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The Art of Cleansing 113 which we continue to do becomes a condition. It becomes cemented as part of our thinking. It makes itself so much at home in our consciousness that we are not ready to break with it. Even when we think that the condition is not going to last, we allow the mind to fool us and trick us into holding on to the condition in subtle ways. We forget the pain it can cause us. In this way, we become like those bonsai trees, dwarfed by our conditioning. If we never break it, we cannot grow and stretch. Without growing and stretching, we cannot reach our true height.
The idea in this second step is to break the conditions and free yourself. You want to free yourself so you can grow. You don't want to remain in a dwarfish mentality. If you do, you will deprive yourself of the infinite sky. So you make the decision to detect which conditions are limiting you and to break them. Then you will soar to the height and have the ecstasy of knowing your own Self.
The third step comes naturally. It is a shedding process. You are shedding the dry leaves from your life, because you are preparing for freshness. What happens when you do this? You discover the difference between "I" and "we." This "we" is the "we" of the herd mentality. When you live with "we," you always try to be like others. You feel inadequate and think, "What will people think of me if I speak? What if they laugh at me?" If you are not able to fit into what others are doing, you feel awkward and call yourself a "misfit."
Shed this misreading of yourself. Realize your uniqueness and tell yourself, "I am I. I can't be anything else. Whether others accept or reject me makes no difference. I am what I am." When you become what you are, a natural flow comes in your life. You begin to communi
