Self-Purification and Cultivating Our Higher Nature

Posted On May 4, 2017 / Written by Dr. Linda Gadbois

As we go through life, we’re always “becoming†through a process of amalgamation, where we enter into relationship with everyone and everything around us, blending with them energetically, taking on their compatible attributes and transforming our nature by using them to express and create experiences that we then relate to and identify with. As we blend with others energetically, we take on the same qualities they have as a way of being that ultimately serves to shape our character based on how we express them. All relationships are energetic interactions of the mind and soul where we absorb and integrate whatever is of a similar nature to us, while ignoring and deflecting what’s not of the same nature. As we blend with “like†(polarized) qualities in another, we become “like them†and they become like us. We absorb complementary qualities through resonance and sympathetic induction where we take on their vibration and it acts to modify ours in a corresponding manner. The more we actively express certain qualities, the more natural they become to us, and they serve to gradually modify our vibration as we begin vibrating in harmony with them. Whatever we’re routinely exposed to, live in near proximity of, and readily take in without discrimination, we absorb into our subconscious mind where we build it into a well-defined reality in our imagination by continuing to think about it, and begin using it as the means for experiencing ourselves.

Whatever we willingly allow, participate in, and cooperate with, we become like. We utilize our will through our ability to choose by relating or contrasting, gaining an awareness of how we feel in relation to others or situations, where we either agree and step into it willingly, or we resist, decline, and move away from it.  When we develop an awareness of consciousness as qualities that form characteristics as “ways of beingâ€, we can become aware of how we’re always choosing our methods of self-development through the relationships we maintain and who we associate with on a regular basis. Through self-awareness we can learn how to manage ourselves using our will and the ability to choose. By making decisions that we implement in a willful manner, we determine what we allow in and what we don’t. We can consciously choose what we willingly absorb and become like in nature, and what we resist and therefore prevent from entering into us, and becoming a part of us.

Whenever we enter into a relationship with someone or something (person, situation, activity, set of circumstances) we should maintain a subtle awareness of how we’re either contrasting or relating, and how we’re feeling as a result of the interaction. We should always be asking ourselves “what is the consciousness I’m experiencing, and in what way is it influencing me� If I take on the same consciousness and allow it to express through me, who and how will I become? As I form a sense of myself “being this way†(embodying that way of being) how does it feel? As I sense myself this way, how do I feel about myself?

We all have what we call “shadow aspects†that are qualities that we inherently possess that we deny having, have repressed in some manner because we were made to feel bad about them or couldn’t find appropriate expression for them, or that we built an illusion around by telling ourselves a story about it that makes it seem different from what it actually is. Like all unconscious tendencies, we’re always projecting them outward and using them to shape our outer environment as our mind’s way of allowing us to “see what they areâ€, and we not only notice and react to them in others, but we gravitate towards them and naturally enter into in relationship with them. Just as we attract to people and situations that we enjoy and find gratifying, we’re also attract to and towards the type of people and things we despise, are irritated by, and find repulsive for some reason. A “reaction†of any kind to something outside of us, good or bad, is happening because we have that same quality within us as a hidden aspect that we remain primarily unaware of and deny the fact that we have the same quality. All qualities are polar or dual in nature (electromagnetic), and serve as complementary aspects needed to create a joint experience of the shared quality as an interaction. We’re always attracted to those who play the opposite role in the same dynamic.

We create out of the dynamics of our conditioning to either be the same or be the opposite. Either way, the relationship as contrasting and relating to the same pattern as a dynamic theme, forms the outward expression of chosen aspects and the inward, hidden life of the ones that are not consciously chosen, but repressed and held inside instead. The ones we rebel and retaliate against as a way of shaping ourselves, becomes disowned aspects that we deny having, even though we have shaped ourselves in relationship with them, and we continue to attract and end up in relationship with our shadow aspects as a way of maintaining our “sense of self†by continuing to contrast and retaliate against them. Whatever dynamic we’ve shaped ourselves out of as a relationship and way of interacting, we maintain, because without it, we don’t know who we are or how to “beâ€. We need to be in relationship with the same type of people in order to play out the dynamic we’ve built our identity around.

This type of energetic, subconscious interaction is going on at the unconscious level all the time where we’re doing it naturally and automatically without actual awareness of what we’re doing and why. When we become aware of and realize the reality of it, we then have a choice as to whether or not we need to keep acting it out by allowing or resisting it, while intentionally choosing how we’re going to be instead. As long as we are still getting our “identity from othersâ€, and we feel the need for others to show us who we are, we maintain relationships that are of the same nature that we were conditioned with.

