Find Inner Strength: RsH"-G2

Strength in Adversity

To deal with difficulties and cope with whatever life throws at us without ignoring or sacrificing goodness, we must find inner strength. That means handling situations of all sorts, but especially adversity—and without allowing egocentric urges to intrude excessively or inappropriately.

The vehicles of goodness can point us in the right direction and fill us with spiritual energy; and this may often suffice to trigger enlightened inputs and choices. However, reality has a way of dumping us in stressful situations. At these times, the urge to assert ego, often justified by intense emotions, rises up to overwhelm our good intentions.
For Example:

• If You Are in a Hole... I find myself repeatedly failing and it becomes evident that nothing is working and I am banging my head against a brick wall.
• Rising Panic. Situations develop outside my control in ways that run counter to my plans, hopes and expectations.
• Unsatisfying relationships. Someone crosses my path who has more needs and makes far more demands than I initially appreciated or expected.
• Put on the Spot. I am expected to explain what has happened and how or why the situation has evolved, despite the limitations of my position or perspective.
• Feeling Misled. I am being pressed to act in the absence of evidence, or expected to agree to what seems false or wrong.
• Life is a Struggle. My job is meaningless, daily activities are boring, I have nothing in common with co-workers, and yet I need the job to make ends meet.

In the face of adversity, strength is required to create something that I can see is good. But how can I deal with my ego and its over-valuation of my own wishes, emotions and biases? How do I stop myself finding a way around what is most pertinent, denying the necessity for goodness, or giving in to my impulses under pressure? The mature response is self-control (or self-restraint or self-mastery).

Q: How do you find strength? How do you exert self-control?
A: You simply create strength using the vehicles of goodness combined with the creative quality inherent in communication. Keep telling yourself what you must do, over and over again, using simple and well-known mantras.

Self-control is obtainable by using a combination of two adjacent vehicles of goodness. This generates 6 Dyads, called here: the mantras of self-control. Their function is to stabilize goodness in the face of egocentric temptations within daily life.

The result of taking heed of these mantras is to stabilize yourself in your social setting, to enable your choices to be free of inappropriate egotism, and to allow goodness to manifest.

Using mantras demands conscientiousness. In these Dyads, you can find strength in 6 distinct spheres of self-control by using the upper vehicle of goodness conscientiously while recognizing that the lower vehicle of goodness is necessary.

Introduction to the 6 Mantras

The 6 dyadic mantras requiring conscientious use are:

■ Accept Reality-R"G2⁶
■ Stay the Course-R"G2⁵
■ Be of Service-R"G2⁴
■ Give an Account-R"G2³
■ Seek the Truth-R"G2²
■ Do What You Love-R"G2¹

Q: Don't you need to have strength to use the mantras?
A: Not beyond what is naturally available to you. You do need the will for goodness and then you must use the two vehicles conscientiously in order to repeat and realize the mantra. Taken seriously, that provides you with the additional strength you seek, and you can move forward. Surprised? Doubtful? A full explanation is provided below and in the topics to follow.

All the mantras of self-control are challenging in their own way. They can be classified in pairs going downwards as transpersonal (or impersonal), interpersonal and intrapersonal (cf. similar classification in reverse order in the Creativity Dyads).

Transpersonal	Perceiving realities beyond yourself and engaging with them is required in the upper 2 Dyads:
R"G26 R"G25	Accept Reality is about being in accord with aspects of reality that contravene your wishes and expectations. Stay the Course is about sustaining a commitment regardless of emerging realities and an unknowable future.
Interpersonal	Engaging with the reality of others as if it were your own is required in the middle 2 Dyads:
R"G24 R"G23	Be of Service is about intervening and altering the conditions of another so a need is met. Give an Account is about helpfully sharing the description of realities relevant for others.
Intrapersonal	Creating new preferred realities for yourself is required in the lower 2 Dyads:
R"G22 R"G21	Reach for Truth is about getting a fix on realities in a particular area of concern to you. Do What You Love is about getting enjoyment from work or other endeavours that you choose.

These mantras easily get spiritualized:

■ Accept Reality-R"G2⁶ becomes have faith in God's providence.
■ Stay the Course-R"G2⁵ becomes say not the struggle naught availeth.
■ Be of Service-R"G2⁴ becomes show loving selfless devotion.
■ Give an Account-R"G2³ becomes talk openly with God.
■ Seek the Truth-R"G2² becomes attend to scriptural revelations.
■ Do What You Love-R"G2¹ becomes do God's work.

But that is not required and not part of this framework.

Explore via these Topics

1: Become Strong by Talking to Yourself

Mantras are short communications to yourself that can lead to personal transformation, in this case enabling you to find inner strength. Each mantra is also associated with a distinctive style of social communication.

2: Overview of the Mantras

This topic introduces each mantra with some common alternative wordings and proposes a distinctive function. There is an oscillation in the Groupings in regard to the triggers generating the need for strength (ego v events) and the temporal orientation (present v future).

3: Details of Self-Control

For each mantra, there is a detailed examination of the internal structure, the egotistic temptations, the effects of a deficit on self and others, the qualities of pain and fear, and the result of excess.

4: Why These 6 Mantras?

Strength appears to operate in a set of distinct Spheres that define our Personal Uniqueness. These Spheres, 6 in number, naturally correspond to the 6 ways that the self must be controlled. (The Spheres probably belong within another taxonomic framework not yet identified.)

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• Start with how mantras function.

Originally posted: 13-Apr-2013