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People on the whole just do not realize the incredible power of the mind, a power which can lift one to the heights or drop one to the most abysmal soul-shattering depths. Through the ages of mans evolution there have always been those few individuals who have known this and lived accordingly and were looked upon generally by the people of those times as superhuman, as Gods. Of course through their ignorance they also greatly feared these radiant souls not realizing that they held the seed of that same greatness within themselves despite the fact that these great individuals sought in their own sublime way to disseminate the truth, hoping to reach the few who were ready to absorb the wisdom.
Isn't it true how prone we are to put ourselves down or get ourselves into a flat spin when faced with some adversity or seemingly insurmountable problem. We get caught up and enmeshed in that ancient trap of the lower finite self which seductively whispers of mans weakness of spirit and inability to overcome without external help, and of course this seduction has been inbred into mans racial psyche over the ages.
One of the greatest souls who ever took physical incarnation said:-
"Know ye not that that ye are Gods in the making", but the various faiths since then have disregarded this blazing truth as with many others as being to "radical" and not suited for mans spiritual growth, for how blasphemous to consider oneself as aspiring to become a God.The churches and other religious institutions of the time and in the centuries thereafter considered it their duty and solely their mandate to see to mans religious/spiritual upbringing. The church was supreme in this as if a man or woman had no individual soul. Its been a sad and centuries long battle in respect of mans spiritual evolution, and yet, through it all, there have always been souls who were not blinded by church dogma and their stated mandate that they were the sole arbiters of mans spirituality. If it were not for those brave and far seeing souls forging ahead through the light they dimly sensed within, one wonders, timewise, how many more centuries would have passed before the churches stranglehold would become weakened. To utilize our God given inner power, to work towards harnessing it, in place of being controlled by the lower finite self, one has to be mentally strong, for lets face it, to live in today's world, to cope with cope with its frenetic pace one has to be tough minded otherwise its easy to get totally swamped ./ If this seems a bit grim think of all the things that happen to people-pain, physical or mental, sickness, frustrations, failures, crushing disappointments, double dealing, harsh and hurtful things said and done by colleagues, ones children and so-called friends, grief and bereavement, and a host of other things, the list is endless./ That great soul, Norman Vincent Peale said that one thing every person should learn IS HOW TO HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO TAKE IT./ If you haven't yet had to take it, you will eventually because life will place you in almost the same situations time and time again until you do learn to take it with equanimity. This is a simple yet profound truth. The same adversities, weaknesses and problems confront one until we learn to face and overcome them WITH OUR OWN INNER RESOURCES. One of the top priorities one has to learn on the road to self-mastery and becoming a selfless worker in the plans of the ascended masters of life, is the development of tough mindedness. One must however remember that being tough does not mean being as well hard or callous. Indeed, tough mindedness must be developed in conjunction with love and great compassion for without these there can be great danger to the soul.
One has only to think of the innumerable dictators and tyrants of the past to see the truth of this. They were immensely strong mentally with an equally strong will, but totally lacking in compassion and love for their fellow men. Norman Vincent Peale also said; there are the tender minded and the tough minded. The tender minded cannot, as a rule, take it. Criticism just cuts them to the quick. It hurts and wounds them terribly, problems and obstacles appall them, and opposition overwhelms them.
The tough minded do not like criticism any more that anyone else, but they know how to receive and handle it. They extract carefully from the criticism all the know-how it contains and simply blow the chaff away as they have what it takes. Toughness of the spirit is actually in everyone, one of the gifts of the Creator, it just has to be rediscovered. We never ever came into being without all the attributes for overcoming life's adversities. Its a case of learning again to exercise ones spiritual "muscles". In the years of my counseling of people perhaps 90% of them presented cases of mild to chronic depression with suicidal tendencies, the individuals concerned admitting to not being able to cope with unrelenting pressures and problems with the result that they eventually resorted to tranquilizers upon which they became totally reliant. There are many, including well established psychiatrists who maintain that that depression is caused by a so called chemical imbalance in the brain and many chronic depressants sadly, use this as a excuse on which to hang their inability or character weakness. Its extremely interesting that there is no definitive scientific proof whatsoever that chronic depression results from a chemical imbalance in the brain. The soul of man is a spark of the Absolute All, the universal divine, carrying with it all that is necessary to overcome all obstacles and adversities. Over many lifetimes however, vast numbers of souls have forgotten this knowledge ( we can't say lost) as it lies buried deep within the soul. Naturally to jump from the one extreme of negativity to the opposite of tough mindedness is never that easy so it is important to associate with people who 'have crossed over the bridge', who have gone through the stages of growing into that tough mindedness, on whom you can lean at times, drawing from their inner strength. As one does so, you learn the necessity of seeing yourself, or picturing yourself cultivating tough resistant quality. This has to be done over and over holding the firm attitude of yourself as not being weak or vacillating, but mentally strong, controlled and purposeful.
YOU TEND TO BECOME WHAT YOU THINK AND VISUALIZE. There is this lovely affirmation:"God made me strong, I see myself as I really am, strong, and I have what it takes./ Thank you Lord for my inner strength".
One has to keep on saying this and believing it and in time the conscious mind will accept it as fact an truth. If you could delve into the thought patterns of many of the great men and women of the past, you would find that there minds were unclouded by shadowy gloom and that the quality that differentiates them from the weak minded was their ability always to see a chink of light in the darkness, however black. The tough minded have this larger vision enabling them to see a line of light at the end of the shadow. Gautama Buddha declared:- 'The mind is everything, what you think you become".PERSIST AND PERSIST IS THE WAY.
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