Looking for some common-sense deep psychology? Try reading the early Jesus-followers. Try this insight from James in his circular letter to the first gatherings of followers. This also gives us some insight into the first churches. Their problems were not unlike ours.
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
My current meditation teacher is leading us into exploration of thoughts and feelings in our sits. We learn to sit in awareness and observe. Then, perhaps, we label those thoughts and feelings—memories, plans, imaginings, for example. We learn that these things arise. We also learn to observe and recognize them. But not to let them monopolize us.
Do we desire something? Recognize it. Deal with it. Let it drift away. Through awareness we prevent it from grabbing our inner powers and derailing our spiritual path.
Let us check our motives and desires. Are we focused only on ourselves? Are we focused on what we desire for others? That’s entirely different. Evaluate your motives. Intentionally push them toward God’s wishes.
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