Implementation
Implementation means converting the healthy conclusions of your self-evaluation into action. Implementation uproots the causes of self-induced suffering...
Implementation means converting the healthy conclusions of your self-evaluation into action. Implementation uproots the causes of self-induced suffering by making the needed changes for a happier life.
Stage Three: Implementation
Once you've started to observe your environment and to evaluate yourself, you're ready to add stage three, implementation. Implementation means converting the healthy conclusions of your self-evaluation into action. Implementation uproots the causes of self-induced suffering by making the needed changes for a happier life.
Implementers are always close to God. Here's why:
Premeditated implementation is the opposite of impulsive behavior. Impulsive behavior leads to speech and action with no previous forethought. Implementation, on the other hand, is the result of self-evaluation. Self-evaluation is one's personal mental courtroom.
The mind and the Divine soul take active participation in self-evaluation. The Divine soul is a timeless, infinite part of God within a person. Therefore, when a person acts after thorough self-evaluation, he or she translates a Divine thought into an earthly, physical action. Such a person includes God in his or her carefully premeditated action, and therefore succeeds.
Impulsive people neutralize and paralyze their own minds and Divine souls. Impulsive speech and behavior are usually the result of base inclinations. For example, when a person "puts his foot in his mouth", in other words, when he or she speaks without thinking, the evil inclination is responsible.
The only thing worse than impulsive speech is an impulsive deed. As we learned previously in Chapter Four, the evil inclination does everything he can to prevent a person from mental composure. When a person loses composure, he or she makes mistakes. Composure is therefore a critical prerequisite for self-evaluation and premeditation.
Impulsive speech and behavior are frequently responsible for self-induced suffering. Implementation takes the reins of a person's life out of the irresponsible hands of the evil inclination, and raises one's speech and deeds to a higher spiritual level. As such, implementation mends the damage done by one's evil inclination.
The end result of a deed is determined by initial forethought. – Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, 17th Century Kabbalist and scholar, Safed
Let's take another look at the respective cases of Don Adams and of Margie Wilson, and see how they implemented their mental-court decisions.
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Stage
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Don Adams
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Margie Wilson
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Observation
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I'm blessed with superb income and health. When I really want to do something, I make the time.
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How ugly when people prefer a chunk of metal to a human being.
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Self-evaluation
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If I were truly grateful for my own blessings, I'd be more sensitive to the needs of others. I have to work on that point.
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I'm guilty! I did to my daughter what the company did to me. I'm so ashamed of myself.
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Implementation
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Immediate return call to the charity fund, a generous pledge, and same-day payment.
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Surprise visit to Pamela, apology, care package, overall propitiation, and reconciliation.
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The three stages of observation, self-evaluation, and implementation will prevent your life from looking like a slapstick movie of unfortunate mishaps.
Section Two: Common causes of self-induced suffering
An ounce of prevention is preferable to a pound of cure. This section of our chapter illustrates some common causes of self-induced suffering. By familiarizing ourselves with harmful, trouble-inducing behavior and speech, we learn to stay away from trouble. Attaining inner peace begins with preventing the type of troubles that incur anger and suffering.
Let's preface this section with a question that people frequently ask:
When I suffer, is God punishing me?
Many people have the mistaken notion that suffering comes from a vengeful God. Nothing is further from the truth.
When a father reprimands his six-year-old son for eating an excess of taffy, is he vengeful? Certainly not. The child at this point of life lacks sense, and has not yet experienced the double trauma – to his mouth and to his bank account – of a root canal and an expensive crown. The father wishes to spare the son of future suffering. The child's short-term sorrow at losing his candy and being scolded by his father are much less painful than a rotten-toothed future.
On the surface, the father appears to be cruel, depriving little freckle-nosed Harvey of his piece of taffy. On the long term, the father is the epitome of compassion. He is saving his son from future painful injections to the gums, uncomfortable drilling in the mouth, repeated visits to the dentist's office, and the exorbitant amount of time and money consumed in the process.
God desires to save us – His beloved children – the horrible fate of spiritual decay that leads to spiritual "cavities", impure blemishes in our Divine souls. Aggravation and suffering are designed to awaken us from our spiritual slumber, and to initiate a process of self-evaluation so we can correct what needs to be corrected. Just as a toothache conveys the message that we need to check our teeth immediately, life's difficulties are Heavenly memos telling us to evaluate ourselves and to repair the flaws in our behavior.
