Making Wise Decisions
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: Contact intuitional guidance with clarity and detail for important decisions: the answer comes right to you. Postpone key decisions when emotional or upset. Major decisions need to be made by yourself, your own superconscious being.
Transcription:
Today's Master Course lesson from Gurudeva has a section on "Making Wise Decisions."
"Life is a series of decisions also. One decision builds into another. To make a good decision, we have to again bring our total awareness to the eternity of the moment. If we project ourselves into the future to try to make a decision, we do not make a decision with wisdom. If we project ourselves into the past and in that way formulate our decisions, again they are not wise decisions, for they are decisions made through the powers of the intellectual or the instinctive area of the mind. The only good decisions come to us when we hold the consciousness of the eternity of the moment and go within our self for the answer. "
Quite often, the more important a decision is the more we think about it. The more we worry about it and we can see that's counter-productive to this principle here. Cause the principle is we want to be centered in the present moment not pondering a lot about the future, about the past. Why do we want to be doing that? So we can contact our intuition; that's the reason. If we're thinking a lot then we're locked into our intellect. If our emotions are strong, we have strong reactions going on, then we're locked into our instinct.
So, Gurudeva's trying to help us not make decisions through the powers of the intellect or the instinctive mind but rather make important decisions through contacting our intuition. So this is talking about very important decisions not: What shall we have for dinner tonight? Let's see I have to be in the moment. No, this is important decisions and that comes up in a minute here.
"The best thing in making a decision is: when in doubt, do nothing. Have the subject matter so clearly in mind, so well thought out, that soon the answer will be self-evident to you. There will be just no other way to go. Good, positive decisions bring good, positive action and, of course, positive reactions. Decisions that are not well worked out--we jump into experiential patterns haphazardly or emotionally--bring reactions of an emotional nature that again have to be lived through until we cease to be aware of them and experience them emotionally."
We have two important thoughts on this paragraph:
"...Have the subject matter clearly in mind, well thought out." Sometimes the best way to do that is to write it down. Cause when situations are complex or have some aspect that's emotional attached to it, it's hard to be objective about it. It's hard to see the matter clearly. We tend to see part of it only. When writing it down we objectify it. Write it down and then come back to it the next day and look at what you wrote down and you'll probably find it's fairly incomplete. Say: I left all of that out. Add that to it, you look at it the following day and can keep adding to it, objectify it. State the decision quite clearly.
And when that's done: "The answer will be self-evident," says Gurudeva.
You state the problem clearly enough, detailed enough, the answer comes right to you. It's the lack of clarity and detail about the problem that makes it hard to solve.
And then decisions that are not well worked out, when we jump into something haphazardly or emotionally, usually we're making a decision when we're in an emotional state. And that's all right for small decisions but a major decision in life we don't want to take a chance. You know, it's hard to undo major decisions. We don't want to take a chance by thinking we're doing the right thing but deciding it when we're still upset or emotional.
For a significant upset Gurudeva says it takes 72 hours or three days to calm down. It takes that long when we get seriously upset. So, if we get seriously upset it means we shouldn't make an important decision for three days. And if we get upset again during those three days then we have to postpone it.
So, this next one is very interesting:
"Each decision is the foundation for the next series of experiences. When you are in a sequential series of experiential patterns, you are not making decisions at that time. Only when your experiential pattern has come to an end, and you're ready for a new set of experiences in certain areas of your life, those are the times when you make new decisions. Weigh carefully each decision, because that is the rudder that guides your ship through the whole pattern of life."
So, that's very interesting. It's saying there's not that many key decisions in our life. They only come up now and then. Maybe once a decade, once every two decades. We don't make that many crucial decisions in our life that really direct us. Common one is we change career, maybe in mid-life when we're 35 to 45; we change career once. That's a major decision; it has consequences. Decisions regarding retirement are major decisions, that have consequences. We just make them once and then we follow the decision so it's pointing out that these decisions are few, the major ones, and therefore, it's quite clear that they need to be made carefully.
"Think it over carefully. Go in for intuitive guidance. And nobody knows better than yourself, your own superconscious being, what is to be the next set of experiential patterns for you to go through in your quest for enlightenment. It's all based on decisions. Don't expect someone to make decisions for you. They are second-hand, not the best. Others maybe can give a little bit of advice or supply a different perspective or added information for you to make a better decision. But the decision you make yourself in any matter is the most positive, most powerful one, and should be the right one. Do it from the eternity of the moment. That is the state of awareness to hold."
Thank you very much. Wonderful day.
[End of transcript.]