Clarity of intent (or desire) can only arise when you are willing to connect with yourself and thus get a sense of the experiences you wish to have, that feel aligned with you, based on awareness of your present life and knowing yourself as you truly are. The essential pointer is “connect with yourself”, which requires you to be free of a lot of clutter in your “thinking mind” which has several elements of delusion attached to it. To connect with yourself is to really know yourself, as you are at present, without any ambiguity, and sense what are the experiences, that feel close to your heart, that you wish to have. It’s difficult to have clarity when the mind has a strong momentum because its noise, its arguments, its sense of unworthiness, its insecurities, can easily blur out your true intent. It’s quintessential for there to be some spaciousness in your being, where your mind’s momentum is not pulling in all your awareness, for you to really connect with your heart and thus with your inner inspiration. Another reason why we stay conflicted, and have no clarity on our true desires/expression, is because of several limiting ideas that we hold about what is possible and hence we “cramp” our true expression with a cynical attitude towards life.
The problem is that the deluded mind (where there is lack of awareness) always has many deluded intentions, mostly stemming from a negatively oriented egoic perception, or owing to some form of hatred towards the outside, where you are trying to “prove” something to others or are just plain confused about what expressions really feel aligned with who you are because you are constantly comparing yourself with others. It’s essential to know the reality of who you are, and there is a difference between having a limiting thought/belief and having an understanding of what’s not really aligned with you – in your heart you know certain things are just not for you (a fish can’t be a bird), and it’s important to have a clear knowing of it, there is a difference between fantasy and what you really feel aligned with. One the biggest aspects of having an inner clarity is that you can easily distinguish between fantasy and reality, you know what are just fantasies in you and what are the things which you are truly are aligned with.
Clarity of intent happens when you let go of figuring out
The deal with true clarity is that it “arises” rather than you trying to figure it out with your thinking mind. The thinking mind which is confused cannot know clarity, because if it had the knowing it wouldn’t be confused in the first place. So it’s pointless to try to remove confusion through further thinking, rather what’s needed is a break in thinking and more of “being” (which means just allowing what arises within) until you sense clarity coming in. When you let go of thinking in a conditioned, or encultured manner, and just be, you release resistance and thus connect with the intent of life in you, the intent that was part of your creation, that gave rise to the natural makeup of your body/mind. There is a harmony that’s operating beneath and everything has an inherent meaning, purpose or intention in its birth – you will see that there are no redundancies in life, for example, inspite of the fact that we are a population of a billion people, no two people are the same – this uniqueness in every creation is a hint towards life’s unique intention in every form it takes.
If you want to believe that your life is a mistake, and that life somehow messed up in creating you as you are, it just suggests that you are living in comparison and are not willing to see the type of expression life is wanting through you. It’s normal to compare and feel bad about ourselves (it’s part of the negativity of a deluded mind), and rue several limitations that become evident through such comparisons. It’s like a fish comparing itself with a bird and feeling bad that it can’t fly, when what’s really needed is that the fish knows itself as a fish and understands its expression – only then can it realize that it finds joy in swimming, and though flying is a fantasy, it really wouldn’t want to be outside the water (it’s a good thing when it knows this, so it won’t die trying to imitate a bird). Sometimes the experiences/expressions that you truly desire may be really close to you but you may not have access to them because you are not connected with yourself and hence are seeking something which is not aligned with you, and hence feel constantly disappointed.
The good thing is that what you are truly aligned with is already inherent in you, and hence when you let go of figuring it out, the clarity arises on its own. When you let go of thinking through the conditioned mind, clarity always arises. The beauty of letting go is that everything that’s not congruent with you drops away on its own, including the deluded desires or misguided intentions. So if you are willing to know what are the things that are truly aligned with you, be willing to let go fully of your struggle-oriented approach to life, let go of forcing passion, let go of trying to figure out what you want, let go of identifying with the mind’s tendency to compare, and just see what are the things that drop away in this openness. The things that will drop away are the things that were never really aligned with you – including relationships, work, thoughts, beliefs, perceptions etc. You will come to a clarity, an unshakeable clarity, on what it is that you are truly are aligned with wanting to experience/express.
