You Got This!
Encouragement helps everyone shine. Sometimes, when parents, teachers, coaches, or friends want to give an extra bit of support and confidence to a child about to attempt a challenging act – kicking a ball, jumping from the high dive, giving a performance in front of an audience – they say, with enthusiasm: “You got this!” These simple words from a trustworthy person may be just the boost of belief that a child needs to let go of shyness or fear that might otherwise get in the way of kicking that ball into the goal or jumping in the water from higher than ever before or giving a performance that receives a standing ovation.
Like children, we also feel more confident when someone we trust has faith in our ability to succeed at something we want to achieve.
As initiates of a true Master, we want to achieve perfect concentration at the eye centre and experience the presence of his radiant Shabd form. And this is something the Master assures us that we can do. When we were initiated, we were not only given instructions for how to achieve this – our human purpose – but we also were told that our goal is already within us. Since our true being is soul, which is of the same essence as the Lord, it is also one with Shabd: the power that created and sustains the entire universe. That Shabd, which is within everyone, can be found as sound infused with light, a ringing radiance behind and between the two eyes. When we meditate, we are gradually weaning our mind away from the sense pleasures of the outer, everyday world and bringing it toward the inner world of spirituality.
It’s simple: we take our mind’s attention from the outside and bring it within, every day for two-and-a-half hours – day after day, month after month, year after year. Then, one day the mind stops resisting and starts to enjoy the peace and bliss within.
As the consciousness rises, the soul, which has been entangled with the mind for eons, begins to free itself and rise even higher toward its true home, until it reunites with the Shabd in Sach Khand. What a journey! And yet we aren’t really going anywhere because it’s all already inside of us – we just have to become aware and experience it for ourselves. Even though we struggle, the Master has our backs and cheers us on. He’s always telling us, in one way or another, “You got this!”
Why does it seem so difficult, if not impossible, to achieve? The answer, of course, is the mind. In from self to Shabd, the author calls it “an amazing device” and describes what it can do:
The mind has the ability to rewind, go forward, play, and pause…. [It] does not need any physical buttons to access the past, present, future, or pause functions. This is done automatically, simply by placing our attention wherever we desire.
We can imagine the future, remember the past, or be in the present, wherever we place our thoughts. But unfortunately, we have little control over the mind. Our thoughts take us where we think we can find happiness. But no matter where we find contentment, it’s short-lived and soon turns into feelings of frustration, anxiety, and fear, taking us on a roller coaster of emotions, away from the peace of mind that we seek. Worst of all, we can’t figure out how to stop our thoughts and “put the mind in pause mode,” this author writes.
This outward mind loves running after the senses and focusing on thinking, judging, and labeling the human experience. It desires all types and forms of variety and wants to be entertained. “By keeping our attention in the world, the outward mind has created the illusion that we are separate and alone,” the author of from self to Shabd writes. We believe that we are our mind and body, and we isolate ourselves from others with an individual personality and ego. This illusion makes us fear the ups and downs of life and causes us to forget that the power of the Shabd is right within us.
That’s why we need encouragement – to kick away thoughts and worries, to jump into stillness, to forget about the audience of our mind and focus on simran and the inner sound. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, Maharaj Charan Singh tells us:
We should try to face our day-to-day problems by remembering our destination, remembering the path. Our problems are of our own making…. We have sown the seeds and we are here now to face the results of those seeds. …
If you meditate, you build an atmosphere around you, an atmosphere of bliss, happiness, and contentment. And then you can pass through all these ups and downs without losing your balance.
The Master also assures us that he is always with us and always helping us: “His guiding hand is always there, whether we are conscious of it or not,” Hazur writes in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II. Believing this can give us the confidence that Baba Ji expects when he tells us that we have to make the effort to do our meditation. It’s the only way to tame the mind. We can’t expect him to do it for us, just as we can’t expect him to chew our food for us. Yes, the Shabd is already within us, but we have to work to realize it before we can have that experience for ourselves.
Conquering the mind and gaining spiritual maturity is not something we can do by ourselves, but we must do our part. The saints assure us that we can do it. In Quest for Light Hazur encourages us: “If we go on doing our best, success will definitely come one day.” And Baba Jaimal Singh reminds us in Spiritual Letters:
You reached Sach Khand the very day you were initiated – that is the place for which you are destined. Who can take away the gift bestowed by the Satguru? Because the karmic account of worldly give-and-take is still to be finished, he cannot take you there. Once it is fully settled, he will take you there at once.
If this is the Lord’s will, it can only be the mind that makes us doubt that we can achieve our spiritual goal. We know what to do. Hazur makes it so clear. In Quest for Light he writes: “Do your duty with love and devotion and leave the rest to the Master. No effort is ever in vain.”
No problem, right? We got this!