The minute we react properly to The Almighty's "telegram" – a particular stimulus of anguish – and we make an effort to mend our ways, no further telegram is needed. Consequently, the source of aggravation disappears from our lives, as we learned in section one of this chapter. The nasty foreman or the nagging wife suddenly makes an about face. We no longer have a reason to be angry!
The "ATFAT" Principle – A Turn for a Turn
"ATFAT" is the abbreviation of "A turn for a turn". In other words, The Almighty treats us in the same fashion that we treat others. The ATFAT principle, like all the other magnificent methods that The Almighty uses to run the world, is evident both in the laws of physics and in the laws of metaphysics, or more simply stated, both in the material world and in the spiritual world.
ATFAT is one of the first laws a beginning physics student learns: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, the greater the rear combustion of a jet engine, the greater the forward thrust of the airplane. Or, the more an archer draws the bowstring, the more distant the flight of the arrow.
The spiritual world functions in the same way. A person reaps what he or she sows. God programs the world in this way for educational purposes. The cause and effect relationship between candy consumption and dental cavities, or between smoking and lung cancer, is identical to the cause and effect relationship between creating anguish for one's fellow man and suffering anguish in return.
By utilizing the three-stage plan of observation, self-evaluation, and implementation, we harness our mental faculties to understand the root of our suffering. Once we uproot the cause, suffering vanishes. Once the suffering vanishes, anger evaporates. Once we become accustomed to anger-free lives, then future stress situations don't cause us to lose our composure. We achieve a positive behavioral pattern that leads to tranquility.
Let's examine a case study that illustrates the power of The Three-Stage Plan:
Case study[1]. Mrs. Brown hosted a weekly study session in spiritual development for the neighbors in her condominium. Eventually, seven ladies became regular participants, and each made significant spiritual gain. Mrs. Black became jealous of Mrs. Brown's status as group leader and spiritual guide, and one-by-one, convinced the other participants that Mrs. Brown lacks competence and expertise.
Mrs. Black initiated a scheme to humiliate Mrs. Brown. After the first few minutes of a subsequent group meeting, Mrs. Black stood up and said, "I'm sorry, but this meeting is terribly boring." The other participants stood up as well, and all seven ladies left the meeting. The humiliation was devastating. Nevertheless, Mrs. Brown forgave the others in her heart. She sincerely bore no malice.
Within ten days, Mrs. Black's two-year-old daughter was hospitalized with a strange infection in her bladder.
Mrs. White, another of the participants who failed to protest against the sinister humiliation of Mrs. Brown, spilled boiling water on her three-year-old son, who was hospitalized with second-degree burns. Mrs. Gray's three-year-old daughter contracted meningitis. Mrs. Green's two-year-old son broke a leg. Instead of devoting their time to spiritual development, the former participants of the class were now devoting their time to hospital visits and sick children.
Mrs. Gray's child was regressing terribly. She was the only member of the group who utilized the Three-Stage Plan to make a connection between the humiliation of Mrs. Brown and the sick children. Her child's situation was critical. Mrs. Gray left the hospital and her child's bedside, and raced over to Mrs. Brown's house; she threw herself at Mrs. Brown's feet and begged her forgiveness.
"I don't have to be your spiritual instructor," Mrs. Brown said, "I was only trying to do for my neighbors what others did for me. Keep up your spiritual development, Mrs. Gray; if you don't take your soul away from God, then He certainly won't take your children away from you. Of course I forgive you, and you have my blessing for your child's speedy recovery."
To the amazement of the entire medical staff at the local hospital, Mrs. Gray's child made a dramatic comeback, and regained full health within a few weeks.
Mrs. Gray shared her observation, self-evaluation, and implementation with the other ladies. As soon as the others apologized to Mrs. Brown and received her forgiveness, their children also overcame their respective sicknesses. Even Mrs. Black asked Mrs. Brown's forgiveness. But, as the instigator of the whole unfortunate affair, her child continued to suffer from inexplicable periodic infections. Only after Mrs. Brown prayed fervently in behalf of Mrs. Black's daughter, did the child recover completely from the bladder ailment.
To be continued…
(The Trail to Tranquility is available in the Breslev Store.)
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[1] Names are circumstances changed for obvious reasons; the author personally witnessed the chain of events described here, as spiritual guide and counselor for "Mrs. Brown".
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