Clarity of intent allows aligned actions
To reach true clarity about your expression (or what you want to experience) you need to let go of your struggle oriented movement/actions, so that your whole alignment is towards moving in sync with the pull of your inner inspiration. If the inner inspiration is not evident/clear, it just means there is clutter, and conflict, within you that needs to disperse, have some patience and continue staying in a space of allowing. Your life-stream has always been moving towards living the intent in which you were born, and this “letting go” allows you to sync up fully with your life’s calling which is just another term for your natural expression.
When you come to clarity a lot of energy that was invested in deluded thinking gets freed up. Just imagine the amount of energy/time a fish would waste feeling bad about not being a bird instead of enjoying being a fish. When it syncs up with itself it gets the inspiration to explore beautiful spots in it waters, to explore different styles of swimming, to explore different sea food, to make new fish friends etc Until then it feels isolated in its own world, fantasizing about being a bird and hence not allowing itself to connect with fish-ness. It’s possible that when you get aligned with yourself, you develop an appreciation for a relationship that you thought “you were too good for” before, when you were trying to be someone you were not or had some shallow perceptions.
When you have clarity within you, you have an unwavering focus, a single signal which is not fluctuating. This focus does not need any effort or force, it just seems to be one with your being. Within you there are no “two contradicting voices” happening anymore, and you feel very decisive about yourself and what you are looking to experience. The evidence of this clear focus starts showing up in your reality as an inner, or external, guidance/inspiration/evidence, initially in small ways (which act as escalators moving towards your desired reality) and as you follow these inspirations the unfolding takes place very smoothly. It almost seems as if a community (or environment) is colluding to assist you towards your expression, and you no longer feel a sense of isolation in this world.
”Allowing what is” isn’t about trying to accept what is
Letting go is about “allowing what is”, it has nothing to do with trying to accept what is. To try to accept what is, can easily become a “manipulative”, or fake movement, because your mind may not really like what is, and you are trying to force it to accept it. To “allow what is” means you allow the dissatisfaction fully, you allow your mind’s dislike, you allow the sense of wanting improvement/betterment, you allow your mind’s vision, you allow its fears, you allow it to feel bad – this is what true allowing is, you don’t try to manipulate what arises, you just stay open to it (neither are you clinging to the mind’s, or ego’s, perspective alone). People who try to force themselves to accept what is, are just using “spiritual mechanics” to try to suppress their mind’s discontent, and thus try to fake a sense of “all is ok”, which just makes you live in denial. Being honest/authentic with yourself is always the first step towards any growth, none of this is about faking positivity – if you are fully allowing of what is, that means there is no room for any fakeness, you just allow yourself to see what is as it is. True clarity can only arise in this total allowing.
It’s totally normal for the mind to be dissatisfied with what is and thus want improvement – don’t try to make your mind numb by forcing it to be accepting of what is, that’s not what the mind is designed for, the mind’s job is to see contrast. What’s needed is that you have access to some inner wholeness, which brings the required balance to this energy of dissatisfaction in the mind, and wisdom to its perspectives. The connection with inner wholeness balances the discontent of the mind, and hence becomes the perfect ground for solutions to come through. People who try to avoid their mind by trying to hide in their being, as well as people who are disconnected with their being, are both imbalanced in some way – the balanced way is when you have connection with your being (and hence sense the inner calm/peace) while also being allowing of the mind’s dissatisfaction.
When you allow what is, fully, clarity is bound to come. Once the clarity arises it won’t be long before you are moved into inspired actions, and see the dynamic unfolding of your expression and desired experiences. If you are not feeling clear it just means you need to allow more fully what’s arising – this totally includes all the bad feelings and the good feelings. It’s so common for some spiritually indoctrinated people to use the absolute perspective of “nothing matters” as a means to avoid connecting which what they truly desire – they may start holding onto the philosophy that since nothing matters I will accept a mediocre expression of myself.
