What good can come of promising to behave better than your actual ability? Isn't it like priests vowing celibacy, repressing and
QUESTION
What good can come of promising to behave better than your actual ability? Isn't it like priests vowing celibacy, repressing and thereby empowering their shadow side impulses?
If you take the vow, you must seriously ask yourself if you are ready for it. Personally, when I took the vow myself, I thought I was ready for it. Having recently come under attack in the media I find myself getting combative and defensive. I observed this response of mine and have tried to use that insight to understand myself better and thereby strengthen and mature my nonviolent behavior.
When I look deeper into my heart , I find no malice or hostility toward my attackers. I did experience anger, expressed it, and then let it pass, reminding myself that I had taken the vow. Anger as an natural expression (as long as you don’t cause physical harm) can sometimes be a healthy emotion, and repressing or denying it only distorts the normal human response. It is important to find a healthy, creative and constructive outlet for emotions.
There is a difference between anger and hostility. Hostility is when you seek vengeance and want to maliciously hurt another person. It is now known to be the number one emotional risk factor for premature death from cardiovascular accidents such as heart attack and stroke.
In summary, do not commit to the vow if you seriously think that you cannot observe any aspect of it. On the other hand if you feel ready for the next stage of evolution then take the vow and do what comes to you most naturally, while remembering that you did take the vow.
This isn’t meant to be grim, life or death oath to bind your soul to. It is intended to be a expression of the emerging truth of your real Self, so have fun, laugh, and be light-hearted about it at the same time. You are right that repression and suppression are definitely pathological and can perpetuate violence. This vow is certainly not about squashing healthy emotions to try to live some imaginary spiritual ideal. Be easy, stay conscious and enjoy life.
Deepak Chopra
Comments
The question is not about behaving better but thinking better. It's the law of the Universe, or more simply put just the way it works, that the thoughts we dwell upon return to us in kind as how we view our reality. How we view our reality creates life as we know it to be. So collectively if we can all get on the same page and view our reality as being one of peace, kindness, and co-operation we will inturn create that for ourselves collectively. It's really quite simple and beautiful. We are co-creators of our experience so lets all decide to choose love, peace and understanding and get on with it. It is within our thought power to manifest a beautiful world, not through our own desires but through the Love (God, Devine, spirit, Allah, universal energy...whatever name you choose as a label) that resides within us all.