The Power of Self-Reliance

Sometimes, regardless to how hard we work on ourselves, there are times when our behavior shocks us. It usually happens during a momentarily lapse in control. This is the moment that we allow dysfunctional behavior -- angry outbursts toward others -- to creep into our lives. And for most of us, it's difficult to believe we are capable of such behavior. 

In our quests to be good people, we frequently struggle with reconciling our dysfunctional behavior with the attributes we have assigned to our good person image. And it becomes very difficult to believe that a good person should act in such a dysfunctional manner. Yet, in most instances, this is the way we act whenever we forget to be the good person we are working on becoming.

A great philosopher, Howard Thurman, said, "I had forgotten how easy it is to forget."  At some point in all of our lives we forget to focus on our work to achieve enlightenment. And it's during those moments of uncontrollable anger, unsuspected jealousy or blindly seeking power over people that we must pause and remind ourselves to remain focused on bringing love and happiness to everyone we come in contact with. 

We should treat our emotional challenges as opportunities to change the way we think and live and not succumb to thoughts of regrets and further victimizing ourselves.These are the moments to express our greatness or as Dr. Thurman said, "Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve."

When we remain mindful of the power we have to overcome difficult problems, we have, for that moment, cleared away the doubts and beliefs causing us to forget who we are. The clarity of purpose found in a mindful consciousness is sufficient enough to overcome all obstacles. This is the awareness that causes us to focus on personal responsibility and the power of self-reliance. And to remind us that all power comes from within our consciousness.

With this power we have no enemies, except the way we think of ourselves. It's very difficult for some of us to believe we have this power.  We find it easier to believe others have it. We have been taught for too long to believe that our problems are created by other people. They are responsible for what's happening to us now. They are responsible for our being overweight, drinking too much alcohol, smoking too much weed, complaining about not having a good job,  failing to take care of our families and so on.

Somewhere within our victimized minds we have forgotten than all of our problems must have a creator who is with us all the time. And like it or not, we are that creator. We create problems and solutions all the time by thinking and acting on our thoughts. Sometimes we create anger, doubts, lack, limitation, struggle debts, and so forth.

While at other times we create compassion, love, peace, understanding, creativity, and so on. Anytime we want to bring a problem into our lives all that is required of us is to think and act on our thoughts. Conversely, the same applies to solutions. It's that simple.

Unfortunately, when we forget we are the creators of our problems and everything that's happening to us, we begin to search for others to blame for the decisions we made. During our external search for someone to blame for our behavior, we find a plethora of people and things to blame. We can blame our parents, children, supervisors, society, banks, credit card companies, teachers, friends, and so forth. The list of people to blame is endless. And regardless to the number of people we add to the list, we inevitable return to ourselves.

Nevertheless, even as we seek to attach blame to us for our misdeeds, most of us seem to know we are somehow responsible for our own  behavior. And while we might have some nagging intuitive thoughts about it, we don't quite know how to admit to ourselves that we don't know how to trust our inner power to solve our problems. So we continue our downward spiral deeper into the victimization process shunning our responsibility for creating and solving our own problems. .

Meanwhile, at the heart of forgetting the power we have within us is the suffering we cause in our lives. Each forgetful moment means more suffering. Each time we shun our creator's responsibility for what we are creating in our lives means more suffering.

After a while, our actions produce so much suffering that we cannot imagine we actually created this nightmare ourselves. These are moment when we become so overwhelmed by our own creations that we give them power they don't really possess. This creates the environment for us to begin daydreaming about magical solutions.

When we reach the level of suffering that causes us to rely on daydreaming, we have become encapsulated with powerlessness. At this level of awareness, there are not enough government programs, stimulus, bailouts, health care, and so forth to help us overcome the powerlessness we have embodied into our consciousness.

We are the only ones who can change the things we have created in our lives. And unless we accept personal responsibility for creating the problems (challenges) in our lives, we cannot become self-reliant and solve our own problems.

As enlightenment-seekers, our goal is to achieve enlightenment.  However, if are serious about achieving enlightenment, then we must remain mindful of the power within our thoughts and actions. This is the power that causes us to forget who is responsible for the suffering in our lives. So it is important for us to remember that we have the power with our thoughts to create both happiness and suffering.   

As Howard Thurman said, "Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve."