Mysticism and Self Improvement
Notes on Metaphysics and Self Realization by Elsa Joy Bailey

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WASHING OUR WINDOWS

Awareness is a lot like
a colorless stain remover,
spreading slowly, slowly
across the threads of our ordinary mindset
until it has seeped into everything,
dissolving old patterns,
and cleansing off useless spots.

Spiritual Growth

Why doesn't it happen faster?
There's no mystery to that.
It's because we resist waking up:
our habitual thoughts
are comfortable as old shoes
and part of us wants to keep on wearing them.

Self Improvement

I want to be free,
but I like some of my cages, too.
And I only know one way
to make headway with the cages:
by paying them very close attention.

Motivational Books and Self Improvement

Think about it:
there are so many things
we are willing to study closely:
birds, or flowers, or stars, or pets,
or how to grow vegetables.
We are willing to pay
enormous attention to our profession,
getting the subtleties of it,
learning its tricks.
We will study someone we care about
with infinite patience,
looking for clues, looking for insights
into their own unique wiring.

Self Help Books and Spiritual Growth

But when it comes to watching
the workings of our own mind,
often we bow out,
don't want to be bothered.
It seems too much effort.
Some of us aren't even certain
that the mind has workings
that are observable.

Motivational Books

And yet this mind
is our window to the world,
the opening through which we perceive
all that we perceive.
How can we possibly awaken
to a larger, more luminous view
without first beginning to question
the authenticity
of our smaller, denser window?

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Maybe it is possible to See Light
without examining the way
we "see through a glass darkly."
But in my case,
examination has been necessary
and even crucial.
Without it I am certain
I would still be caught up
in the lens of darkness
day in and day out.

Self Improvement

And, for me,
the secret of watching
has been to do it
without judgment.
(How often have we heard that?)
And how often have we failed
to employ it!
Neutral examination is hard to do,
because our mind
is an automatic judgment machine
printing out yay or nay
like a computer.
So it takes some practice
to watch the mind patiently and intently
without voting on its contents.

Motivational Books

Here's why it makes sense
to go through this often tedious
and burdensome effort:
once we begin to see
(and I mean truly see)
how the mind thinks,
how it searches out chaos and trouble,
how it jumps to align itself
with separation,
how it hugs pain,
we begin to be free
of its conclusions.

Metaphysics and Self Help

To the extent that I grasp
deeply and finally
that I am being conned by my own thoughts,
and my own reactions,
I am free of the next
con game.

New Age Books

However.
if I have not caught on
to the spurious motions of my mind,
I am simply a fresh tuna ready
for the next hook.

Motivational Books

So pay attention.




Elsajoy on Spiritual Growth, Mysticism and Human Potential

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