Everyone feels fear. It is built into our physical systems. One of the first responses of a newborn baby is “the startle response.” It serves as a protective mechanism and triggers fight or flight. At one point in our evolution it was useful but now, like the appendix or tonsils, we do not need it to the extent we did. It has become a plague of overthinking that brings depression and loss of morale.
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I am not talking about fear holding us back from doing dangerous and crazy things that scare us, such as jumping out of a skyscraper window on a dare. I am referring to the little voice in the head that stops us from fulfilling our potential because we are too scared to fail, get hurt, or look like a fool trying. The fear takes over ands somewhere we feel less of a person because we backed down.

Your mission in life may require you to speak in front of large groups and anxiety stops you. You would rather give up. It is then that you can realize that everyone feels fear about public speaking but they go ahead and do it anyway, in spite of their stage-fright. They find out they didn’t die from the experience and end up trusting themselves more. Next time is is easier. But if you quit just because you feel jittery, you will never fully realize your goals.

If you are a world class downhill skier, I am sure natural fear kicks in as you face the steep descent. But you know that this fear is an automatic response and you can get past it. Then, once you allow yourself to “feel the fear and do it anyway” (as Susan Jeffers said) a triumphant feeling replaces the fear. You can even use the fear as fuel for extra adrenaline to sharpen your skills.

Everything great that has ever been accomplished by people (and animals) was because they “felt the fear and did it anyway.” Otherwise, life is about cowering away in our shells, protecting ourselves from all kinds of imagined and real threats and never fully living free lives.

The I-Self precedes the “Me-self” and has always existed. It it what links us to Cosmic consciousness and indestructible peace.

The me-self comes along with this body when we incarnate as a human. It appears when we recognize that we want things, we are hungry, we want toys, we are bored, we need to survive at all costs. When we are given a name and discover who the me-self is, suffering begins. We are hurt, we feel neglected, we want someone else’s toys, we want all of Mommy’s attention, we want, want and want.

But when we rest in the I-Self, there is nothing to want. We are already complete. It is a state of peace, which the me-self can never attain. Yes, I say never. For the me-self is looking to the future to fulfill itself. It is always looking for the next thing that will make it happy. It cannot feel the present moment. It will quickly return to chewing over the past and hurling towards the future.
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The I-self exists outside of time, which is a useful invention of the me-self for communication purposes and to “fix” the world. But anything that proceeds from the me-self is impermanent, as is the body from which it arises. Without the body, there wouldn’t be any “me” but the eternal I, the underlying structure of all that is, remains.

I lived without any possessions for more than five years and I existed very well. It is freeing not to own anything. The few clothes I wore, I borrowed. I also used a toothbrush and a comb. But that was it. And it was very easy.

I was on an explicit spiritual path and did not want to be encumbered by any possessions at all. It seemed extreme but I loved and needed the uncluttered feeling of meeting life head-on without the constant maintenance of objects and physical details around me.

I was able to live completely joyful with nothing, showing me that it is possible. Having no possessions had no impact on my happiness except possibly adding to it. When it came time for me to rejoin the world of ownership and things that were “mine,” it was an easy transition as well. But life became more complicated and my energies were spent more on physical self-maintenance in addition to the inner journey to which I was committed.
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So I did more than just exist without all the trappings that attest to the “quality” of person that I am. People who met me, accepted me, or didn’t accept me, just as they do now that I dress like an up-to-date female in the Western Hemisphere. But I know from experience that none of my possessions define me and they never will. For they all disappear, go out of style, get worn out, and get lost—while my Soul is eternal and is the Real Me.

Self-actualization is the ability to reach that higher place of consciousness, from which all our activities and creations originate. At this stage we are far beyond satisfying our basic needs for food, shelter, and social contact. We now are at a place where our full human potential can be realized.
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We are now free to be creative and innovative, profound and wise. We no longer have to slave for our daily food and we can go beyond the day-to-day survival game. And yes, it can be lonely there. Even though modern life offers so many comfortable advantages, not many people are ready to make the effort to go beyond the search for daily satisfactions. Or they don’t know how.

