Your Self-worth Is Nothing Less Than That Of God
The questioner asked: Do I need to completely destroy my self-esteem to get enlightened? Listen to my response and meditate along with a 20-minute guided meditation. Each session is unique, starts with a 5-10 min discourse, followed by 20-minute Guided Meditation. Be Well, Dhyanse.
Transcript
A very warm welcome to all of you in this morning meditation session with me,
Dehansi.
Every morning at 7 am Central European Time,
I share some moments of contemplation,
Silence,
Meditation with all of you.
So please join me in this no movement towards silence and awareness every morning at 7 am Central European Time on all my social media platforms,
Facebook,
Twitter,
YouTube and also these recordings are available afterwards on YouTube and also on all my podcast channels so you can listen to these daily meditation sessions and meditate along with Apple devices,
With Android and with all other forms of devices.
You are able to access these meditations,
These sessions all for free of course.
For today's session,
We have the topic of self-esteem.
It's another difficult topic,
It's a wound for many people and one of my meditators,
They wrote to me asking a question about this topic.
So let's take this question,
Contemplate on the topic of self-esteem for a few minutes and then we will sit in meditation for 20 minutes where I will guide you step by step going through a meditation which will bring you to more silence,
More awareness and also allow you to understand this topic of self-esteem with your own reflections.
The meditator asks,
My other question is about self-esteem.
In another Buddhist book by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
He says quite literally that we should try to completely destroy our self-esteem to get enlightened.
I would also be very happy about your opinion.
This person had asked the question regarding enlightenment and body which we had discussed yesterday.
This question related to enlightenment continues and has a new context to it which is self-esteem.
The questioner wants to know whether we should be completely destroying our self-esteem to get enlightened as guided by this Buddhist teacher.
Let's take a moment to reflect on this topic.
If I were to pick this statement out of context,
I would say that the person who is saying this statement does not know enlightenment.
Of course,
This Buddhist teacher might have a context,
Might mean this in a different way,
But just literally taking this statement that you should destroy your self-esteem to get enlightened just means that the person does not understand what enlightenment is and is also trying to achieve it.
The world we live in is all designed to actually destroy all the self-esteem that we have.
What is our self-worth?
What is it that we call self-esteem?
What is the value of human experience?
If you reflect on that,
If you meditatively go into it,
You will come to this realization that self-worth of a human being is to be enlightened,
Is that we are always enlightened,
Is to realize that we are always enlightened,
Is to realize that by nature we are all gods,
Not a part of God,
But we are all gods.
That's our true self-esteem,
That's our true self-worth.
But what happens living in this world,
We not only do not ever give a chance to this realization to a true nature,
To a true God nature,
But we continually destroy our self-esteem,
Our self-worth,
And in that process of destroying it,
We give rise to an emptiness,
Or an emptiness comes in our life,
Which we then continue trying to fill with achievements,
With possessions,
With all sorts of other actions,
Other longings,
Other objects to chase,
To fill this gap which is arising because we do not understand our true value.
So then enlightenment becomes a goal.
Enlightenment cannot be a goal,
Enlightenment cannot be an achievement,
But if you do not understand your true self-value,
Your self-esteem,
Your self-worth,
You'll make naturally enlightenment also a goal,
An achievement,
Something to achieve by destroying or by doing something.
This whole process,
This whole mechanical process of trying to act,
Trying to do something,
To achieve something,
This somehow is not compatible,
Is not applicable to the spiritual process.
This is good for the worldly things.
In the realm of spirituality,
This act to achieve something,
To set a goal,
All these mental constructs,
They fall short of what the process has to offer.
What eventually has to happen,
Has to happen on its own.
All the realizations have to happen on its own.
All if you have to do is to create a space,
Time and moments for yourself,
A state for yourself in which those realizations happen on their own accord.
So if I look at this statement to completely destroy our self-worth,
Self-esteem to get enlightened,
I would simply say,
Drop the idea of achieving,
Getting enlightened.
I ask you,
Why such an idea in the first place to get enlightened?
Even by this Buddhist teacher,
Why even chasing this idea of enlightenment?
My suggestion,
Drop the idea of enlightenment,
Drop the chase of enlightenment,
Rather find ways in which you can understand and realize your true nature.
When you realize your true nature,
When you realize your true value,
Your true self-esteem,
Enlightenment happens on its own.
And who cares if it happens,
If it doesn't happen,
As long as you are centered and sitting in your true nature,
Sitting in your true value,
Which is nothing less than of God.
