Holding on to your Essential Essence in Difficult Times.
'What is the essential essence' has been a question asked by philosophers since the beginning of history. It is a question that has fundamental meaning but is very difficult to answer.
Descartes gave one of the most famous treaties on finding true essence. In Descartes example he used wax. Here is a candle. It is made of wax that is solid and keeps its form. The candle is lit and the wax melts and runs, but is still wax. Water can be vapour, it can be liquid and it can be solid depending on temperature, but it is still water.
In modern times we could explain physical properties in terms of chemical properties, but this is not possible for people. There are many stages which a person can go through but this is not the essence of that person. What is it that makes a person a unique and indivisible identity?
Somewhere inside us all is a little quiet voice that is different and unique. That does not mean that there are not similarities, but the mix of similarities is different for each of us. That little voice is our true essence and is there to guide us if only we can listen.
You might be with a group of people that are laughing and joking together. Someone says something and you all laugh. But your little voice says it doesn't like what is said even though you laugh with the others. You hear sexist or racist comments and inside you cringe, but you laugh anyway.
It is not always possible avoid these sorts of situations. You might enjoy a sport or hobby and there is a wide mix of people involved. There is often no way of controlling the people we work with. But we can listen to our inner essence and quietly move away. No need to fight a battle you cannot win. There are other ways of changing the world you live in.
If we listen and move away from situations and people our inner voice does not like and towards people we do we will find ourselves guided to people with similar essence. Not the same but similar. In this sort of situation it is much easier to listen to our inner essence. While we are busy conforming or repelling to situations we do not like it is hard to listen to who we are. We get lost in internal conflict, and internal conflict is death to essence.
Your essence is that part of you that cannot be reduced. You might lose your job in the present economic climate, although I hope you don't. There could be conflict with loved ones in difficult times. None of these things need be catastrophic because your essence will remain. Stay calm and hear your true self.
I was moved to write this article by the acceptance speech of Barack Obama. Replace fear with hope. One of the things often common to people who are following a spiritual path is that they have known difficult times and that is how they have come to be on this path. They have found that there is more than the material world. There is the unseen that helps and guides us through communicating with our essence and has proved over and over the old saying from Pharaoh Akhenaten 'This too will pass also.'
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These are times for having faith in your spiritual path and trusting your essence. It is easy to have faith when times are good, but to hold on in difficult times is the real test. Be quiet, be still and listen to your essence. Replace fear with hope.
David Young.