“….Sometimes inquiry produces realizations about ourselves that call us to repentance and provide liberation if we will make necessary corrections. If we do not make corrections, we will not escape the convolutions of the Natural Mind. Our old behaviors will anchor our perception to the telestial world.
As our discernment between Natural and Spiritual sharpens, we notice finer shades of negativity, as perhaps in conversation—maybe just as the wisp of a cloud casting a shadow. We begin to step out of our Natural Mind and say, “Oh, that’s how my Natural Mind feels.”
Catching our Natural Man in the very act requires some kindness and patience since we usually let go of the old ways only a little at a time. The Natural Man is serving us as a live-in teacher. It is appropriate to be grateful and correct gently. Just becoming aware can lessen the power of the negative feelings, as insight and release often go together.
Two spiritual teachers offer two additional ways of dealing with painful thoughts. Deepak Chopra says, “Watch this wave of feeling travel away from you—watch it grow fainter and fainter. Breathe…Cross the invisible boundary between ego and real self where the ego’s needs begin to lose their grip. If you follow any emotion far enough, it will end in silence. 16 With such an exercise we create distance between the disturbing thought and the truer mind, there-by lessening the thoughts impact, Eckhart Tolle suggests that when somebody says something to you that is rude or designed to hurt, “instead of going into unconscious reaction and negativity, such as attack, defense, or withdrawl, you let it pass through you” as though you were transparent, so that it no longer hits a solid “wall” inside you. That does not mean of course that you don’t tell “that person that his or her behavior is unacceptable, if that is what you choose to do. But that person no longer has the power to control your inner state. You are then in your power—not someone else’s”.17
As we experiment to find what works for us personally, we find more power to choose: “I want this experience, but not that”—and change occurs through awareness and choice.
We learn that we are either in our Natural Mind with its attendant consequences, or we are in our Spiritual Mind, enjoying the larger reality of love and faith. We receive wages and identify according to the voice we listen to (see Alma 5:41-42). As we can testify, the felt experience in the one mind is radically different from the other, Each mind develops different dynamics and, therefore, a different reality and perception.” ~M. Catherine Thomas from her book ‘Light in the Wilderness’ p. 83-84
16. quoting ‘Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life’ (Worchester: Harmony, 2004), 63.
17. Practicing the Power of Now (Novato,, California: New World Library), 110.