Once we become aware of our own unconscious tendencies, and begin sensing our energetic nature as consciousness itself, we can get a sense of who we really are in terms of our true nature, and begin drawing on our inner power as a means of creating ourselves in our everyday life. We move from an “other†orientation to a “self†orientation. As we sense ourselves in every situation we begin realizing that we always have a choice as to whether or not we’re going to remain unconscious and unaware in our life, and be determined by others, or if we’re going to choose instead to remain awake, aware and able in every moment to choose who and how we’re going to be. At first, this may require a willful effort, but once our center of gravity changes, our whole mind-set changes, and we simply lose interest in things that use to grip us. We no longer react or feel chemistry of some kind with the same type of people and situations. And we simply lose interest and leave those relationships.

When we become awake and conscious, we realize we’re always filtering ideas through our true nature, and deciding which ones we blend with, allow into our mind, and allow to take hold by thinking about them and forming them into internal realities, which become the templates and pathways for our outer expression. As we express these same qualities outwardly by becoming a channel for them, we sense ourselves “as themâ€, experience ourselves in that way, becoming associated with it by forming a memory of it, and it becomes a permanent part of us. We build our identity out of the accumulated experiences we have based on the qualities that make up our character that we consistently use to self-express and self-create.

Whatever we subject ourselves to, enter into and maintain relationships with, or associate with on a regular basis, we allow to influence us by absorbing and integrating their consciousness which acts to transform and evolve us to be of the same nature. We become like whatever we’re around and interact with. Transformation in the most basic sense is evolution by absorbing (resonating), assimilating (harmonizing) and becoming like our outer environment. We’re always forming equilibrium with our environment as a harmonious balance between the inner self and the outer world. We’re not fixed static beings, we’re constantly in the process of exchanging, absorbing, integrating, and discharging energy with everything around us, as a natural bio-evolutionary process.

To purify ourselves is to not only use dietary means as both nutritive substance and morality, but also to purify our intentions, emotions, and psychological states as well. It’s becoming aware of how we’re being infected, contaminated, and corrupted with the consciousness of everything we willingly engage in and choose to do, what we end up around, or what we intentionally place ourselves in. Once we become constantly aware of how we’re being influenced in any given situation, and we learn how to “sense it†as a “way of being and thinkingâ€, we can begin using our creative power of choice and will in an intentional manner. We can begin censoring what we allow to take hold in us, and what we don’t, who and what we associate with, and who and what we don’t. Through the awareness of the energetic nature of things as qualities of consciousness that we’re always interacting with and absorbing into our mind and taking on, we can consciously choose and willfully become self-determined and truly responsible for who we are. We can learn how to intentionally regulate and direct our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We can decide what to willingly participate in and cooperate in co-creating, and learn how to pick and choose who and what we associate with and what activities we engage in.

Entertainment – The Passive and Receptive Mind

Our mind operates according to different modes of passive and receptive, and active and projective, as the natural activity of the subconscious and self-conscious mind. The self-conscious, “aware†aspect has the ability to censor, judge, evaluate and filter all outward incoming information, and decide what to let in or resist and keep out. Whenever we’re actively being challenged, we’re in an active and projective mind where we evaluate and interpret everything and exercise our ability to resist it. Whenever we switch over to a mode of being entertained, where we’re not being challenged in any way and don’t need to defend, we enter into a passive and receptive mode, where we allow ideas and sensory realities to come into our mind, take hold and form a whole inner sensory reality that ultimately becomes a form of memory. Long after we’ve seen a movie that elicited a strong emotional impact, we continue to think about it periodically for years, maybe even throughout our lifetime. Similar ideas in our everyday environment cause a chain-of-association and we recall parts of the movie just like a memory. It literally becomes a “part of us†as part of our thinking and remembering. As we think and imagine we become by way of those thoughts, and they literally act to shape us at the purely unconscious level. They become a natural part of our subconscious memories just like real experiences do.

Whatever we form as a memory, as a reality that’s a part of our energetic make-up as our vibratory frequency, we not only perceive in our environment, but we act it out unconsciously by expressing it outwardly, creating our self by way of it. Whatever we form internally as an imagined reality (reviewing as a memory), becomes the perceptual lens we look through to see and interact with the same consciousness as an idea in the world around us, and we form a kind of gravitational field that connects us to by resonating with it. Whatever we think about and imagine repeatedly, we “tune†ourselves to that vibration and begin resonating with it outwardly. We begin stimulating it, interacting with it, and absorbing it, and through a repetitive accumulative process we steadily transform ourselves to be like it. As we think and imagine, we relate and “sense ourselves†through the reality of our thoughts, and we begin identifying with them. We typically identify with certain types of ideas, stories, themes, characters, personalities, issues and challenges, and so we always like “those type of movies†or “that type of characterâ€. And by relating to them, and unconsciously initiating them, we shape ourselves to be “like themâ€.

