faith and the commitment. Thus, when our mind gets distracted or conce ed, or when our vital nature goes off in another direction, we may tend to feel like we are failing in the spiritual practice and we entertain considerations of giving up.

When an individual takes up the spiritual path, he normally starts by desiring peace, knowledge, power or some kind of solace or comfort. But what if he actually is faced with an unending series of obstacles, challenges, threats, and various forms of physical, vital or mental suffering? In such a case, does he maintain his complete faith in the Divine, or does he begin to doubt the Divine, the Truth, the Path, the Teaching or his own abilities to follow it?r

Dannion Brinkley told the story in his book Saved By the Light. He was a mercenary, a hired killer. He was struck by lightning. He was pronounced clinically dead. He returned to life. He knew, at that moment, that he was ‘sent back’ to accomplish a task, a mission. He left behind his prior life and founded an organization called Compassion in Action (C.I.A.) to train people on how to work with those who were terminally ill and in hospice.

In today’s modern societies, people expect instant results. They want things to be fast and easy. They respond to ads claiming they can lose weight easily in a few days’ time. They want deliveries from stores to be ove ight, if not ‘same day’. They would prefer to receive their enlightenment from a pill in many cases! We hear people who indicate that they tried meditation or hatha yoga but got nothing out of it. When pressed, they will admit to trying it for a few brief sessions on and off.

When we see things from the viewpoint of our ego-personality, with our limited life-span, and our insecurities based on the limitations of our knowledge and power we frequently experience bouts of anxiety or at least uncertainty about the reality of what we are doing, about the truth of the spiritual path, and about our ability to face all the obstacles and overcome them to obtain the objective we have set before ourselves.

Cultured and educated people often believe that they could not stoop to certain actions or be guilty of certain motives in their actions, or simply react to circumstances in a way other than that of their predominant mental view of themselves. They may look down on those who appear to them to be weak, sinful or who give in to impulses that are hateful, greedy, lustful or otherwise exhibit one of the ‘sins’ that humanity generally recognises as unacceptable behavior.

We frequently hear people complaining about how they are locked into and trapped in the lives they are leading. They feel like there is nothing they can do and nothing can change it. This was exemplified in a motion picture called ‘Groundhog Day’ which told the story of an individual who continually repeated the events of life on the same day. Each day he woke up and it was once again the prior day that he had just finished before he fell asleep.

There is a long history of debate about what we believe and how we know what we know. Science and religion have historically taken opposite positions in this debate. Science takes the view that the mind must be able to ascertain objective facts, and draw conclusions based on them. This includes potentially developing hypotheses and testing them, discarding or modifying those that do not bear themselves out in the test. Science is therefore most comfortable with phenomena that are observable, or at least measurable, as to their existence, their result and their uses.

When we are feeling weak or limited, we become unhappy, we react with frustration and are discontented with our lot. We feel in many cases oppressed by circumstances. We can become depressed if things are not going the way we expect or want them to go. We can become angry with ourselves, with others, with circumstances, with a general lack of what we desire to see or achieve.

The spiritual seeker often finds that he can see weaknesses and faults in others. If he fails to recognise that his reaction may be due to harboring those faults and weaknesses within himself, he can take an attitude of hostility toward the other person who is exhibiting those things. He may try to control in someone else what he does not control within himself. He may give way to anger and a self-righteous attitude that can lead to much negativity.

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The play of the three Gunas is active at all times in the life we live here. We may believe that the aspiration, or an act of consecration overcomes this play, but if we examine closely we can see that, in actuality, even the quality of our sadhana, our spiritual effort, is very much controlled and governed by whichever guna is predominant at a particular time, and they continue to fluctuate, moving us from one ‘mood’ to another along with these fluctuations.

The way we respond to setbacks or difficulties is conditioned by how deeply we are embedded in the ego-consciousness. The individual ego judges everything from its own very limited viewpoint. What it interprets as a negative result or as an obstacle may actually be part of the larger process of change that human nature is undergoing. The pressure of the outer circumstances provides the impetus for change.

We go wherever we focus our attention. If we focus our attention on difficulties, we wallow in those difficulties. If we focus our attention on growth and development, then we draw to ourselves those opportunities that support that growth. There are examples. Certain traditions make the rooting out of what they consider to be ‘sins of the flesh’ through extremes of discipline or even self-punishment through use of whips, hair shirts and the cilice.

