There is a huge variety of different techniques, methods, exercises, and practices.
All of this can be combined under the conventional name “tools.”
Each tool has its own purpose and function. In this article, we will discuss the criteria for choosing tools for self-knowledge and self-development, as well as the approaches people choose for using them.
Choosing a tool is an individual matter
As each person develops, they form their own personal “suitcase” (set) of tools. Its contents are strictly individual.
The contents of your toolbox will depend on your personal experience, individual characteristics, and the resonance that certain tools evoke in you.
Countless paths lead to God (the Source, the Universe), including tools.
It does not matter which path you choose to take, whether direct or roundabout, fast or slow. Only one thing matters – sooner or later you will end up where you are heading.
The main purpose of tools
Depending on the stage of life you are living through and your level of development, you choose the tools that help you personally.
Here a natural question arises: tools help – with what?
The main purpose of all tools is help in self-knowledge. Tools are needed to help you find out what is inside you, who you are, and what you came with into this incarnation.
It does not matter what the tool is that helps you in exploring yourself.
Self-knowledge is a continuous process, a lifelong process. Having removed the next layer of delusions, limitations, and grievances, you discover the next one behind it.
As you grow, the tools change. However, this does not mean that one tool is better than another.
In a certain sense, each tool is ideal for a specific stage of development.
See also Spiritual development, evolution, and imitation of development — what is the difference — [answers to questions]
Two main approaches to using tools
Regardless of the type of tools, there are different approaches to using them.
Thus, there is a category of people who, at a certain stage, take a tool, extract the maximum from it, and move on.
Often such people evolve rapidly, using different tools at different stages of life (for different tasks).
Having used one tool and obtained a result, these people move on.
When they feel that the tool is not giving the expected effect (it is not working), they try and apply the next one.
For example, those who work with the theme of forgiveness sooner or later come to the tool of radical forgiveness (proposed in Colin Tipping’s book “Radical Forgiveness”).
Having worked through a specific trauma, you ask yourself what else prevents you from loving more, being happy.
As answers to this question unfold, other tools emerge that will serve your new goals and development tasks.
There is another category of people who sort through (try) different tools and accumulate them quantitatively.
Such a fascination with quantity may indicate a fear of going deep into oneself and a lack of an inner core.
Such “experts” are often encountered, whose track record includes a huge number of different methods, tools, and accolades.
The ability to go deep is poorly compatible with the desire to skim the surface.
See also: Suitcase of Spiritual Tools. Practices for any occasion
In this material, we offer our own version – a “skeleton” of basic universal practices that will suit everyone.
To each tool its own time
Regardless of the chosen approach – the direct or winding path – you are still moving towards your destination (developing).
Each person, based on their stage of life, chooses the tool that resonates with them today. Tomorrow you may choose a different tool.
Probably everyone was once into Feng Shui. It is a wonderful tool that helps organize space properly and teaches how to manage spatial energy.
But if you get stuck only at the level of Feng Shui, this tool can turn into a symbolic “crutch,” constantly leaning on which you unlearn how to walk on your own.
For example, you are staying in a new place where you have no opportunity to position your bed according to Feng Shui. Obsessing over the thought of your “incorrect” placement in space, you lose sleep and eventually fall into depression.
Thus, instead of managing your own state independently, you hand over the reins to the tool.
The tool ceases to expand you and instead turns into a serious limitation.
See also: Quantum Leap: What is holding you back from it
Let us recall how the evolution of human consciousness occurs.
Information and tools – how to choose
When you read or listen to information, be prepared to encounter fragments that, like missing puzzle pieces, harmoniously fit into your worldview. These are pieces that instantly become your truth.
Sometimes you come across fragments of information that seem unclear. They do not cause rejection, but they are not instantly accepted as “yours.”
One sign of such information may be its tendency to slip from memory: you write down these fragments, but they fade from your mind. You are unable to reproduce this information.
To make working with such information easier, you can transform it to suit yourself. For example, choose those components and those ways of presenting this information that are comfortable for your inner self and fit into your worldview.
The same analogy can be drawn with tools. There are excellent tools. But that does not mean that these excellent tools are yours, that they are perfectly suited to you personally.
The most excellent tool can cause an inner feeling of discomfort in you.
As with information, so with tools — you can transform any tool to suit yourself so that it becomes “yours.”
In this way, you will extract from this tool that very missing puzzle piece that has value for you personally. If the tool causes obvious internal resistance, set it aside.
This does not mean it is bad. Perhaps it is simply not your tool.
See also Information overload. 3 reasons to do an information detox
Criteria for choosing tools in the context of religions, faith
If you are a religious person, the religious attributes of faith will work for you.
If the topic of channeling and channels resonates with you, the attributes of this direction will work for you.
Religion and channeling fit into different worldviews.
It does not matter what your worldview is; what will work for you is what you personally believe in (what is part of your worldview). “According to your faith, it will be done to you.”
Thus, you choose tools that resonate with you. Tools from someone else’s worldview will not work for you. They must speak the same language as you.
See also: What is the true purpose of spiritual practices
Guidelines for finding your tool
When you feel that any direction/tool is not close to you, it may indicate that you are looking for something that is NOT close to you.
Look for resonance – what resonates with you – as you are today.
Focus on your uniqueness, on your current values and current understanding of yourself and your worldview.
There are always tools that will resonate with you. They may turn out to be “disposable” or become your “permanent” tools.
Listen to the cycle of live broadcasts “Cosmic Laws” to lay the foundation for your new worldview.
In the second part of the article on this topic, we will talk about responsibility for using tools, when practices and methods for development become crutches, and in general about the importance of applying knowledge in practice. Don’t miss the announcement in the newsletter.
Please share with us: by what parameters do you choose tools for self-knowledge and spiritual development, and what do you focus on?
The article is based on a broadcast from the #conversation_on_the_couch section “About Tools”