A lot of spiritual people get afraid of living, of experiencing the movement of their physicality, and they start trying to hide in their cave of spirituality, trying to fake a sense of acceptance. The truth is that unless you start living your true expression, you can never feel connected with your life-stream and hence cannot feel whole within. Actually, the bottom line is to let go of struggling, let go of denial, allow fully what arises within, wait for clarity to arise and then follow your inspiration (without inner conflict/resistance, you are just moved by life force as it were).
It can’t be more supportive, helpful and resonant. It is beautiful how pointers You give interact with deep awareness itself, independently of unconsciousness present patterns and illusions. I haven’t found place that feels more Home, then your blog, and I can’t be more grateful. Thank you for lightening our paths.
Wow Sen, you have been a remarkable influence! Thank you!
Treeter
thanks again ! spot on as usual and i fucking love u and this blog 😀
Sen, I wanted to ask about letting go. I just had a fight with my spouse. I feel unworthiness every time we had a fight. Ive got this feeling since I was a kid because I often got verbal/mental abuse from my parents. I am trying to let go and feel fully what I feel. I feel my body is a little bit shaking and tinkling within (i dont know the correct english word to describe the tinkling thing). I feel I want to cry but I dont cry like I usually do. My eyes watered a little bit. Suprisingly, when my mind telling me about my unworthiness I didnt really got affected. Just feeling sad but not make it as a drama. It lasted, i guess, almost 30 minutes before I decided to write to you. And when I started to write the feeling reduced gradually. So, did what I do was correct to let go this negativity? Am I avoiding the feeling when I feel the need to ask you? Honestly, I have no idea about it. Thank you in advance.
BS, the fact that you are aware of this pattern working in you is by itself the start towards its dissolution. Just continue growing in the power of awareness by spending time watching your inner space (mind/feelings) as you move through your daily life. When your awareness is stable, you will not be pulled into unconscious behaviors. It does take time and you need to be patient, and not start feeling negative about not being stable in awareness, all yourself the time to reach an inner stability.
sen
what advice would you give someone who is constantly looking for external stimuli. For example alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes in general something that changes their mindset or gives them more exciting reality?
Abet, some external behaviors are purely the reflection of inner restlessness. You can enjoy external stimuli, and it part of the enjoyment of physicality, but when it becomes a means to distract yourself from the inner restlessness, it becomes a problem. The pointer would be not depend on external stimuli for temporary relief, and try to move towards coming to a place of inner stability by bringing awareness to the patterns of restlessness within (thus releasing them).
great article but i have one question
what if we are trying to allow fully what arises but our mind is resisting what arises involuntarily
Ralph, the simple pointer is to be allowing of the resistance the mind also. Of course the mind/body will automatically/reactively seem to resist the negativity as it arises. When you have some stability in awareness, you can allow this resistance in the body/mind without becoming fearful of it, and you will sense that slowly the intensity of this resistance keeps coming down (as the mind loses its momentum).
Thanx so much again. I was just going over in my mind all the things I have to get accomplished or become in order to survive and I was feeling overwhelmed and anxious by it all, even though I pretty much realize now that it’s not that big of a deal. Worrying for nothing! Because you say to allow your mind all the worrying it wants and just say OK to it and then the beauty of alignment comes along and I feel happy all of a sudden! My stuff to do looks like fun, instead of a recipe for extreme anxiety. I feel like a little kid in a toy store again. I can’t wait until somebody buys my ego. I put it on kijiji : ) I worried about my thoughts changing back to pain again, but thanks to your caring words, I don’t have to worry if they do. Instead of the resistance shutting me down for hours, now I can just look at it and allow it expression and then it’s gone in no time. Lots of Love ….
Very nice Article. I like the way we sometimes *fake* spirtuality by denying or not accepting what we may want to have and be inspired towards it. I love the balanced approach described here.
