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Question: Willpower and discipline lead to self-realization!?
Its easy to know the right (or responsible) decisions to make, but so much harder to make it!.
This is because the majority of the time, what we WANT to do is not necessarily what we SHOULD do!.
Quieting our urges and desires and doing the right things is how we develop good habits, and is called "Breaking down resistance"!.
Doing this takes willpower and discipline!. So then, exercising these two qualities are the biggest steps in being all that we can be!.
What are your thoughts!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Willpower and discipline are two very strong tools in the hands of individual but self realization is much beyond!.
For example ice-water-vapours are same water molecules only but power of water molecules in vapour form is much more!.
similarily as a normal person we live our life like ice, our thought process remains very narrow and live our life in a very restricted manner!. In our day to day activities we have forgotten ourselves!. our real power!. We forgot that we are always connected to the infinity, almighty, to our real power house, to the creator of this world!.
When we know the reality, by and by understand the same, start feeling and the day comes we realise!.
we need not to quiting the urges and desire, a shift in thought process takes place and mode of desires change!. urges and desires are fulfilled without affecting you!. You enjoy the every moment by doing your work normally with great pleasure!. Even during tough times you remain undisturbed!.
Your own power increases like water molecules in vapour form!.
we understand the nature and reality very well and do our activities in tuned, and get better results!. Www@QuestionHome@Com
Willpower and discipline are good as far as they go but just read the history of almost all the wars and you will see that their trigger was an individual with great willpower and discipline!. Queen Isabella, The British Royals, Alexander, and Genghis Khan are just some salient examples!. They did not build empires!. They rampaged and murdered their way into other kingdoms to then lord over empires!. They brutalized and killed countless numbers of people who were just trying to make their way in life!.
They all suffered from the same delusion, so rampant in todays world, namely that our lives are separate from each other!. Intellectually we know that we are connected in a vast web of life, but our eyes do not see the connections and visual input overrides even traumatic knowledge!.
So what is needed is willpower, discipline and a philosophy based on reality rather than deluding input from our eyes and from other people who are just as confused!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I'm experiencing self-realization all the time!. I'm extremely aware of myself and I lack the correct willpower and self discipline I need to always do what's best for me!. So, I feel that you must become aware of self first to be able to find the willpower and and begin to discipline oneself!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Lead to neurosis!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
That is ALMOST exactly correct!. I am not a philosopher, rather I am a spiritual person, and this is exactly the approach I take in life!. The only thing that would make your argument complete is faith and trust in Jesus Christ!.
also, in addition to the struggle to overcome our desires is the struggle to overcome our fears!. Sometimes we do the wrong things because of our fear of the unknown, our fear of what will occur after we make a decision!. I see fear as another form of resistance!. (Funny, I have a blog and use that exact term!.!.!. had no idea it was a philosophical term!) I think this fear lies in the urge to fulfill our desires as well!. We fear that if we do not choose to realize our desires (and reject the right choice), then how will they ever become realized!? Will we ever get what we want if we do not take it for ourselves, albeit such a choice may be wrong within the context of a situation!?
That is why faith is so crucial!. Faith in God quells our fears!. We may not know the unknown, what is to come after making the right decision and rejecting the wrong one, but Jesus Christ does!.
Faith is the key to making this argument complete!. With faith in the mix, I totally agree with what you said,
I think all of these things summed together make for an individual who is highly aware of his/her own weaknesses and strengths, who is honest with him/herself about the true nature of situations (rather than adopting a state of denial), who has good morals, and thus strives to do what is right, for others interests and his/her own!.
AND to comment on the post above - He said, "So what is needed is willpower, discipline and a philosophy based on reality rather than deluding input from our eyes and from other people who are just as confused!." This was a very good observation!. I just want to help support it!. All credit to him for initial observation!.
I agree with that statement!. I also agree that willpower and discipline have been used for war and terror!. BUT, I would mark this as a wrong application of these traits!. As you wrote above, true self-realization is achieved when a person applies willpower/discipline to break down the resistance WITHIN THEMSELVES, that resistance being desires/fears that keep them from doing what is right!. Therefore, as our friend above wrote, they must possess a moral standard of what is right, and not adjust their gauge of morality to a twisted ideology!.
Best wishes to you for a life of willpower and discipline, mate!Www@QuestionHome@Com