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7/29/2019 Molding Our Own Destiny
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MOLDING OUR OWN DESTINY
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Is our present life going according to our
highest dreams and ideals? Or is it a series of
events, often unexpected, that prevents us
from becoming what we would like to be?
If you were to live your life all over again,
would you take the direction of your life now,
or would you drastically change it?
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What is Destiny?
A predetermined
course of events,
usually considered as
something beyond
human power or
control.
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A young man brought up in a certain way
will develop a certain set of habits,
personality tendencies and characterqualities.
Together with the karma of the past,
these will determine his destiny: whether
he will be happy or not, harmonious ornot in his relationships, effective or not,
successful or not.
Most of these factors were not
determined by him. They were put thereby his parents, teachers, environment
and other influences. Thus his destiny
was molded for him by others, for good
or ill.
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Is it possible to change our destiny?
If so, how?
When unaware of
this situation, a
person just
becomes a victim of
the environment
and of the past;
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The dynamics of human destiny
To understand the dynamics of destiny, we
have to understand two important factors:
The internal factor: our own
psyche/individuality
The external factor: the environmental
circumstances brought about by past karma
We only have direct control over the first one;
the second one can only be indirectly
controlled through prior preparation
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The Internal Factor
The internal factorconsists of
two portions:
The inner individuality,which is not subject to
conditionings
The personality part, which
is a creature of conditioningMind
EmotionsBody
Higher Self
IntuitionHigher Mind
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Two Kinds of Destiny
Higher Destiny In the long run, through many lives,
our destiny is to become our highest
potential. This is when the higher
individuality becomes active andtakes an active role in creating new
causes or actions.
Conditioned DestinyThis is the pattern of life that will be
followed due to past karma, whether from
past lives or the present life. Unless
changed, this will be our primary destiny
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We are not permitted to choose
the frame of our destiny. But what
we put into it is ours.
Dag Hammarskhold
Parentage, country, body
heredity, innate
intelligence, latent skills,
relatives, etc.
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Thoughts
& Desires
Behavior
Actions
Character
Destiny?
Conditioned habits &
reaction patternsthat perpetuate
themselves
New inputs and
causes that aredeliberately created
by the individual
(Past Karma that has ripened)
(Present Karma being generated)
(cf. rice bottles)
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Conditioned habits &
reaction patterns
Past life seeds
Reinforcement from
environment
When there is no
intervention from
the higher
individuality, the
habits and patternsof the lower
personality will tend
to perpetuate itself,
thus reinforcing
conditioned destiny
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The extent of theinfluence of the new
unconditioned inputs willdepend upon thereceptivity of thepersonality or lowertriangle.
When the resistance ishigh (i.e., conditioning istoo hardened) then therewill be little change in
behavior and action. This is the significance of
purification in thespiritual life
Thus it is very important to
learn how to deal with the
hardened habits and reaction
patterns of the personality.
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8 factors that willmold destiny
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1. Clarity of Deep Individual Values
What do we like to live for? What are the
most worthwhile things that we want to
pursue in this life?
Are we going in that direction? Or is our
present life going in another direction?
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The Life List
If there are only three things that you wouldlike to achieve, to be, or attain before you die,
what would these three things be?
If there are only three things that you can do
or achieve in the next three years, what would
these be?
A helpful approach is to make a life list. Do this several times thisyear until you feel inwardly certain that these are your highest list
of personal values.
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2. Seeing Impersonal Core Values
Core values come from a
perception of the higher
triangle, hence not from
ones conditioning.
When they become strongly
linked with outer behavior
through deliberate self-transformation, then they
alter the life pattern of the
individual.
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Examples of impersonal values
Truth
Justice
Love Integrity
Kindness
Harmony
Etc.
Our individual values
should not contradict
universal values;
otherwise we will
encounter unpassable
barriers on the way
towards our highestdestiny
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These two sets of values
(individual and universal
values) constitute our life compass.
When they are not clear, then we will be
controlled by the values of our environment
and our past conditionings.
Clarification of our values therefore is crucial
in determining our own destiny
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3. New external influences
These can be either just reinforcements ofpresent conditionings or patterns of behavior,
which will not alter our direction much.
Or new influences that are in accord with ourhigher destiny and which can alter our life
directions
Readings (e.g., Life Ahead)
Discussions or lectures, (e.g., lecture on marital happiness)
Inspiration from non-physical sources
Group or company that we go with (peer influence andpressure are very powerful)
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4. New Habits
From birth to death, our lives are overwhelminglygoverned by three things:
Mental habits
Emotional reaction patterns
Physical habits
These three form our personality, and when thereare no other new factors, they cruciallydetermine our destiny
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When we are clear about our highest values in
life, then we must deliberately form our habits
that are congruent with our highest envisioned
destiny
This is the function of self-training
Habits are our slaves when they are being
formed; they become our masters after they have
been formed.
(Decide which railroad tracks you would like to built, and
in which directions; after you have built them, you can
hardly change them anymore. The train of your life will
have to follow those tracks.)
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Warren Buffett:
So why do smart people do things that interfere with getting the
output they're entitled to? It gets into the habits and characterand temperament, and behaving in a rational manner. Not getting
in your own way.