There is another aspect to it,
When I see this question,
When I see the tone of what this teacher is suggesting to destroy self-esteem,
I ask you,
Why is there a need to destroy anything?
This aggression of destroying this and destroying that to achieve this or to achieve that,
It does not apply to the realm of spirituality.
If you are trying to destroy something in you,
You are aggressive to your own self,
You are aggressive to your own body,
You are aggressive to your own psychology.
So don't try to destroy anything.
Let all the wounds heal by themselves in you.
This topic of self-esteem is a wound for many of us,
Where we do not know our true value,
Where we do not understand our true nature,
And hence we have this substitute of a lowest self-esteem which we are then trying to fill with possessions,
Trying to fill with achievements and all that.
Let's not try to destroy anything,
But rather rise up to the realizations,
To the awareness of one's own true nature.
With that,
I invite you to join me in today's meditation,
Which is also helping you to reflect on the topic of self-esteem,
On your own ideas of self-esteem,
And helping you to move towards realizing your true nature.
A small exercise,
So this meditation will be comprising of two parts.
The first part would be to do a short exercise where you will imagine that you are full of light,
Your body is full of light,
Bright white light,
Your mind,
In this case,
You can imagine your head,
Is full of bright white light,
Your whole body,
Mind,
Everything is so much full of white light that it's radiating this white light outwards into the world and expanding in ways that you fill this entire world with your bright white light.
Now this imagination may sound at first silly,
But it's very helpful.
It's very helpful to bring your mind,
Your energies,
All into this mode where you have a focus,
That's number one,
But a sense of that you are also the source of light onto this world.
You are also the source of light onto yourself and for your self-worth,
For your self-esteem,
It is important to realize that you are the light as a source onto yourself and onto the world as well.
With that small exercise,
We'll do this for 5 to 10 minutes and then we'll sit in silence for another 10 minutes.
That let's move into meditation.
Close your eyes and find yourself a sitting posture that is comfortable where your back is upright,
Your legs are either crossed or straight,
Hands either in your lap or on your thighs.
Find yourself a comfortable posture where you can let go of your body,
Of your mind and settle in the moment for the next 15 to 20 minutes.
Take a nice deep breath,
Inhale from the nose,
Also exhale from the nose and let go of your body,
Let go of your mind,
Settle your awareness in this moment.
Keep your awareness inwards,
Draw it from all different directions.
From what's happening outside,
To the thoughts,
To the plans,
From all these different directions,
Draw your attention inwards for the next minutes towards silence,
Towards becoming more aware.
Notice your breath flowing in and out.
Visualize,
Imagine that there is a source of light in the middle of your chest,
A source of bright white light in the middle of your chest,
Peaceful white bright light.
And as you breathe in and out with every breath,
The light becomes brighter and fills your entire body.
The source of light is in you,
In the middle of your chest and it's radiating bright white light filling your entire body and your body becoming this bright white light.
Keep all your attention on this imagination and allow this white light to fill your entire body from your feet to your head.
As you relax into it,
You can feel the light coming out of your chest.
As you relax into it,
You start feeling that your entire body is filled with bright white light.
Your head is filled with bright white light.
And this light is radiating outwards from your entire body and mind.
You are the source of this light for yourself and for everyone else in the world.
This light is radiating outwards reaching everyone else in the world unconditionally.
As you relax into it,
You can feel the light coming out of your chest.
The more you let this light spread outwards,
Radiate from you towards the world,
The more a sense of peace arises in your heart,
A sense of silence.
As you relax into it,
You can feel the light coming out of your chest.
Let go of the imagination and follow the silence that has arisen in your heart,
In your entire being.
Let go of the silence.
Awareness,
Or nothing particular,
Simply remain aware and silent.
Let go of the silence.
Let go of the silence.
In these silent moments,
Recognize the true nature,
The light,
The awareness,
The love,
The silence,
All different names of God.
Be thankful that you are alive.
Be thankful that you are healthy.
Be thankful that you are aware and silent.
And very gently and slowly,
You may open your eyes.
Try to maintain this silence,
This awareness and sense of centeredness that you have gathered in the last minutes,
Through your entire day,
And bring this to every aspect of what you do in life.
If you have any questions regarding today's meditation,
Or otherwise in your spiritual journey,
In your meditation journey,
Please write to me on all my social media platforms.
I am available and I will take those questions,
Those doubts,
Bring them into these sessions and I will speak on them.
We will meditate together on them.
Namaste and see you tomorrow.
