Spiritual happiness is achieved when duality of personality comes together as one. Remaining at peace requires daily perseverance of inner work through meditation and contemplation. Only then will it remain constant.
Duality occurs soon after birth when ego is formed. The family you were born into and geographic locations play a huge role in this. The self acquires many aspects of the personality before the age of six in order to survive. This is not the same as mental disorders such as multiple personality, where a person actually divides into many personalities, either at birth or from traumatic experiences, in order to cope. In duality, the ego remains the same, is conscious of its actions, and always has a choice.
East Meets West Philosophy
Progression of American philosophy set the stage for the explosion of the East meets West spiritual movement for nearly three decades, from 1836 to 1866. The movement flourished in Concord, Massachusetts and was heard of but it had no formal organization.
The Transcendental Club or Circle was started by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Unitarian Minister James Freeman Clark, the teacher and philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, and some clergymen. Their collective achievement in quality of style and in depth of philosophical insight is unsurpassed in American literature. Sanskrit literature was in great demand. Indian thought began to manifest itself in American writing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson stated, "I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavat-Gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions that exercise us."
On Transcending
"To transcend" means to go beyond or to rise above limits; to triumph over restriction; to be prior to, beyond, and above the universe or material existence.
Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. Before his death he had completed filming the series of interviews with Bill Moyers, known as The Power of Myth, that was aired in the spring of 1988. In this he stated "Follow your bliss".
The decisions you make during your lifetime lead you to the present moment. It is always changing and rearranging itself. The one thing that remains true is the "I" and "me" segment of you. Different persona created by "I" or "me" prevail in situations according to what you believe to be true of the reality at that time. Ego is constantly re-creating itself to defend its life believing it is what it must do to survive. The false belief that you must control circumstances and other people, is what keeps duality from recognizing the fact that there even is a split.
Through consistent meditation and contemplation, a moment of reckoning happens. This is where you finally understand what you are doing and become aware of it. You begin to gather and incorporate the several parts of self and become whole. The process known as awakening continues for an entire lifetime.
Spiritual happiness occurs during the final realization that we are all connected, and the control you once thought you had, releases its grip on the personality. Truth becomes imperative and insightful knowledge once sought, begins to reveal itself on a daily basis. Only then will the nature of your reality lose its duality. When this happens, the world appears different. What you once thought and believed as true, no longer exists for you.
It becomes problematic in the early stages when you see that others are unaware and still sleeping. You want to shout out to the world to wake up. Understand that it is impossible to force your beliefs on them or explain what has transpired for you. Soon another stage emerges and becomes apparent. Transformation of the soul, in sync and integrated with mind and heart, realizes this astonishing fact: there is still much work to be done.
See also: What Is Divine Justice?
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