When the spiritual seeker begins to recognise all of the difficulties and obstacles in his own exte al being, and understands the need to reduce and remove these obstacles if there is to be any permanent and major progress, he may begin by struggling with the desires, the movements that arise, the thoughts that harass his mind. There is no end to these difficulties, so if he becomes fixated on them, he can distract himself from the transformational work of shifting his focus to the spiritual realms and the energy that they make available.

Most people simply “live” their lives and carry out whatever feeling, mood or impetus may be impacting them at the moment. They “become” that movement, whether it is happiness and joy, hunger, anger, ennui, fatigue, or some concentrated state of mind, etc. Their awareness, their conscious existence is totally wrapped up in those movements of energy in their being. Few are those who feel a degree of ‘separation’ such that they can actually observe these changes of moods with conscious awareness and recognise the causal links, the situational causes and their reactions.

We make resolutions to change certain behaviours. Our minds are made up. We are certain that we can make the needed change. Many people make ‘new year’s resolutions’ to change something, perhaps to lose weight, to discontinue some habit, to avoid expressing anger, or some other intention we have, such a to be a more forgiving person, to express love and good will towards others more often, etc.

What we see in others in many cases is a mirror to what we contain within ourselves. We understand what is taking place because we are able to receive the vibration and internalize it and translate it into something that resonates in our being. In Western psychology there is a concept called ‘projection’ whereby someone ‘projects’ onto another person those traits, qualities, motives or actions which one has within oneself, whether openly visible or latent.

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We spend most of our lives fixated on the exte al life we are living, including our internal reactions to that life, such as our feelings, desires, sense impressions, thoughts, ideas, motivations and physical comforts and discomforts (among other things). We focus on earning our livelihood, building relationships, raising families, dealing with various crises that arise in our lives, and dealing with the demands of the outer life generally. From morning to evening we are occupied with these things, and then we carry them with us into our times of rest, recreation and sleep.

Virtually everyone has had the experience, at some point or another of finally overcoming a particularly difficult internal issue, whether it is the force of desire, or not responding with anger to things that do not go as anticipated, or any number of other activities that take place in the physical, the vital or the mental elements of the being; and then, when one is feeling satisfied that a real progress has been made, there is a circumstance that demolishes that sense of accomplishment with a recognition that one has once again given in to the impulsion or the provocation and repeated what

When we are confronted with difficulties, we employ several different types of responses, mainly depending on instinct, habit, training and the play of the three Gunas, the qualities of Nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. Sometimes we respond with more effort, sometimes we lapse into depression and sometimes we take a longer-range view and accept the process and the necessary time.

As long as we identify ourselves with our exte al personality, the body-life-mind complex we inhabit and project into the world, we are subject to the responses, reactions and motivations that they express, based on the developments of the entire past evolutionary history of consciousness on the planet and specifically closely associated with the socialization we receive through family, friends, school, and the society at large. We internalize these things to such a degree that we believe we ARE these things!

There is a dynamic that frequently occurs when an individual starts to actively take up the yogic path. At a certain stage of development, the need to bring peace into the being, and the need for a calm, quiet energy to support the practice of meditation may take center stage. At that point, the seeker may take steps to minimize exte al contacts, create a quiet space, and increase the time spent in meditation and study. The active impulse of participation in exte al affairs recedes.

Discover a transformational process on how we can liberate ourselves from fear and spiral up into freedom.

Explains the origin of Humanity and what God requires of us.

I am a soul reader. It is my intention, if you are interested in learning, to teach you how to connect with your soul anytime anywhere, empowering you to make conscious choices and decisions that serve your highest good. Readings are given over the phone or through skype & I work with people all over the world. Blessings

Terri Britt enlightens and empowers women to BREAK THE GOOD GIRL RULES and take back the authority of their lives. Terri is an Emotional Intelligence Expert, Energetic Healer, as well as a former Miss USA. She is the author of “The Enlightened Mom: A Mother’s Guide for Bringing Peace, Love & Light to Your Family’s Life.”

Spiritual Growth Principles and Practices for Practical People.