The media are screaming for more attention to our outer appearances and very little attention is brought to finding contact with our souls. Not a lot of economic value is placed on understanding who you are as an eternal being, endlessly connected with the underlying order of the cosmos. When was the last time you saw a spiritual master’s enhanced and filtered selfie go viral?
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Perhaps the rarity of self-realization makes it that much more precious. Yet everyone has the potential for it. For self-realization is never measured against what others achieve, but always relates to how much more we have grown within ourselves.

Yes, when you find the deepest peace within the silence of meditation, your reality will be transformed. It takes practice, but you can go to that place again and again until no matter what is going on in the world, you don’t lose your inner peace.
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Staying in peace takes discipline and understanding about the ups and downs of emotions. You can still feel emotions deeply, so its not like you’re walking around like a zombie. It’s just that you recognize the fleeting nature of these emotions. You can be very sad, then go to anger, then to thoughts of hatred, and all these emotions are causing lots of changes in your body such as an increase in blood pressure and a release of stress hormones.

You recognize that a thought preceded these emotions. That’s what triggered them. You think of something someone said to you. You should have said such-and-such back to them. Your heart starts pounding faster. All from a thought. That person isn’t even in front of you. Now you move from them to all people and suddenly your reality is a living hell.

I meditation, you learn how to go deeper than these thoughts and their triggered emotions. You find that place that is one with the peace that lies at the structure of the cosmos and Universe. Your reality then become one of inner peace as you participate in life but do not get taken down in the undertow. You still experience all the colors of the emotions but it is in the context of deep peace.

People who deeply question life, its meaning, its purpose, the difficulty of suffering, the agony of loss—all experience the Dark Night of the Soul. It happens when we are lying awake in the middle of the night and everything seems dangerous, hurtful, painful, frightening, and pointless. We have lost our faith in anything spiritual and feel disconnected from all of life. It seems like a bitter joke and everyone dies anyway.
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This is a necessary step that brings us to our knees as we move along on our spiritual paths. It forces us, through despair and agony, to surrender to the Higher Power that is purposeful, organized, and often beyond our comprehension. We have nowhere to go but to trust in this Higher Power. We know that simply ending it all is not the solution for our Soul can never die. And when we get through to the other side of this Dark Night, it all appears light and clear to us.

It doesn’t take specialness to merit the Dark Night of the Soul. It happens to everyone who is a sincere spiritually-oriented being. And we can’t force it. It happens just at the right time for our growth and enlightenment. We just have to know that it is not the end. It is not hopeless and is a natural, though painful, part of our expansion during this human experience.

It takes work, discipline, and practice to overcome the negative bias of the human mind and the fearful projections of “lower” consciousness. Many people are not willing to put themselves through the training it requires to achieve levels of consciousness beyond the mere day-to-day survival.

Many people do not even think it is possible or even care. They are consumed with getting by with the least amount of pain and loss. They have relied on others, such as priests and authority figures to tell them that such states exist but do not think they are capable of such exalted states of being.

To find their way to their inner light and Soul seems too difficult or impractical. They think that higher consciousness would interfere with accomplishing their daily tasks as they bask in the ecstasy of inner bliss. This is a misconception and comes from visions of hermits living in caves meditating in the mountains instead of people actively engaged with life.

Or higher consciousness has been mystified to be like an endless psychedelic trip of colors, lights and disorientation. This false concept of higher consciousness deters people from “going there.” How are they going to get anything done if they are in a constant state of uninterrupted joy and distracting visual effects? But higher consciousness is nothing more or less that realizing that we are one with the Universe and that it is working through us.
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Because of:

• All the untrue ideas about higher consciousness
• Ignorance that it even exists
• The belief it is the special province of anointed religious figures

. . .most humans have not attained the levels of consciousness of which we are all capable.

