Time for change

Personal Development as the Meaning of Life

This book explains human development on the basis of easily-understood examples and simple models. It is intended to arouse thinking about your own life and to offer help as to how we can specifically change our lives.
The author describes how we can achieve constant harmony and inner peace. The right choice and deliberate pursuing of our own, self-selected goals take on a key role in this so that we can achieve our own goals and not let ourselves be manipulated by others.

As multifaceted as we human beings may be, once our existential needs are covered, we all finally strive for the same thing: We want to be perpetually happy and satisfied and we want to be able to live our lives without worries and cares. This search for harmony and inner peace, for self-realization, or however we like to describe this state, as our top objective in life, is practically the same in all the different methods of representing human needs. Not least the advertising industry also frequently attempts to make use of this striving for happiness and harmony.

From our experience we know that wherever we are or whatever we do certain rules prevail. On the roads these are the traffic regulations, in football the rules of play, in nature there are the natural laws. For those that respect these rules the corresponding activities or deeds are easier to accomplish than for those who violate these rules and therefore have to be reprimanded in one way or another.

The more the better? or from maximation to optimisation

During the past years we have got used to increase our materialistic wealth in an impetuous speed. Lika a mighty fly-wheel the economical development took its course. You only had to take your seat and automatically got carried away. No wonder that questions about meaning and purpose of this development were ignored. Now as this fly-wheel turns slower and some people even prophesy its stop or backward turn, it's possible again to pose questions.

It's not long ago - our grandparents have still experienced this time - when every additional Dollar or Euro in the purse lead to a growth in life quality. In other words: Not long ago, more materialistic possession automatically ment an improvement in the life situation. Most of us have taken over this "the-more-the-better-principle" without thinking reflecting and follow it as a sheer habit. This is the only explanation, why even wealthy nations fall into a depressive mood, when the personal incomes suddenly don't rise any more or when the industrial turnovers and profits stagnate. We must find out for ourselves, if we could live a fortunate life with todays income respectively if we would need more materialistic wealth for that purpose. This question we should ask ourselves however, since from a certain level on, more materialistic wealth doesn't automatically mean more satisfaction and joy. Some time or other we will have enough to eat, enough clothing, an enough large home, enough jewelery, enough mobility etc.

He who works on his own personal development, is as a rule convinced that this is the right way for him and that he is doing the right thing. Otherwise he would presumably do something else...

In many cases therefore sooner or later arises the desire to convince other people of his path. This person also wants to help others to find the «right» path. This often ends in great disappointment if the closest people such as his life partner, his children, parents, good friends etc. react negatively. Especially if they don’t wish to know anything of the «only correct» way, the best path or goal.

  In one of the previous sections we discussed the mutual activation of tuning bowls. During this discussion we saw that the tuning bowls corresponding with our objectives vibrate and hence radiate energy at the corresponding frequency. In the case of other people who have a similar tuning bowl, this can lead to activation of this tuning bowl. Possibly because of this the other person thereby selects the corresponding objective as the guideline for his next decisions. This in turn poses the question as to whether individual people cannot be consciously manipulated by this means.

Could for example someone with a high awareness help other people unnoticed to select the basic rights of existence as their guideline for decisionmaking? Would it not be possible in this way to improve the whole world?

 

The expansion of our awareness is only possible through solving those tasks which are matched to the actual status of our training. The tackling of tasks which are «too difficult» does not lead to any kind of acceleration of our development. In fact it is the opposite, it leads to a slowing down or even to a standstill or to steps backwards. The same is also true where the demands are insufficient.

This is immediately obvious in virtually every other form of training: A music student who learns a piece which is too difficult for him during his training will not make faster progress in his learning process than another musician, who only plays pieces which are matched to his actual abilities. If a good piano player only ever plays quite simple pieces with one hand, in time he loses his ability with the second hand: He takes steps backwards or forgets what he has learned about two-handed piano playing. A car driver who also drives a formula one racing car, will not become a better car driver because of this. A sportsman who trains to run over a length of 5 km will obtain no advantage at all for his 5 km stretch by completing a 42 km marathon, even if he finishes the marathon in a very good time.

 

By carrying out a task which is too demanding, the person carrying it out in the first place impedes his own development. In considering the development of humankind we have seen that further development is only possible in stages. Just as for a pyramid the individual stones and layers must be symmetrically placed on top of one another one layer at a time. If someone is overtaxed by a given task, he is attempting to insert stones into a pyra­mid in which the lower stones are still missing, or are not correctly fixed. It is not possible to leave out individual building stones and then insert them later! Such an attempt is a pure waste of time.

 Since in principle every conceivable task can (and should) serve the further personal development of a person, in the next section we want to consider the acceptance of tasks from this point of view. Everyone can decide for himself whether he wants to accept and carry out a given task. Before someone accepts a task however, it is essential that he checks that the task is suitable for him, i.e. on the one hand whether it is compatible with his personal goals and on the other hand whether he has the necessary abilities for carrying it out. Here we mean not only manual skills or intellectual abilities but also especially awareness. He who takes up a task is responsible for making sure that he has the abilities to solve it.

This is a consequence of self-responsibility: Everyone must be able to freely and independently decide whether he wants to take on a given task or not. It is after all impossible to force someone to carry out a task and then afterwards to make that person responsible for the consequences!

 

Let’s summarize the previous discussion: From the basic rights of existence each being derives the equal right to live, to develop and to carry out its tasks. Every being can thereby decide for itself what it wants to do or not do (the principle of self-determination). He who is free to decide for himself what he should do or not do is naturally also responsible for the consequences of his decisions. Who otherwise would be responsible for the consequences of a decision if someone can freely decide? From the principle of self-determination there follows therefore the principle of self-responsibility:

  Our existence on earth, our deeds, words, thoughts – yes even just our living processes - create a certain effect on our surroundings. For example simply by breathing we are converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, our skin evaporates water, we create a pressure on the soil with our feet. When we purchase groceries in a shop and pay with money we also create a certain effect.

 

We also carry the responsibility for these effects. On the basis of the examples given above it should be clear that «to carry the responsibility» or «to be responsible» is a priori neither posi­tive nor negative. It is simply an impartial statement.