Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics: Lifestyles for Self-Discovery
Marsha Sinetar
ISBN 0-8091-2773-3
From the introduction:
“My bias is this: ordinary, everyday people can and do become whole. They can and do live in ways that express their highest and most cherished values—values which also happen to be those most prized universally and collectively throughout human history. People who become whole are the ones who find completeness by consciously integrating inner and outer realities. This is a book about such persons, and about the way in which they manage to merge their inner truths with the demands of everyday living. It is for them, and for all who long for their own wholeness, that this book is written and dedicated.”
“It has been said that the inception of real personality health occurs when an individual stops trying to get the world to meet his needs and wants, and begins seeking out ways to perform some needed and meaningful service for others. That seems like a good and practice starting point for the discussion at hand, since it allows us to view wholeness through an inner/outer filter of how people conduct their life in relationship to others.”
From advancement to wholeness:
“Wholeness exists to the extent an individual is conscious of and receptive to his innermost self. The more aware and accepting a person becomes of his inner images and motivations, the more he becomes healed.”
“Paul Tillich’s phrase, “the courage to be”, is insightfully descriptive of what is required of one who would be whole. In his book of the same title, he reminds us that the self-affirming life requires will: the will to have more life, to surpass ourselves. This sort of courage banishes everything cowardly; it is the opposite of submissiveness to external gods. Rather it affirms that which really is alive within, and is the will which compels the individual to take on difficult, but perfectly natural, life battles. It allows him to tackle the kind of small deaths which open him up to a larger life.”
From the mystic type along the way:
“A key difference between mystics and all others is that their spiritual eyes have been opened, and they have “seen”. From the chaos of their early inner confusion, mystics awaken to an illumined posture of Being. They are in a state of Being rather than—like most others— seeking to become. They possess such a high degree of interior richness that with little effort—or so it may seem to others—they develop their latent powers of transcending ordinary reality.”
From Dr. Lee Sannella who has researched the physical experiences or alterations to his/her physical state:
“Spiritual rebirth has become…a well-defined entity…It is not simply an altered state of consciousness, but an ongoing process lasting from several months to many years, during which the person passes in and out of different stages of consciousness…(This) can be described as an evolutionary process taking place in the nervous system.”
From Swami Paramananda, one of the first Hindu teachers to impact the United States,:
“The deep things do no come suddenly. Let us be patient—with ourselves. We may recognize many defects in our natures…it can all be removed. Go on working silently. Silence and patience go together. Silence has wonderful creative power. Make a study of the lives of great men. They conceive an idea but they do not go out and shout it before the world; they think silently and work quietly until they realize their ideal.”
From solitude and silence in the development of wholeness:
“Selected meditative and solitary practices help develop personality because the still-point of being, the innermost core of self, can—at first—only be reached indirectly: through dreams, through a flash of insight, through feelings or symbols, through stilling the mind.”
From psychiatrist William Glasser, a discipline must meet six requirements if it is to help people grow:
- It should be non-competitive and be done, for the most part, alone.
- It should be a practice which is not dependent on others for execution.
- It should be easy to do, should not require much mental effort (e.g., straining to make the mind blank turns people away from meditation despite their sound intentions).
- It should be a practice which is done regularly, about one hour per day (or twice a day in equal amounts of time).
- It should be something that the doer believes will improve his mental/physical state. He must see his own improvements, without needing an “expert” or guru to tell him he’s getting better—in other words, in every respect it should build self-sufficiency rather than dependence upon another.
- It should be something which can be done without inordinate self-criticism or comparison to someone else’s progress. The individual hurts himself, and his developmental progress, when he thinks, “I’m not running as fast, as far or gracefully as John,” or when he cruelly ridicules himself for the form or manner in which he sees himself doing the practice.
Tags: courage, creative, health, insight, mystics, patient, people, personality, rebirth, self, spiritual, values, wholeness