People are afraid that if they devote their life to spiritual pursuits they will be held to a standard they cannot live up to. They think they will have to be saints or never make a mistake in compassionate judgment or ever get angry. They think they will not have a fun life either. It sound so empty and boring to sit around contemplating their inner selves and mediating. People are actually bored with peace. They don’t feel alive unless some drama is going on.

They see the exciting lives of celebrities, rock stars, famous politicians and world leaders. These are the people they admire. Most people would not like to live the life of a monk in the freezing Himalayas or a nun in a cloister. They want bright lights, entertainment, parties, stimulants, intoxicants, glitter, jewelry, and material treasures.

But who says we can’t have it all? We can be highly spiritual and manifest a life of adventure, fun, and material comfort. It is just an unexamined habit to think that to live a spiritual live we must give it all up. It is true that most people who are on a spiritual path are not really interested in accumulating material goods or devoting their lives to pursuing them. Therefore the world believes that to live a highly spiritual life, we must live a life of lack, even if the spiritual seeker feels no such loss.
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So the spiritual process, because it requires quiet, peace, and time away from the frenzy of the world, seems dull and drab to some people. But those of us who cannot help but follow this path know that it brings countless joys and revelations that the rat-race can never deliver.

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Higher consciousness is a characteristic of any living being that is in touch with the inner light that corresponds to the fundamental intelligence of the Universe as a whole. Dolphins, dogs, and other creatures may have this higher consciousness, even if they can’t put it into words or communicate it in other ways. It is an awareness of our connectedness to it all at the deepest level. It goes beyond the daily grind, survival tactics, fear, and anything that is ego-based.

Pure consciousness is that fundamental intelligence of the Universe of which higher consciousness is aware. It is the organizing principle behind all of life, the planets, the galaxies, and our souls. We can connect to it any time but we must “get out of our own way.” In other words, we cannot be running interference with never-ending streams of thought, usually based on anxiety, inability to be in the present moment, and a feeling of lack.

They are not the same, but they are related. One cannot exist without the other. If we are not aware of something, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It just means it doesn’t exist for us. Pure consciousness keeps on being pure consciousness forever. Higher consciousness depends on who attains it, who works for it, who is able to step aside from the endless bombardments of worries and fearful thoughts.
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To the animals and other beings, higher consciousness comes naturally. They do not live fretful lives and they are connected to the Peace of the Universe (unless humans interfere, cage or abuse them). Humans, however, do need to work for this peaceful state. It takes effort to cast aside the barrage of thoughts and fears. That is why meditation, yoga, and other modalities have come to be. Sometimes higher consciousness comes spontaneously to humans, especially after “The Dark Night of the Soul.” But in general, it takes intention and effort to get there.

Socrates wasn’t a hedonist, but his student Aristippus of Cyrene, was what is known as an “ethical hedonist.” He stated that pleasure is the highest good.

Aristippus explained that hedonistic ethical egoism is the concept that everyone has the right to do everything they can to attain the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them. He also said that everyone's pleasure should far surpass their amount of pain. He came to these conclusions after sitting at Socrates’ feet and hearing his musings and stimulating questions.

Socrates never made an explicit stand against hedonism itself. He stated that knowledge is virtue (which is what brings happiness and fulfillment). He was more interested in concepts such as, “Know Thyself” and “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This could be seen as the very opposite of unthinking hedonism, in which people satisfy their every whim and desire without anything else in mind besides having fun.
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Frolicking around in an endless party doesn’t always end well, though. Ultimately, the fun will go away, and then what will we be left with if we don’t know who we truly are in the depths of our heart, inner-mind, and Soul? Gorging on food and drink, sex and riotous living is actually the opposite of what Socrates was pointing to if we want inner peace and contentment.

In a sense, we can determine that Socrates thought hedonism was self-defeating. If we are totally self-interested and seek nothing but pleasure, we are bound to fail because the appetite for pleasure is insatiable. It’s called the “paradox of hedonism.” So, although Socrates doesn’t think hedonism is bad, he just saw it as self-defeating and would never bring true happiness.