As always very inspiring article full of depth. Please continue with such precious guidance. Gool
Sen,
There is a thin line between over analysis of a thought and conscious awareness of a thought in our mind.Often we do over analysis of a thought (it’s not about fueling the attention) in the name of conscious awareness.
Can you please give any tips as how to NOT over analyze a thought during the ‘let go’ process.
Thanks
Thank you Sen for highlighting the differences in ‘allowing’ and ‘accepting’. When Eckhart explains SURRENDER he says that surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. Even though he qualifies acceptance as relinquishing inner resistance, emotional negativity, mental judgement etc your explanation is much more simple and spot on. It is very very clear. It leaves no room for any further question to arise. Thank you very much.
Even I was bit confused in this. Now clear. 🙂
Dear Sen, there are thoughts that just runs through the mind and you allow their presence and manifestation in you but not acting upon them and there are thoughts that you are acting upon. What if, after you acting you realize you made a mistake and want to repair, maybe do something that you feel is right or ask forgiveness. You allow that you did a mistake (it is human) without fear it and you also allow the act of repairing or forgive. Is not an imbalance to light nature to always observe that you were wrong and try to repair that mistake? I think the idea is not to do the repairing from fear of fear of the mistake. We all have fear that we are mistaken or maybe do something wrong. But when you act upon a thought being aware of it and not only allowing it to be in the mind but also say YES to it, acting it, you think is your inner wisdom that took that decision? The problem arises when you somehow realize you were wrong and want to do something or say something to resolve it in you . You think that is ok to just allow the act of repairing and forgiveness also without feeling guilt and remorse? The problem is that you already felt that after the action, that’s why you want to repair it. Maybe the repairing is the voice of you inner wisdom. Could someone say that when we are aware of ourselves and our thoughts, our actions are not mistakes but the expressions of our inner wisdom which is aligned always with the energy of life? What if we feel that we are wrong after the action in this state of awareness and consciousness?
Anca, none of this is meant to be a “mind strategy” on how to live life, the mind always whats a technique that it can rely on – like knowing how to find out what’s inner inspiration and what’s not. The answer is that you can’t know, if it’s inner wisdom or not – and basically the part of you that’s constantly trying to know is the part of you that’s always worried and in resistance (basically the mind/ego force). The pointer is to allow the dissolution of the ego force in you to the point where you don’t have this constant inner conflict to deal with, without the momentum of your ego you will just feel like you are moving from a place of “flow”, there is no tension within you to find out what to do, you just know what to do at a given moment. You can read this below post for more insight
http://www.calmdownmind.com/dissolving-the-resistance-of-ego/
Sen, I was an average student.I did not use to concentrate in class.I tried to pay attention but I couldn’t.I managed to get through school and college by mugging up answers(even math). My father wanted me to pursue Information Technology.I never had a career plan. So I went according to my fathers plan. During those four years of college, I discovered that I was not capable of studying engineering.I did not work hard because I was not at all interested and I did not understand anything in college.However, I managed to get a degree by getting pass marks.After graduation, I wanted to take one year break.I did not attend any interviews because I had no real knowledge.I was scared of facing interviews because I had no real skills related to my field of degree and that is the truth.I have a degree but it is useless.I knew I will not get selected so I saved myself from the embarrassment.During the one year break, I tried very hard to know what I was interested in.I wanted to know my passion.During the one year break, I used to ask several psychics what field would be suitable for me and I also used to think a lot about what I was interested in but no solution came up.After the break, I decided to try for a government job because I had no other option.I wrote a couple of bank exams.I failed in some.But I got qualified in one exam and called for interview.That was my first job interview till date.I did not get selected.I’m still writing bank exams.
The reason I’m trying for a government job is because I don’t know what my talent or passion is .I honestly don’t know what I want to do career wise and what I’m interested in.There is no clarity.I’m not sure of myself.I’m not sure of anything. I’m not sure of what I want.Yeah, one thing is for sure I want joy.What gives me joy? Playing with kittens,watching my favorite TV shows.What is the kind of job I can do joyfully, naturally and earn money? Don’t know!
