The Journey Inside Through The Outside

Connecting the external events we encounter and experience with our internal development

In this article we will broadly look at some of the methods and practices that are available to us if we want to actively engage in developing ourselves. Once we come to the level of perception where we can clearly see that developing ourselves is an option, a choice we can consciously make if you like, the next thing to do is try to identify how we can develop ourselves, or in other words, what the more practical steps of realising this intention would be. What is it that we need to do in order to develop ourselves once we have made the conscious choice that this is in fact what we would like to do?

In the article, The Start Which Is Also The End, we came to understand the importance of our conscious intention and what role this has to play in the whole process. It is beneficial to have already created a conscious intention of our own to this end because doing this helps with the process. I will make it clear at this point in the article that we are not going to go into the specifics of the various different methods and techniques that can be engaged with as a part of this process. There are thousands of them out there, all being categorized and assigned to various different schools, teachers, and groups.

The specific nature of these methods, in reality, makes little difference once we come to understand the fundamental nature of this process from a consciousness perspective. Once we see things from this perspective, we come to realise that by simply engaging with the process consciously it is then an inevitability that progress will be made with it. We then also come to see that every single action we take can become part of our method for developing ourselves, even something as simple as the act of drinking water. With a more conscious approach, we will also naturally find ourselves discovering those methods and techniques which are the most appropriate for us.

So, if we are not going to look at the specifics of the methods and techniques, what exactly is it about these methods and techniques which we are going to look at here? Our focus in this article will be more to do with coming to understand the nature of these methods and techniques so that we can broadly group them into a few categories, just as we may group many different foods into certain categories based on a variety of different characteristics that they share. For example, think of the food categories of dairy, poultry, and legumes. They are ultimately all food and yet, at the same time, some of them share similar characteristics with each other which results in us creating each food category that we group them together in.

In much the same way, there are thousands of these methods, techniques, and practices out there which are all unique, yet they are all related to the same process which, at its core, is helping us to clear our conscious perception. By looking at them, we are able to notice certain broad similarities that many of them share. It is these similarities which provide us with the basis for how we can categorize them. By creating a number of different categories of methods and techniques, which I remind the reader is ultimately only ever something which we have imprinted onto the world around us, we are also then able to gain further insights into the process, understand how these methods interact with it, and understand something about the very nature of consciousness itself.

Understanding the Process

Throughout these articles, you will often find it written that one way in which we can help the process to progress is by gaining a deeper understanding of the process itself. When we try to understand the process, we are effectively bringing the process itself into our conscious perception. This is part of the role that these articles play, they help the reader to become aware of the process, and then look at and analyse various mechanisms and stages that are an intrinsic part of that process.