Habit Force, New Record
Nov 07, 2006 05:25 AM
by Mark Jaqua
Using Habit Force, New Record
Below is a short article on Habit, as
its got some relationship to Ritual (mostly
on the dark side of things.) In the MLs
somewhere is said that (dogmatic?) religions
develop from the left-hand side of things
or "the dark side of the force," and ritual
and religion are hand-in-glove. I had a
guy tell me that really there is no such
thing as "will-power," that it is all
really just habit. He had a point, but
I think takes the point too far.
After bitching about the unnecessary
long multiple reposts, I see that carlos's
response to "rrdon," Nov. 6, "Masters, HPB
and Children" has approximately 1458 lines
of repost on my screen. Nothing like
tidy minds! har har
I see among the little corn-towns
in this area, of population of a couple
hundred, as per a recent article in a local
paper, there has been a women's "Secret
Society" called the "Mental Progress Society,"
for the past 80 years. Limited to 25 members,
and no men. Nothing religious mentioned
in the description. Maybe there are more
underground thinkers around than one thinks.
USING HABIT FORCE
The initial reaction to mention
of the word "habit" is usually negative.
Actually, habit is a neutral phenomenon
inherent in the nature of the world. The
habit of everyday life blends imperceptibly
into the habits of natural law and the
movements of electrons and planets.* [*In
an aspect Karma is also habit. - ed.] Indeed,
if we were not surrounded with predictable
processes, the world could not exist as we
know it and our universe could be nothing
other than uncreate chaos.
Man is a creature of habit in
innumerable ways, from the manner in which
he ties his shoes to the more subtle
psychological habits of attitude and
interpersonal reaction. Habit is paradoxical;
it both aids us and hinders us. In many
ways it saves us much energy and attention,
and can be consciously used an indefinite
amount in this direction. Can you imagine
learning anew each time to drive a car or
to use a typewriter? On the other hand,
becoming entrenched in habits and not being
consciously aware and discriminating
towards them can tend to put one to sleep
and make a person mechanical and unconscious.
You can use the tendency toward
habit to your own advantage by consciously
discriminating what habits you wish to
establish in your daily life and applying
energy to do so. This can be a way to vastly
improve efficiency in daily life, as well as
being a means to spiritual becoming.
Whatever your occupation may be, you
become more efficient at it when you continually
refine and develop habits that apply. If
you wish to become ingenious and efficient,
then apply energy in numerous tasks during
the day to find a better way of performing
them. In time, this approach or attitude will
become habitual and you will become ingenious
and efficient. If you wish to become a
discriminating thinker, then search out
habitually the different sides and angles
of the issues and questions you encounter.
By constant attempt at this, in time there
will be a change in your character and you
will have become a discriminating thinker,
to the degree of energy applied and strength
of habit established.
This is one of the secret of ascetics
and yogis. It might seem harshly painful to
wear a hair shirt and live in a cave,* [*such
body-punishing asceticism is actually just
another type of sensualism - ed.] but once
the ascetic has become used to or accustomed
to his situation, it requires very little
pain and energy to maintain himself there.
Admittedly, it would require a great deal of
pain and effort to accustom himself initially.
The yogi who can meditate for four or
five hours at a sitting could not do so
when he first attempted it. By a great
deal of effort he formulated a habit, or
trained himself, so that he is able to
perform the feat now with little effort.
The energy and determination are required
primarily in forming the habit, not in
maintaining it. Of course, there is
always the possibility of continually
applying energy to increase capacity and
quality in whatever area the habit process
is applied.
Although most of our apparent
and superficial life can be claimed to
be composed of various habit processes,
there seems to be a separate and observing
part of the psyche that can view, discriminate
and give direction to this superficial
aspect of our make-up. The observing part
of the psyche can be trained to objectively
view and discriminate what changes need
to be made in one's life and to provide
the motivation to make those changes. The
real "Us" is not the habit-machine.
---------------------
---------------------------------
Sponsored Link
Get an Online or Campus degree - Associate's, Bachelor's, or Master's - in less than one year.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Back to Top]
Theosophy World:
Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy and its Practical Application