Escape the Prison of Uncontrolled Desires

Question 1

Imagine a day when you got up in the morning and were well rested. You went to work and were pleasantly challenged. You labored intently but without a trace of anxiety. You felt no sense of frantic striving, no feeling of time running out and too much to do before it slipped away. When you return home you enjoyed the company of a good friend with whom you had a conversation that left you rejuvenated. You were left with an enhanced sense of possibility and a marvelous appreciation of the wonders of the universe. Finally you went to bed and effortlessly drifted off to sleep cushioned by a deep sense of gratitude.

Answer 1

If you want a lifetime of days like this, it is crucial to escape from the prison of your uncontrolled desires. You will truly become free.

Question 2

Are you truly free if you cannot stop yourself from taking actions you don’t want to take?

Answer 2

Do you ever find yourself doing things that you know you should not but you do anyway?

Question 3

The ability to actually do what you recognize is in your best interest – – in your calmer rational moments – – is the key.

Answer 3

This facet of freedom the key to lasting happiness.

Question 4

Recall the feeling you get when you look at the sunset or sunrise or nature in general or when you read a book or watch a movie that you thoroughly enjoy. Get a taste of this feeling and contrast it with the feeling of self aggrandizement.

Answer 4

Understand that the first type of feeling comes from self glorification, self-promotion. It is a worldly feeling.

The second comes from self-fulfillment. It is a soul feeling.

Question 5

Too many of us are engaged in petty power struggles while the true beauty of life lies all around us unobserved and unappreciated.

Answer 5

Whenever your inner emotional state is dependent on something external, you can lose whatever you get.

Question 6

Happiness is already part of your inner innate nature. There’s nothing you have to do in order to be happy. All you have to do is allow it to surface.

Answer 6

True happiness is a soul feeling.

Question 7

Why are our lives so filled with angst and sorrow? Simple answer is we have constructed mental models in which happiness comes as a result of getting something – – money, power, spouse, children, fame, etc.

Answer 7

We buy into the myth that stuff will bring us happiness.

The trap is in the belief that if you succeed you will be happier.

Question 8

All of your stress is caused by your inability to accept what the universe is giving you.

Answer 8

You cannot command the universe to comply with your wishes.

Question 9

Consider the view from a mountaintop, or perhaps a fertile valley or rock formation or a rainbow over the ocean while you were on a cruise. Can you recall the deep feeling of serenity and peace than welled up to you.

Answer 9

That feeling of peace, that deeply nourishing experience, happened because you at that instant fully accepted the universe as it is.

Question 10

Your life is equally wonderful if you look at it dispassionately, as an admiring spectator.

Answer 10

We are always clinging, and what we are clinging to keeps changing. Remember that aversion is also a form of clinging. You are clinging to the absence of something.

Question 11

Happiness is being free from want. It’s simply our innate nature bubbling forth in the absence of constraints we put on it with our incessant demands.

Answer 11

The peace, contentment and joy you seek is inside. But you keep hunting for it outside.

You can only truly enjoy the things of this world when you do not cling to them and when you do not ascribe your happiness to them.

Question 12

What you do is somewhat in your control, but the results are not. Gratefully accept what happens.

Answer 12

When you are not emotionally involved in a particular result, but you are far more effective in bringing it about.

Question 13

Great players have an uncanny ability to focus on one point at a time, one stroke at a time. They exult after the competition is over.

Answer 13

If you go barreling through life in a full throated charge, desperately doing things to make you happy, happiness will elude you.

It is like a puppy that runs away when you seek to entice her to come to you. Forget about making overtures and start reading your newspaper and you will feel it’s cold nose in your hand.

Question 14

What you seek is within your grasp, but you can only reach out if you let go of what you were clasping so tightly to your bosom.

Answer 14

You are bound to the things you own as long as you need them emotionally. The moment you sever this psychological link, you will experience a marvelous freedom, a sense of liberation that cannot be described.

Question 15

Go over your life from the earliest memories and make a list of your accomplishments.

Answer 15

After you have done this exercise, reflect on whether there are any patterns that pop up in the occasions you have recorded. For example, do you find that what gives you satisfaction is almost always related to helping others in someway?

How many of the items in your list are times when you are honest and being yourself? And how many are times when your ego is being struck by others congratulating you and telling you how good you are?

Focus on the soul feelings, not the worldly feelings.

Question 16

Think about some activity that you really and truly enjoy. Some activity that brings you joy. When was the last time you indulged in this activity? Set aside some time each week and indulge in it wholeheartedly. Start immediately – – do it now.

Answer 16

As you do this, you begin honoring yourself. Acknowledge the calm joy you feel as you are immersed in this activity. Appreciate it. Be grateful for it. Give thanks to the universe for allowing you to do this.

By the law of increase more things will start appearing and happening in your life that will give you the same feeling.

Question 17

Drop destructive habits.

Do not be prey to self-destructive behaviors.

Answer 17

Clearly and dispassionately note the damage being done by your behavior. Be aware when these behaviors are being triggered. You should have this awareness the instant before you blow up, drift into sexual fantasy or reach for a cigarette.

Question 18

When tempted by self-destructive behaviors, immediately shift your attention to your breath. Shift your breathing from fast and shallow too slow and deep. Visualize the negative emotions leaving in a dark stream.

Answer 18

Visualize golden, strength giving light streaming in with each inhalation. Keep doing this. Go into the witness mode and watch your emotions riding in the maelstrom. You will be pleasantly amazed by how fast your negative emotions will dissipate. You will find that music has a profound effect on your mood. Classical music, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach–is very calming.

Question 19

Craft a description of your ideal job. Invest enough emotional energy in your writing that it literally becomes a statement of purpose to the universe. It should be your intention to manifest what you are writing sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Answer 19

The ideal job, the one that you were seeking does not exist. You have to, quite literally, create and assemble it in bits and pieces. Do you have a better chance of succeeding if you clearly know what you were trying to do.

Write in the present tense: I work and I… See yourself, as vividly as you can actually living the life you are writing about.

Question 20

When visualizing your ideal job, think about things like What is the culture of the organization you work for? How is it expressed? What skills and talents do you possess and how do you use them in your job? What are the core values of your life and how do you express them in your job? Who benefits from you doing what you do? Who do you wish to benefit? Does what you were doing contribute in anyway to the greater good of the world as you see it? Lessening of violence, reduction of environmental degradation, greater equity, more self-sufficiency for all, etc.?

Last but not least in what way is what you do an expression of who you are? How does it fit into your notion of a spiritual life?ll

Answer 20

Rather than forcing yourself to write down these things, just do a stream of consciousness. Repeat this exercise every few months. It may take many iterations before any clarity begins to appear.

Examine yourself as you are writing. When you start coming alive with possibility, then the pen moves almost by its own volition and leave you breathless at the thought of achieving the life you were writing about, when you could go on forever because what you were doing seems so right to you.

That is when you have achieved a breakthrough you were looking for. And that is when the life you were imagining will start manifesting itself in bits and pieces

Question 21

Listen to your witness.

When you feel yourself spinning into “I must do this now at all costs even if the project is spinning out of control” stop. Ask others. Explain the situation, get their input, revise/modified to find what the optimal outcome for all involved?

Answer 21

To define/envision an ideal job, just put pen to paper and write in a stream of conscious and patterns will emerge.