Daily Meditation: Friday, November 7, 2014

Vigilance - to be exercised over our states of consciousness

11/07/2014

Observe yourself; there are times when you are busy cooking or gardening, doing little jobs, driving your car, and you seem to be focused on what you are doing. But, in reality, a part of you is wandering off elsewhere, and the thoughts and feelings that are troubling you have nothing to do with what you are doing. You are brooding over such and such a person who annoyed you or didn’t keep a promise and so on, and that can last a long time without your even realizing it. So that is where you have to learn in particular to be vigilant, so that you can intervene at any moment in the progress of your inner life. The first step toward freedom, the first step toward true power, is to get into the habit of taking a look within yourself from time to time to see how you are doing. And if you see you are descending into the dark, chaotic regions of your consciousness, respond by giving a different direction to your thoughts.