Self mastery

You must master yourself. You must control your body and your mind. It is more difficult now than it was in the days of Jesus because there are more things that tempt you, lead you astray, to distract you. In the olden days people only worried about controlling their inner emotions, their actions towards others, their thoughts, and other things, which were natural. Now you must control the influences of things you partake. Food, for one. Before, food was not as plentiful, and so control was not as necessary, at the most. Now there is an abundance of food, especially in the Western nations. And there are other substances. There are the illegal controlled substances; there are the legal substances, which affect your state of mind. And, of course, there are influences, which bombard you day by day, such as from television, radio, and the media sources, which arouse in your mind a certain tendency to want to react. These influences may pressure you to buy things, to do things, which are not really necessary for spiritual gain. Keeping up with the Joneses so to speak, maintaining an outward appearance, which is more than is necessary. All of these things - I'm sure there are more - but these things require control. You must put them in perspective.

How to do this? You must think of the Paradise goal, values of which are needed for survival. You must live with your aim far head, although you must maintain some perspective of what you are doing here in this material world. You must not let material values take priority. Prioritize your actions on what you must accomplish in this life. Set your goals. And make those actions, which will actualize those goals, a priority.

This does not mean that you must be a hermit, or a person that renounces the pleasures of day to day living. No. Enjoy what you have, and partake of the bountiful fruits of which your ancestors have worked so hard to attain. But do not overindulge. Do not unthinkingly participate in the wanton splurge of those things, which are now so plentiful. Do your work, and when you are finished reward yourself with certain pleasures. Delay your gratification on a day-by-day basis until you have finished with your priorities, and then you may enjoy life's beauty, take pleasure in it.

Then, in matters of service and relationships with others, always master your responses to a sometime negative reaction of others. Control your own zeal. Do not shine the truth that you know so well so that it will blind others who are not so familiar or not so developed in their knowledge.

But control means more than the negative aspect of limiting yourself. Sometimes you must know when to let go of your zeal, let that knowledge shine brightly to those who are ready for the light. And also, when others are sometimes negative, depending on the circumstance - sometimes a person may require admonition; they may require some sort of fate like scolding. These are not outside the realms of personal relationships. You must know when to do what. This is control. This is self-mastery.

And in mastering yourself you must know certain aspects of yourself. The more you know yourself the better. This does not mean self-analysis. This means just to take a look inside yourself and realize who you are, what strengths you have, and make use of those strengths. Do not be self-cautious; do not think that you are not worthy. Realize that each and every one of you have aspects which are very beneficial to others. Use those parts of you to do good to others. And your weaknesses.

You can strengthen your weakness by sometimes going ahead and doing those things, which you thought you were not capable of. Try, strive, to better yourselves. But if you know that you cannot, upon the proof of many trials and errors, then avoid those circumstances, which will cause you harm. Do not place yourself in undue jeopardy if you know that it will be destructive to you. As you progress, you may become stronger in that aspect of yourself. And you may at one time be strong enough to confront those things, which at one time you could not. And this is accomplished by - once in a while - facing that very thing which frightens you.

When one's physical organism is hurt, when one has a wound or injury, if someone places a finger upon that injury that person will yell or scream because of pain. There will be commotion because everything is not right at that spot. Look into your own selves, and put the finger of your mind upon certain places, especially the places which hurt. Just gently - do not hurt yourself. If there is a twinge, that means that part of you is hurt. There is a wound there, an injury. You must bring that part out. Have faith. Pray to The Father, and shine the light of self-knowledge upon that spot. And realize, what is this that hurts you so? If it is a very sore and painful spot then you should leave it alone for that moment, but you should be aware that there is something wrong with it. And when you have gained strength, go back and gently approach that spot. Little by little you will focus light upon that grievous injury, and day-by-day what was once painful will become less painful until it will be healed and your probing will not cause any pain. Then you will know that you are completely healed.

Doing this frees yourself from reactions that you might show when spots like those which were painful are touched upon by others, and this way you will be master of yourself when others talk or when you talk or communicate about matters regarding that spot or part of you which had that injury or wrong. We all - even I - have places within us which we are not completely comfortable. I have seen and realized all my parts of myself, which I was not comfortable with, and I have shone the light of The Father upon them. You must do that. Be free of anything within you, which might make you react in a way that you would not want to head.
There are still other ways of self-mastery.

Question: You were talking about both physical and spiritual self-mastery. Is that correct?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And on the physical side, I think I understood you to say that we should take physical care of our
bodies, is that correct?

Answer: That is correct. 

Many individuals live daily in the desire of only understanding surface level ideas. They see the truth as cold and brutal. Many fear the truth for they fear its power over them. Truth does have power, but only if positive results come from it. If we fear truth, and are set in our ways, we are not advancing. We are not free. God is complete truth, and when we fear truth, we are inclined to fear Him. We are putting walls up between us and His divine essence.

The most difficult truth to bear is self truth. Inadequacies or short comings are fuel to the ego's fire. When we recognize something unpleasant about ourselves, it is difficult to look at that and say, "I am that. I desire understanding so that I may correct or improve." Many mortal responses would rather be, "I am that only because somebody made me that way." Blaming is casting God's light off of yourself and remaining in
ignorance.

To become aware of an unpleasant self truth is not to cause shame, but to stir the divine energies within. To admit this shortcoming is the first step in asking for help from the divine. Look not outside for others to take responsibility for your faults. Allow God's Spirit to turn you inward and listen for divine assistance. The world will become better if only one individual at a time can improve upon a dark spot in their behavior.

To face your faults is spiritual bravery, not something to shame you into striving for personal betterment, no. To bravely face personal defects is removal of an obstacle upon the path to Paradise. It is our Master's job to place the truth before us, and personally speaking, He is gentle beyond my own understanding. To know Him is to have steady growth. Admitting to Him you recognize a personal fault is asking Him for a new and better way to live, asking Him to remove an obstacle upon your eternal path.

Even the citizens of worlds settled in Light and Life take the recognition of personal faults with a rejoicing attitude. They are so happy to have awareness and be able to take action towards correction. They have not
difficulty turning inward with an open mind and bravely facing what could very well be a personal flaw.

Allow the Master to guide you inward to a place of complete truth, a beautiful realm in which there is not embarrassment, nor shame, nor the knowledge that everyone will know of your faults. Let Him guide you to a place of spiritual light. Lay out your self-recognition of shortcomings and view it honestly from the Master's perspective. Confer with Him. He is your counsel and friend — not a judge.

This week focus on the Master's presence. Should self flaws come to mind that you believe would be helpful in removing obstacles upon your path, then by all means, take it and go before the Master, confer with Him. Be aware of the ego's denial, for the ego believes the path is just fine how it is.