Importance arises when something is given excessive significance.
External importance refers to the excessive significance attributed to a person, object, or event. With objects, this manifests as an excessive desire to possess them and achieve related goals. Regarding events, it can involve placing undue importance on upcoming occurrences, such as job interviews. Concerning people, excessive importance often arises in relationships where we idealize others, seek their approval, and place them on a pedestal.
Internal importance involves overestimating one's virtues or shortcomings. This might manifest as guilt over past actions, excessive apologizing, and attempts to hide flaws. It also includes excessive self-comparison, confrontation with others, and the imposition of conditions on oneself or others.
Seeking pleasure: The Psychology of Reward and Motivation
Pleasure is a distraction from spiritual progress. It is not a purpose to be pursued. If pleasure comes, accept it; if it goes, let it go. We often chase familiar feelings and the experiences associated with them. We flee from the unknown into the familiar.
Pleasure creates excessive importance, which is always balanced by its opposite. For every degree of pleasure, there is an equal degree of suffering.
Indulging in alcohol may lead to a hangover; excessive sexual activity can leave one feeling disconnected from the source; overeating often results in bloating and stomach aches.
Seeking pleasure might align with your desires and beliefs, but it does not align with your true self.
Never seek pleasure, and never run from a problem. Remain in that state until the excessive energy dissipates, then trust that your next action will be revealed, in alignment with your true self.
Outer and Inner Effort: The Yin and Yang of Success
The outer effort pertains to attempts to change external factors—such as events, people, and circumstances. It involves moving from inaction to a desired state. This effort typically arises from dissatisfaction with one's current circumstances. When feeling uncomfortable, one instinctively tries to escape those feelings. However, this only leads to avoidance of confronting a part of oneself. To truly reconnect with one's authentic self, one must strengthen inner will.
In contrast, inner effort involves actively cultivating that inner will. This occurs when one is genuinely in touch with oneself and aligned with a higher, divine will. When this connection is established, no outside forces can shake one's sense of wholeness; one recognizes that one lacks nothing internally.
A state of effortless attention is achieved by letting go of external distractions and focusing on elevating inner effort. Embrace this journey to enhance inner strength and presence.
Perfectionism, Arrogance and Pride: The Masks We Wear
One extreme manifestation of inflated self-importance is hiding our true selves behind a mask. We feel compelled to maintain a perfect and always-right facade, fearing vulnerability and the exposure of our authentic selves. Constantly guarding this facade is difficult, leading us to control people, things, and situations to ensure desired outcomes.
Guilt, Shame and Denial: Overcoming The Inner Critic
Another extreme, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is constantly denying ourselves, apologizing excessively, and feeling guilty about our actions. We perpetually protect a false identity, trying to prove our worthiness to the world. The outward appearance of action—how it looks—is more important to us than its source. In this case, we also fail to follow the law of one because we deny the divine within ourselves. We experience resistance to change because of our inflated ego.