The path to Tranquility (summer)
78. Living for our true self
We are often influenced by external expectations and pressures and forget
our true needs and values. Always pursuing external achievements to gain
approval from others makes us nervous and anxious. This is living for others
in disguise, making us feel like a tool rather than having value just by
existing. When we doubt the value of our existence, we will have a negative
attitude. Therefore, we need to learn to live for our true self to recognize
our true value.
We often build a temporary sense of self based on the expectations of others and live for this false self. For example, our parents may want us to become pianists, deliberately cultivate or even force us to practice piano, making us mistakenly think that becoming a pianist means living for ourselves. Before discovering our true needs, we stick to this self for a long time and become accustomed to living for our parents instead of living for our true self.
When we get used to living for others, we become driven by our emotions. If our lives lack purpose, we will feel anxious. We feel energized if we are busy achieving one goal after another. This sense of existence brought about by emotions will cause us to focus too much on our instrumental value and ignore our intrinsic value, which ultimately leads to negativity. For example, we may regret that we continue to contribute to our family while neglecting our own needs for physical, emotional health, and self-growth.
In order to achieve a true sense of being, we must live for our true self. This requires us to break away from the habit of living for others and the idea of constant action. Because they not only cause us to ignore the practice of our inner world, but also cause us to do things for the approval of others, making our lives complicated and confusing. The purpose of getting rid of these habits and concepts is to get rid of the false self and return to simplicity in life.
Our true goal is growth, not achievement. If we are busy with various affairs for a long time, it is likely to weaken our physical and mental health. We need to realize that if we lose life, we will not be able to continue to grow, and at this time all external achievements will become insignificant. Therefore, even if we pursue achievements, we should put existence and growth first. Otherwise, the external goals we pursue may conflict with internal goals, cause inner confusion, and consume a lot of vitality.
To effectively exert vitality, we need to discover and understand our true needs from consciousness. Delving into our hearts, thinking about what is the true self, or who is the true self, and what can make us feel satisfied, we can discover our needs. Recognizing the needs of the body, recognizing the desires of the ego, we can better recognize the true self. This is a journey from the outside to the inside to recognize our true self.
Knowing our true self can promote our growth and naturally achieve achievements on the road to growth. This achievement is a by-product of growth, not only can we continue to promote our growth, but also help others. For example, when we recognize our creativity, we can create things that benefit our lives. So, we do not need to deliberately pursue achievements, or act for others. Freed from deliberate actions and in a state of freedom, we are more likely to exert our creativity and discover our advantages.
All our actions should revolve around the question of "how to continue to exist". Although the world has prepared everything for life, life cannot exist forever. To solve this problem, we need to start from physical health, emotional balance, and consciousness cultivation, and find a lifestyle that truly belongs to us. We can consider freeing ourselves from busyness, letting go of the obsession with material achievements and external recognition, and turning to focus on internal progress and improvement. This requires us to have a comprehensive understanding of matter and spirit.
We need life, so we need material, emotions and correct consciousness. The body is the physical plane, including the senses and sensations, and is the backbone of our life. Sensations bring about feelings and drive our emotions and form habits. This is a psychological level, a bridge between body and consciousness. Our self-awareness is also on this level and can be collectively called the ego. Emotions allow us to further perceive the outside world, generate a complete consciousness that includes time and space, and control body activities. We are this complete consciousness, the ultimate holder and controller of life, or called the soul. If we use a cell as an analogy, the body is like the cell wall, the ego is like the cytoplasm, and the soul is like the nucleus. This means that we are at the core of the combination of body, ego and soul. We need to coordinate these three and constantly revise our cognition in order to develop ourselves in all directions.
The body is temporary. The ego is made up of experiences, emotions, and habits, and is stubborn but unstable. Only the soul possesses the essence of eternity. Through these three aspects, we can discern our ultimate needs. The body is most important to us because we cannot leave it. We also have a certain degree of reliance on the ego because it sometimes helps us preserve our bodies, especially when we are unconscious. In fact, what we need most is the existence and growth of the soul, so we need to constantly improve our consciousness. This is what it means to live for our true self.
To live for our true self, we need to fully cooperate with life. In order to use the body in a balanced way so that it lasts for a long time, we need to learn how to eat and exercise healthily. At the same time, we also need to learn psychological knowledge, pursue a healthy sense of accomplishment, handle emotions well and break habits, and take back the control of life from ego. For raising consciousness, we need to pay more attention to thinking and practicing the spiritual world, and establishing good interpersonal relationships, especially mutual loving relationships. This has been a huge help to our growth. On the other hand, when we are busy dealing with things in the external world, we should always keep the needs of life in mind, put life first in all considerations, and maintain a healthy and reasonable selfish mentality.
In other words, we not only need to expand the boundaries of life and accumulate material wealth, but we also need to get rid of the constraints of habits and emotions and take control of our lives. We also need to establish deep connections with others to form a whole consciousness and expand the space of existence. Through mutual promotion, we can broaden our horizons. Continuous learning, reflection and growth can cultivate our deep consciousness of life and environment, thus living out the true self.
This lifestyle of deeply focusing on the inner world is both a test and challenge for us, and a process of realizing a true self. Our needs come from the need to continue to exist, and our value comes from achieving the goal of life. Only by understanding the true self, satisfying our own needs, and realizing our own value, and achieving living for the true self, can we find inner tranquility.
We bravely follow our own path and constantly revise our thoughts and behaviors as we move forward. We strive to create materially and spiritually without violating the needs of life. This not only creates a healthy and long-lived body, but also creates a close connection between lives, moving together towards the goal of eternal existence. This is living for our true self.
77. Living well in the present for the future
79. Creating a better tomorrow with actions
