12187858464?profile=RESIZE_584xBy Mahatma Das

In this article I use the letters X and Y to make my points. X represents either the ideal person we want to be or the ideal goal we wish to achieve. Y represents our conditioned side and acknowledges the reality of being somewhat handicapped in achieving our ideals or even being at a great distance from them. In other words, X is who we want to be and Y is who we are now. In some cases these are polar opposites. Y can even be a self we don’t admit exists, or if we do, a self we detest.

This article will be most meaningful to you if you isolate one X and Y in your life. Thus, when I refer to X and Y, you’ll relate it to your personal X and Y. This will make your reading practical, relevant and more fruitful, rather than simply an intellectual exercise. In order to help you do this, let me explain a little more about what I mean by X and Y.

X is an ideal that our heart hankers for. It represents the best of who we wish to be or the best of what we wish to achieve. There is strong emotion connected to our X. Y is the self whois not the full manifestation of X. Some examples would be:

Wanted to be humble but also wanting or enjoying being honored.
Wanting to live a simple life but being attached to having more than we need
Wanting to live a more renounced life (or in a more renounced āśrama) than we are qualified for.
Wanting to give up certain habits or tendencies that we can’t. Wanting to be initiated but not willing to commit to the vows .
Wanting to be forgiving, but not feeling ready to do it.
Wanting so much to be like a devotee we highly respect but finding ourselves so different from that devotee.

So please choose an XY combo you'd like to explore.

Let’s find out why this happens and how to deal with your X’s and Y’s.

How Does This Play Out in Your Life

When we don’t properly deal with both sides of ourselves, we tend to oscillate between the extremes of our X’s and Y’s. Prabhupada describes this with the words bhoga and tyaga, literally meaning  enjoyment and renunciation. Visvanatha Chakravarti describes a devotee in this stage to be always going back between two extremes, one day giving energy to one side and the other day giving energy to the other side. Do you ever feel like two people in one body? Who are those two people? When you isolate who they are, you have found your X and Y.

Read more: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=111030

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