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Guide to a Fuller Life / 315
3. Sincerity, devotion and duty consciousness, all generate attention and concentration.
(a) Steadiness of mind, in acts undertaken may be cultivated. (b) Growth of more meaning in work undertaken should occur. (c) Subtler changes in level of consciousness should be detected.
4. We should outgrow our limited understanding of ourselves and the world around. Beyond our egoistic thinking is a larger principle of consciousness that finally lends meaning to many of our activities.
(a) Continuous evaluation of our ability to forget our little self. (b) To reach for a direction in life. (c) Coming closer to the larger processes of life may be here
experienced.
We need support to begin our work in self-development. The fullness of life has to be experienced in life situations and in actions. Abstract thinking or reading is not substitute here. In fact, our present sensate culture makes us extorverted. We do accept the existence of things which are beyond our senses. We have therefore to begin with the tangible, the physical, the so-called rational thinking. A code of disciplined conduct is suggested called Yama Niyama.
How to integrate an objective approach to life ? Can we learn to look at things from a slight distance ? One simple way is to look back on events that have occured earlier. It is like looking at yourself in a mirror. One may sit in Vajrasana or any meditation asana, close the eyes and recall incidents that occured earlier. Go into details, preferably chronologically the earlier event first the later event next. This will help in concentration develop good memory any help in creating mindfullness and awareness.
In Yoga a healthy person is considered an individual, who lives in a balanced state of body, mind and soul. This is a fuller life. A healthy person is an individual, whose thoughts and actions have their equivalent in higher values. Fuller life, in a yogic understanding can only be reached through a harmonious way of living. This may imply a total change of our values and round of habits, since it is not primarily the cure of diseases which is important but the prevention of them. Yoga deals with the root cause of our problems.
All illness is originating from a state of imbalance between our physical, mental and spiritual levels. Our diseases are closely related to our understanding of life and the patterns we follow. The more materialistic (in the widest sense of the word) values we cherish, the more we expose ourslves to pain suffering and diseases. The constant struggle for satisfaction of our desires and ambitions leaves us no rest. Our constantly overstrained
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