by Theun Mares:  Many people have a dream that they might one day find a key to tap into the potential they somehow sense is hidden deep inside of them

Awaken

to break free from their limitations and live the life they aspire to.

For many of those who have tried, through workshops or various self-development courses, this remains a mere dream. For, in spite of gaining new insights, they find that their lives, and most especially the way they feel about themselves and their circumstances, have not changed significantly.

For Toltecs, one of the most limiting factors in our lives is whatever we have come to believe, think and feel about ourselves and our world. This programming, of which our social conditioning is the biggest constituent, is known by Toltecs as our View of the World. This is an apt description, since our view of the world acts like a lens, through which we perceive everything in our lives, and through which all of our life experience is filtered.

When we are children, our perception is so much more fluid, free and clear, but as we age our interpretation of the events of our lives and the world becomes much more fixed. It not only closes down, but also becomes muddy and opaque, and we suddenly find that in all our thoughts, feelings, actions, reactions, hopes and fears, we have become enslaved – we have become the victims of our social conditioning.

Possibilities and opportunities that seemed boundless when we were children now appear to be narrower and more limited, and because of these limitations, we find it harder to maintain our balance, a sense of self, and a sense of purpose in our lives. We then wake up to the fact that, instead of being on a journey of adventure and excitement, our life has somehow lost its sense of meaning.

Often this is classified and dismissed as some sort of mid-life crisis – a skip in the groove of our life – that can be overcome. And so people mostly do nothing, or they search for a short while and may find themselves in a slightly different groove. And continue as before. Rare are those individuals who can use the sense of dissatisfaction to fathom their lives, and rediscover true meaning and purpose.

Is there a remedy? Yes, – and this is to undo our social conditioning and dismantle our view of the world. This is part of the journey undertaken by all those who tread the Warrior’s Path.

However, Toltecs have learned over the ages, that just as it takes time to acquire one’s social conditioning, to construct and to concretise one’s view of the world, so does it also take time to undo the effects of one’s social conditioning and to dismantle this view of the world. Therefore, in spite of what some people may profess, there are no quick or easy solutions.

What’s more, Toltecs have learned through experience, that even if there were easy and quick solutions, these would not be advisable or desirable. The reason for this is that life is a journey. Everything upon our journey has a gift. A vital part of our journey on the Warrior’s Path is learning how to extract those gifts as we dismantle our view of the world. If we avoid extracting those gifts, not only do we fail to enhance our awareness, but we also invalidate or deny our life’s experiences. If we do not enhance our awareness we might as well remain as cabbages, and denial is a far cry from breaking free from our limitations.

Through learning how to dismantle our view of the world, and to extract the gifts of power, we are able to claim the knowledge or power that our life has given us and we can begin to see our life in its proper perspective. In this way we can truly release the grip of our past and shape our future, free from our self-imposed limitations.

Source: AWAKEN