Purifying Ourselves

To purify ourselves as a conscious and intentional act, is to become aware of this energetic process, gain a firm idea of who we really are and how we want to be, and intentionally select what we engage in, expose ourselves to, associate with, and what type of relationships we form and maintain between the outer and inner. Between our self and our self in another. We form an ideal of ourselves as the embodiment of our best qualities and character traits, and we intentionally and deliberately direct all our activities towards that means. We choose what movies we watch, what stories and dramas we participate in, what relationships we form and maintain, what activities we take up, and what situations we place ourselves in. We choose our diet and lifestyle, not only in physical and material forms, but in mental, emotional, and moral terms.

Soul as Morality

Our subconscious mind is primarily concerned with the body and its survival in the outer world by constantly evolving to become of the same nature, has a primary motive of self-preservation, and acts to maintain habitual behaviors that are emotionally driven and compulsive in nature. The self-conscious mind is focused primarily on others and the activities of the outer world, while interpreting everything through stories of some kind, and constantly preoccupied with redundant thoughts that replay memories and imaginary ideas of some sort. The soul is concerned almost exclusively with our moral nature and what type of things we engage in from a purely ethical perspective of higher (virtuous) and lower (vices) consciousness as principles that we live our life by forming what you could think of as our biography. Our morality is “who we are as a person†and what we stand for in terms of what we demonstrate through our thoughts, emotions, and activities. Whatever we engage and participate in, we become like and bond ourselves to that level of consciousness. We “classify ourselvesâ€, so to speak, through our actions. To be is to do. Whatever we’re being inside determines what we do outside.

The soul isn’t concerned with the body or it destiny, because the body is temporary and only acts as a vehicle or instrument for the soul to express through and self-create by way of. The self-conscious, brain-oriented mind that arises in the body as the soul’s awareness of itself “as†the body, is the identity acquired by way of the body that allows the soul to “experience itself†in a specific way. The experience acquired through the body forms our identity, often called the ego, is mortal in nature and “dies†with the brain and body. The soul is that part of us that’s always in a “witnessing positionâ€. That part of us that’s “in the experienceâ€, having it, yet remains apart from it while observing it both inwardly and outwardly at the same time. The soul maintains a form of fundamental detachment from the body and its life experiences in the sense that while it fully engages in the experiences as a means of gaining an experience of itself in some way, it never mistakes itself for being the body or a mortal being. It realizes that it has full control over both the mind and the body, and, when awake and self-aware, exercises that ability in an intentional and deliberate manner. When the soul remains asleep, the body as the unconscious, unaware aspect that’s always being controlled by it’s instinctual nature and forces outside of itself, and as a means of seeking physical gratification of some kind, runs, and therefore determines the soul through the memories it produces.

The soul’s purpose in living is to become the dominant force within the body, guiding and directing the feelings, thoughts, and activities towards a higher means that consistently moves away from self-indulgence and need-gratification of any form, and towards assuming it’s universal identity acting as a “neutral force for good†in any situation that serves the “highest good†for everyone involved. It’s not self-oriented and driven by needs and desires, but rather selfless with a servant attitude. Because it lacks desire of the things of the material world, it’s free of them, and not held in captivity by them. Because it’s free of self-serving agendas, it’s only intention in any situation is to act as a mediator that facilitates and influences it to the highest and most beneficial means that serves the karma of everyone involved. It doesn’t impose itself on others, or act to coerce and manipulate, because it doesn’t derive its identity through the material world or the body it inhabits, but rather as a benevolent being of a divine and virtuous nature. It seeks not for itself, but only to give. It draws all its power from an internal, eternal source.

To purify the soul, is to allow it to dominate and utilize both the conscious and subconscious mind to create experiences of itself that are completely detached from material needs and identification. It’s to intentionally develop yourself to a virtuous nature that’s capable of drawing in and integrating higher intelligence. It’s to release your needs around material identification, and turn your full awareness within, drawing only on your internal source for power in the outer world. Connecting and developing a strong bond and flow of communication with your Higher Self that’s always held in loving regard with absolute trust. It’s to always act on yourself with that same benevolent mind-set, always loving and caring for yourself as you do others. It’s the act of cultivating yourself to be a channel for divine energy to flow into the world unimpeded, without corruption, and pure in form. By cultivating virtuous qualities, we heal our mind and emotions, strengthen and fortify our body, and become a catalyst for good in the world. This is the only true goal and purpose of the soul.

Dr. Linda Gadbois 

Integrative Mind-Body Medicine Consultant and Spiritual Mentor   

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