Hi,
I'm Johnny John.
Spiritual lessons are lessons which can help us to grow spiritually.
This includes the process of becoming ever more accepting,
More loving,
Compassionate,
Happy,
Limitless,
Wise,
Basically all spectrums of positivity.
Today I want to talk about a way to discover those lessons and that is through exploring the opposites of who we are.
What you can do is to ask yourself,
What are my strong traits?
For instance,
What am I good at?
What beliefs do I have that I strongly believe in?
What are the things I must have in life?
Then after discovering your strong traits,
Then you can look at its opposites to find the clues to your spiritual lessons.
For instance,
If you have a strong trait of living in a carefree,
Improvised way,
Then you can ask yourself,
Can I accept a life which is structured and planned?
Whenever you question for the answer,
Always ask,
Feel inwards.
If any pain or discomfort is experienced towards that idea,
Then that may be a sign of a negative idea,
Which basically means an idea that you cannot accept.
Another example,
If you happen to have a strong trait to be structured all the time,
Then you can ask yourself,
Can I let go of structure and live in a spontaneous way?
Or if your strong trait is being silent all the time,
Then can you be loud?
Another example,
If your strong trait has been nice all the time,
Can you be rude?
I mean,
If you're religious,
Can you let go of your religion?
If you really want to be rich,
Can you be poor?
Remember that the core of spiritual lessons are lessons which will make us grow to become even more accepting.
So what we cannot accept will always be our spiritual lessons.
The undertaking of the spiritual lessons will take us on a journey towards accepting all the errors.
Often the strong traits we have are there because of the rejection we have towards its opposite.
For instance,
We may like to be loud because we hate being silent.
Not saying that this is the case for every trait,
But this can often happen,
And thus this method of exploring our strong traits can be a gateway for self-discovery.
So if you do find that you cannot accept the opposite of your strong trait,
Then to accept it will be your spiritual lesson.
To learn how to accept it,
To learn why you cannot accept it,
A journey of self-knowing.
And on such a journey,
One will no doubt face confusions.
Because when we are asked to accept what we cannot accept,
The mind will be angry.
And scoff at such an idea which it always has rejected.
Of course it will.
That's the reason for the lack of acceptance in the first place.
So you will no doubt encounter a lot of inner resistances.
So the idea of accepting something we cannot accept can be unsettling to the mind.
And the mind will fight,
And most often it will win,
Because our current beliefs are the beliefs that we have been living with for a lifetime.
But remember,
To transform the mind is to go against the mind.
To go against our current beliefs,
So that it can be refined.
So it's natural if you experience inner resistances.
It's natural if you experience confusions.
Just focus on developing self-knowing.
Keep on searching for the answers to the questions.
Why can I not simply accept myself?
Why can I not accept the opposite of who I am?
Why can I only accept myself under the condition that I have to have money?
That I have to be spontaneous?
That I have to be polite?
Your mind will begin to fight you with its analysis.
Issues to do with morals,
Ethics,
Cultural values,
Expectations,
Blah blah blah.
I won't go into details into how to approach our spiritual lessons,
As the focus is in discovering them.
But to work through the confusions of the spiritual lessons,
Realize that the greater work is always done with them.
To accept is not about becoming what you cannot accept.
To accept being poor is not about learning how to become a poor person.
It is about accepting oneself,
Even if one is poor.
It is about accepting the opposite of who you are at the state of the mind.
And realizing this,
One will be able to make great progress on their journey of self-transformation.
Although a transformative catalyst one can use is to become what you cannot accept,
To study the mind as to why the self- rejection is there.
This is a catalyst for the adept,
Because it can be traumatizing.
The practice of meditation will be so ever helpful to you on the journey of transforming the mind,
Because it will help to bring clarity and wisdom within.
So I have talked about how we can explore the opposites of ourselves,
To find the aspects of ourselves that we cannot accept,
Our spiritual lessons.
I want to also say that by developing the acceptance towards what you cannot accept,
Will help to complement the skill that you lack.
What do I mean by this?
An example,
In the past when I used to write music,
I didn't like to have a structure.
My belief was that music should always be flowing naturally,
So I wrote music without a key and time signature.
It was after I began to explore the opposites of who I was,
I decided to learn about structures and used it to write my music.
I discovered that it actually made my music flow even better.
It actually made the writing process five times faster.
So realize,
The spiritual lessons will always take us to accept the opposite of who we are,
And it doesn't mean to abandon who we were.
For instance,
Now having accepted both a spontaneous and structured side of myself,
I could use both sides whenever I want,
Whenever I need.
Whereas in the past,
When I only had a spontaneous side,
It was like I only had one hand to work with,
And now it feels like I have two hands.
A tip that can help you to transform your mind,
Is to begin accepting all those people that are opposite to who you are.
This will help to accelerate your progress,
Because to the deeper mind,
There is only one self.
Let me give you an example.
In the past,
I had this really cool manager who was spontaneous all the time,
So people would take breaks longer than intended,
Longer than what's supposed to,
And the manager would be cool about it.
Then my manager got replaced by someone who was really strict.
In the beginning,
I really hated her for being so strict with everything.
She was like a micromanager,
Had to have processes,
And she wants the disk cleaned by the end of the day.
I don't like that,
Because I like to have all my stationery on the disk,
So I don't have to set it up again.
Anyways,
I tried to accept her for who she was,
And this took a long time.
And in those years,
I began to realize that in the attempt to accept her and love her for who she is,
I was actually accepting parts of myself that I could not accept.
From her,
I learned how to apply structures into my life.
From her,
I learned how to accept myself.
So through the process of developing greater self-acceptance,
The less I saw her in a negative light,
The less I saw people who were structured in a less negative light,
And the more I accepted the idea of having structures in everything I do in life.
I hope this talk has helped you to understand the ways of discovering our spiritual lessons through exploring the opposites of who we are.
The practice of meditation will help you greatly in this aspect,
Because often when we encounter something that we reject,
Our mind can convince us that this is natural,
And thus validates the rejection.
But through practicing meditation,
It will allow the mind to become still,
Allowing you to step back to observe what is really happening.
The practice of meditation thus allows us to see everything in a higher perspective.
With the spiritual eye,
When we see a person who is completely opposite to us,
All we will see is our reflection.
It is then we will realize that to accept that person is to accept ourselves in totality,
Which will promote greater happiness and fulfillment in life.