I came across your website during August 2012. I’m done with practicing relaxed awareness.Currently, I’m practicing conscious allowing.I’ve applied for another bank job 3 months ago.I’m preparing for it.Some-days it feels like struggle to prepare for the exam and some other days I feel nothing. Am I doing the right thing by writing these bank exams? Because when I ask myself this question I feel unsure.I don’t know whether I’m doing the right thing or not.Will clarity come through as I continue practicing letting go? Please, I need your advice.
GB, It’s important to develop a clear understanding of your brain – it’s your brain’s makeup that determines a lot of your expression in physicality. Basically, there is a natural desire, in every human brain, to be productive in some way – a brain finds alignment in work (in creating an output) if the work is aligned with its aptitude and makeup. You always have to start with the “resources” you have around you at present – it’s like climbing the steps of a ladder, though your aim is to reach the top rug (your desired career or productive expression) you always have to start with the rug which is closest to you in the beginning.
You have to make a reality check on all the resources available to you at present and make a choice on what feels most aligned with you (it need not feel perfectly aligned, it’s enough if you find some alignment to start with). It’s just about expanding your awareness about all the resources/opportunities/options that are around you, so that you can make a more aware choice. In many cases, the reason why we choose something that feels totally disconnected with us is because we don’t take the time to be aware of all the options available and simply choose based on outside influence.
For example, you can make a list of all the various options you can pursue at this point in life – given your age, your financial resources, your brain’s aptitude and your natural curiosity at present, and make a conscious choice taking into consideration that it’s not a do or die situation, you are just exploring, and it’s not about getting it “right” all the time but about the openness to explore. For this you need to relax, let go of this sense of “deadline” (that you’ve allowed your father to set for you), let go of thinking in a narrow conditioned manner. For example, one the options is that you can try out some short term courses over the period of the next 2 years to get some understanding of some possible professions – like courses in graphics designing, photography, catering, import-export (business) dynamics, stock trading.
Doing these courses will not only give you an idea about the various options available, but it will allow you to network with different kinds of people who can give you a better awareness about the various professional avenues one can pursue. Right now your awareness (with respect to career) may be restricted to the kind of mindset your parents gave you and the mindset your friends, and teachers, had in your college. If you are applying for a bank job you need to ask yourself what exactly do you know about this career, have you taken the time to understand the “reality” of doing this job, what it involves and if your brain finds it to be a match or are you simply shooting in the dark – you can do a lot of research on the internet will respect to any field.
The more awareness you have the better your choices – it’s that simple. Also, it makes no sense to get married under parental pressure when you don’t really feel ready to get married, you would obviously need to develop the inner power to stand true to your preferences instead of feeling the need to oblige some external pressure.
Thank you so much, Sen!
Hi Sen,
talking about mind strategy or spiritual mechanics I want to ask you about thoughts that appear in some puzzling situations. They are like a calm voice that saying: Allow this fully as it is, Let go of it, Don’t judge this man because you don t know him, Don t judge the situation because you don t know the context. What I want to say is that those thoughts are arising when my mind is about to have a strong momentum or it is in some kind of impasse or dilemma. Is not fighting the mind or suppress it. It is just that sometimes they are like a reminder. There are situations in which these attitudes come quietly in me with more awareness and I am inclined to have a choiceless awareness, just watch the problem for what it is without judging, without taking sides. The question about these thoughts is: Could this be the mind calming the mind? Because I am not hiding from my mind, I not fighting it, I am accepting it. It is a calm attitude and the thoughts of Let go of this and that are arising peacefully in me. Is not a struggle. What is the source of these thoughts? Could be a strategy of the mind? If it is how can I meditate on things, people and situations without mind ? You can allow without the thought of allowing? Sometimes I can, it just some deep understanding in me but sometimes these thoughts arise like a orientation and solution of problems. Is mind dealing with mind?