The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too
heavy to be broken. At my age, I can't change any of my habits.
I'm stuck. But you will have the habits 20 years from now that youdecide to put into practice today. So I suggest that you look at the
behavior that you admire in others and make those your own
habits, and look at what you really find reprehensible in others
and decide that those are things you are not going to do. If you do
that, you'll find that you convert all of your horsepower into
output.
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Real, constructive mental power lies in the
creative thought that shapes your destiny, and
your hour-by-hour mental conduct produces
power for changes in your life. Develop a train
of thought on which to ride. The nobility of
your life as well as your happiness depends
upon the direction in which that train ofthought is going.
Laurence J. Peter
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How to develop new habits
Repeat the desired habit for a period of three
weeks, done preferably every day
When it has become a habit, it will tend torepeat itself without your willing it
Examples:
Physical exercise, diet, different emotional
reaction, meditation practice, smiling, etc.
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5. Rationality
This is the impersonal mind, the abstract mind
or the higher mind. It sees things objectively
and not according to personal preferences.
In some people it is strong, in others weak.
When it is weak, then the life tends to follow
the conditioned reaction patterns, such as
tendency towards being hurt, or angered, or
being insecure.
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6. Sowing the right seeds
Our future circumstances are determined by
the causes that we generate now.
Hence it is important to determine what
karmic seeds we ought to sow and what we
should not sow.
Examples:
To sow: Kindness and benevolence.
Not to sow: anger, hurt, revenge, ill thoughts and
feelings.
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7. Awareness
Awareness is the important factor that enables us
to take charge of our minds, emotions and
behavior, especially when there are conflicting
factors in the human psyche. When there is noawareness, the strongest force (not necessarily
the correct one) will prevail. (E.g., teacher and sister)
Awareness enables one to manage theunproductive or ineffective forces and not let
them become obstacles to right decision making.
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What you are not aware of, you cannot
control (emotional reactions, mental
reactions, attitudes, physical behaviors)
Awareness is different from knowing. It is to experience it
consciously at the moment it is happening.
Knowing is an indirect way of perceiving, throughconceptualizing or cognition with labeling.
Knowing that you are angry is different from being aware of
your anger.
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Field of attention
Peripheral awareness prevents push
buttons from automatically acting
out, thus opening new options of
action.
It eventually erases the automatic
reaction, whether it is pleasant or
unpleasant, thus changing the
automatic patterns of behavior.
Peripheral awareness
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You can catch yourself entertaining habitually
certain ideas and setting others aside; and
that, I think, is where our personal destinies
are largely decided.
Alfred North Whitehead
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Meditation
Meditation is the best way of developing
awareness of the inner levels of the mind
Meditation is also the approach towards
intuition and transcendence that will bring us
to the higher summits of our destiny
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8. Intuition
Intuition is a perception of things by the
transcendent consciousness (contemplative or
spiritual consciousness in Christianity; buddhi
orprajna in the East). It not only transcends
the personality but incorporates ethical and
rational factors.
Intuitive perceptions are based ontranscendent wisdom, and are based on
timeless principles that guide the growth and
evolution of human beings.
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Intuition sees beyond mental reasoning and
personal values;
It sees the illusory nature of many of the
things that we take as important and objective
(e.g., social success) ; it is beyond the egothat makes such valuations
It has an integrative capacity in assessing an
entire situation, including the social, ethical
and metaphysical aspects of a situation.
It is the factor that leads us to our highest
destiny the realization of our highest
potential
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Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize winner in medicine:
"All great men [and women] are endowed with intuition.
They know, without analysis, without reasoning, what is
important for them to know. A true leader of men doesnot need psychological tests, or reference cards, when
choosing his subordinates. A good judge, without going
into the details of legal arguments, and even, according to
Cardozo, starting from erroneous premises, is capable ofrendering a just sentence. A great scientist instinctively
takes the path leading to a discovery." (Man, the
Unknown)
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Albert Einstein:
The only real valuable thing is intuition.Johann Kaspar Lavater:
Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at
once.
John Astin:
There are things so deep and complex that only
intuition can reach it in our stage of development as
human beings.
Plotinus:
Knowledge has three degrees -- opinion, science,
illumination. The means or instrument of the first is
sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition.
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The keys to the molding of destiny
1. Clarity of deep individual values
2. Seeing impersonal core values
3. Deliberately choosing new external
influences
4. Development of new habits that are
in accord with ones highest values
5. Strengthened rationality6. Sowing the right seeds of karma
7. Awareness of our reaction patterns
8. The awakening of our intuition
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Implications on Parenting and
EducationParents and Teachers: need to lay the right foundations for habits, attitudes,
temperament, conduct and morals in the child
must be careful about imposing too strongly their ownpersonal values on their children (like wanting them to pursue
engineering as a career). It is better to help children discover
their own deepest values and help them realize these.
must guide them in discriminating about the correctness of the
values of society or the environment
Use of the eight keys in molding destiny such that a young
person can consciously design them according to a wholesome
set of values
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Destiny can be modified and
designed
The earlier that we use the
keys that lead to its mastery,
the greater is our control overour destiny
h k h d
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