8 – Habits and Tendencies

Nevertheless, resistance evolving from habit and gravity will appear in him. It is by understanding what is at stake for him that he will be able to succeed in summoning up his interest to surmount these refusals which will continually arise in him for a long time yet.

The Law of Attention – Chapter 35

A person’s thoughts and way of sensing himself are like the flowing waters of a river. Once the river has taken a certain direction and traced its path, it will through habit continue to run in this particular direction and unceasing]y dig more deeply into its bed unless something is done deliberately to change its course.
One can thus understand that, just as the waters of a river will continue to flow in and dig ever more deeply into the bed that has been traced by all the former waters that passed in this direction, unless diverted by some deliberate outside act, so it is with humankind’s way of being and the way of being of all other living creatures. They will continue to proceed along the path they had initially taken, unceasingly increasing and intensifying this trend, unless something happens to make them alter it.

Awakening : a Matter of Life or Death – Chapter 13

The perpetual rhythmical repetitions in the Universe and Nature—such as the Sun’s circular orbit around the centre of the Milky Way; of the Earth around the Sun; of the Moon around the Earth; the cyclical return of the seasons; of day and night, and so on—reveal themselves to be vital necessities in establishing the balance essential for the appearance of species, their perpetuation and survival.
However, at the very heart of these constant repetitive movements with which She is occupied, Great Nature keeps on looking to create new life forms, in search of something that the human being cannot comprehend from his customary levels of being and consciousness.
This process of repetition and change makes a renewal possible—which unavoidably implies the impermanence of any manifested creation—through which She can pursue her search for a form of perfection which she tries to achieve so mysteriously with a view to meeting an enigmatic need of the Infinite. Yet, contrary to Great Nature who, in her tireless search for improvement, is forever moving, the human being has an unfortunate tendency towards inertia which, once he has learned or experimented with something, drives him, despite himself, to be satisfied with what he believes he has understood.
There exists a profound intelligence in everything Great Nature does and behind these mysterious repetitions which take place in the river of existence; a quite specific intelligence which is lacking in the human being. Therefore, as far as the latter is concerned, repetitions end up putting him to sleep ! Once he has thought, said or done something, the uncontrollable impulse arises in him to repeat it; but these continual repetitions end up being mechanical, which has the effect that what he thinks, says and does, becomes, to his detriment, devoid of life and thus cannot fit in with the reality of the different situations in which he finds himself.

Fruits of  Awakening – Chapter 1

At the beginning of this plunging into herself, a plunging into a world that is still so strange to her, it is very difficult for her to understand that the reason why, after having made the necessary efforts to become more conscious of herself, she falls back into her ordinary state of being is that she is in a hurry to find herself again as she ordinarily knows herself; it is a state of being that has become familiar to her, in which she has the impression of being safe and which, at bottom, perhaps without admitting it to herself, she likes. In fact, if she wishes to be honest with herself, everything that is not habitual alarms her.

In the Silence of the Unfathomable – Chapter 15

It is essential for the aspirant to understand that, without his realizing it, his manner of being, acting, thinking, feeling and seeing life, also not forgetting the kinds of desire which he carries in himself, which are generally never called into question, all become through their repetition, habits that unbeknownst to him, he will take with him to his death.
If he is destined for reincarnation, he will come back into existence bringing with him his habits of the past which, through their constant repetition, will engender the very same conditions of recurrence. He will thus find himself in the same situations from one incarnation to another, filled with the same kinds of desires, irresistibly attracted to the same people (or types of person), devoting himself to the same activities which he formerly held dear, etc., all holding him a prisoner of recurrence—and precisely from which he must free himself if he wishes to attain Nirvana or the “Kingdom of Heaven.”

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