Inner Peace Is the Foundation and Basis for Spiritual Growth

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When the spiritual seeker begins
to recognize all of the

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difficulties and obstacles in
his own external being and

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understands the need to reduce
and remove these obstacles if

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there is to be any permanent and
major progress, he may begin by

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struggling with the desires, the
movements that arise, the

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thoughts that harass his mind.
There is no end to these

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difficulties, so if he becomes
fixated on them, he can distract

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himself from the
transformational work of

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shifting his focus to the
spiritual realms and the energy

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that they make available.
At some point he comes to

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recognize that this is a
thankless task that does not

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bring any finality to the
process.

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It is something like the 5th
labor of Hercules when he was

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required to clean out the Augean
stables.

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The story goes, the King Ogios
had a stable that had housed

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3000 oxen for a period of 30
years and it had never been

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cleaned out.
Reminds us of our vital nature.

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Having picked up many bad
habitual practices over the

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course of millennia, he said
Hercules the task of cleaning

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out this stable.
Of course, if he started at one

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end and worked at it
systematically, by the time he

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completed one round the 30,000
oxen would have recreated the

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mess and he would have to start
over again.

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We see here the issue of trying
to clean up the vital nature

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through detailed attention and
action, as it never actually

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gets clean.
Hercules had another approach to

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what was deemed to be an
impossible task.

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He redirected the flow of a
couple of rivers through the

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stables and quickly cleaned out
the entire stables.

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This is a reminder to the
spiritual seeker that it is the

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higher spiritual force that has
the true purifying power and

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that reliance on our own mental,
vital physical being and its

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limited capabilities does not
work.

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Rather, if we turn our focus to
the spiritual force and become

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receptive to its action, it
alone has the power to cleanse

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and purify the vital nature,
whereas the focus on the

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physical, vital and mental
obstacles can cause considerable

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disruption and consternation.
The opening to the spiritual

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force brings with it the inner
peace, which becomes the true

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foundation of the yogic
practice, Srioro Bindo writes.

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Quote The Spire, concentrate in
the right spirit, and whatever

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the difficulties you are sure to
attain, the aim you have put

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before you.
It is in the peace behind that

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you must learn to live and feel
it, to be yourself.

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You must regard the rest as not
your real self, but only a flux

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of changing or recurring
movements on the surface which

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are sure to go as the true self
emerges.

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Peace is the true remedy.
Distraction by hard work is only

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a temporary relief, although a
certain amount of work is

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necessary for the proper balance
of the different parts of the

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being.
If you get peace, then to clean

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the vital becomes easy.
If you simply clean and clean

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and do nothing else, you go very
slowly, for the vital gets dirty

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again and has to be cleaned 100
times.

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The peace is something that is
clean in itself, so to get it is

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a positive way of securing your
object to look for dirt only and

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clean is the negative way.
End Quote Reference Shriya

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Robindo and the Mother looking
from within, Chapter 5.

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Attitudes on the Path, page 116.