The Power of the Inner Self

THE POWER OF THE INNER SELF

Awakening the Spirit Within

Bringing Great Peace and Calm, Kindness and Gentleness, Love and Forgiveness, Patience, Perseverance, and Self-Control Into Your Daily Life

John C. Lehner

-- The Power of the Inner Self --

What Lies Behind Us and What Lies Before Us are Small Matters Compared to What Lies Within Us

R. W. Emerson

No matter who you are, whatever your background or religion, you can easily escape from the dominance of and the addiction to worldly thought. This occurs through The Power of your Inner Self its Spirit which was gifted to each of us at birth.

A transformation into the reality of your Inner Self is driven by an escape into a quick and simple meditation. From it, you will more easily overcome the pressures of daily life, including its stress and anxiety, anger and hate the thoughts that often dominate your mind even depression.

From this experience, you will quickly develop a personality that contains more peace and calm, kindness, perseverance, and patience. Each produces the selfcontrol you have long desired. The result is “a Newness of Life,” one that is now driven by your mental muscle to more easily project this new personality out unto the world. And by setting an example, others will begin to follow it and the world will be changed, one person at a time.

This book describes a simple method for entering the meditative state allowing readers to easily develop the mental strength to achieve goals they might otherwise have thought too difficult to reach. This Handbook is a confidence builder.

Don Eminizer

Somewhere in my 50s, I began climbing “14teeners" in Colorado and ended up climbing nine of them. These were mountains that were over 14 thousand feet high. Beginning with my first experience, I felt something radically different arising from within and was overcome with a feeling of great peace and calm.

Difficult to describe as are most feelings it was an awareness of something within, yet, somewhat beyond my human/physical self. It was a feeling of something Godly that seemed to be driven by a mind totally empty of worldly thought.

It was a completely new experience, even though I had experienced a similar feeling when I was younger, driving a farm tractor and ploughing the soil. It seemed like a closeness to something beyond yet arising from within my “self.” These feelings were simply an awareness of them completely without thoughtful definition. While climbing these 14teeners, I did have thoughts of the vast creation below and God’s presence within it. This led to thoughts of my own spiritual nature and its eternity somewhere beyond this earthly life. Interestingly, during this same time, I had walked down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and had the same escape into something beyond, but also within, my “self.”

A short time later, I experienced this same feeling simply by reading God’s Word slowly and without intentional thought. It was, again, a dominant feeling of complete “unthoughtfulness.”

It was an awareness/feeling of wholeness my physical, mental, and spiritual self all in one. It was just an experience indescribable and undefined but yet, an “awareness” of my total “self.”

These experiences were a great revelation about something Spiritual and Godly that produced a feeling vastly different from the one of my humanness.

And from this, I experienced a “Newness of Life,” one that contained more peace and calm, more than I had never known. For sure, I was changed and felt the reality of something more spiritual than human.

Later, these same experiences were driven by lightly thinking about something beyond myself God. It was a complete escape from the dominating thoughts of this worldly life. Arising without great intentionality, it was a different experience that produced a feeling of spiritualness, yet it was contained within my humanness.

Also, during this same time frame, I developed the concept of “spiritual muscle.” One that resulted from the first commandment that Jesus Christ left for us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 1 For the first time in my life, the word “strength” stunned me, and I felt its impact.

At that point, I began writing a book about what seemed to be my own spiritual nature. I quickly realized that some of my experiences were a simple form of “Meditation.” And then, this book that you are reading, “The Power of the Inner Self,” became a reality.

Shortly thereafter, I had a strong urge to bring this spiritual concept of my Inner Self to others and decided to start a “jail ministry” so that the prisoners could also live in this worldly life with more peace and calm.

Many lives were changed. For sure, this was accomplished by the power and influence of the God-given Spirit within them. If these men can experience a “Newness of Life” through a simple meditative experience, so can you. It’s a life with more love and forgiveness, more patience and perseverance more Inner Muscle.

1. Mark 12:30

Most fundamentally, this Handbook describes the power and influence of my own spiritual experiences as well as those encountered when working with almost 3,000 men in my jail ministry. As a result, I have described a very simple and practical approach for awakening your Inner Spirit an experience that brings a “Newness of Life” upon you too.

To more easily understand the power and influence of this “Inner Spirit,” read the dramatic accounts of how this can happen on the website: “spiritualmuscle.com.” These reports were written by two prisoners with whom I have met many times, men whose lives became dominated by great peace and calm. You can read them by scrolling down to the section: “Real Life Stories.” One of them is also presented here in this Handbook on page 115 and another sepate one on page 13.

Many readers also have personal experiences about which I would like to read. Therefore, a special email Personal Experiences has been created under the heading “Contact” on this same website, where you can submit them and thereby possibly contribute to another, more “reader-driven” book dedicated to this topic.

This present Handbook is about the spiritual nature of the human self. It is the most basic characteristic of earthly existence and is the foundation upon which the concept of mindfulness as in other religions is built. It is this spirituality that drives all human development.

So, again, anyone can have a simple meditative experience. One that further develops, reinforces, and brings forth a Newness of Life containing the personal characteristics listed on the cover of this Handbook. And from these experiences, the most basic self its Spiritualness—becomes the main driver of your daily life.

The resulting transformation away from your human self can happen even if you don’t completely understand who this Spirit is or know anything about it. And further, even if you can’t explain the resulting experience or feeling, it remains real and personal to your “self.”

On the following page is an image of a six-winged angel as described in the Holy Bible.1 Two wings covered his face. Two covered his feet and two with which he flew. It is used here in this Handbook only as a representation of your Inner Spirit and is not the image of the Spirit itself.

In addition, below the image is a short description and application of the concept of “worldly thought.” It is from this thought that we want to escape and have an experience of our inner selves and its meditations.

1. Isaiah 6:2

• Worldly thought often fills your mind with more than it can handle, like events at work, at home, and everything in between including an addiction, be it mental or physical.

• Most often, excessive thought is driven by an event in which others are involved. But, at times, it can arise totally from within the self.

• The simple process of escaping from these thoughts brings you into the spiritual reality of your Inner Self and into a Newness of Life, one that contains more of the characteristics listed on the cover of this Handbook.

Living and walking in the Spirit is as simple as being thoughtfully active in the Spirit. This is done by shifting your mind if only for a moment or two—into simple and short spiritual thoughts, and of God. Immediately, the spiritual awareness dominates your mind. Being in the Spirit, however, is not limited to a mental thought. It can also be experienced by performing a good deed unto others. Usually, this deed is right in front of you or will be at some point throughout the day.

Basically, this spiritual awareness in which you are walking and living is an escape from the dominance of worldly thought. And the experience of it can be brought about by intentionally repeating/chanting unto your “self” simple words like love, peace, forgiveness, and others of a personal and spiritual nature.

In addition, a short phrase like: “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” 1 or “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” 2 can also be repeatedly chanted. Even shorter phrases can be used, and some are drawn from these phrases, like: “in the Spirit,” “keep the unity,” or “the bond of peace.”

For me, a simple thought of something in nature can also lead to an abiding relationship with God, who is the Creator, Redeemer, and Comforter of us all no matter who we are. And from this simple beginning, an escape into my Spiritual Self immediately becomes a reality.

The Spiritual Personality Love

Each of us has loved our children, our parents, and our friends. Primarily, love is an awareness of a personal relationship. It arises from within the heart and soul and flows into the mind a feeling that sometimes occurs just for a few minutes and at other times for longer.

A simple thought brings me into my spirituality and away from my human/worldly self. Again, my spiritualness is something that is primarily experiential beyond thought. So, to have your own experience of it:

“Fix your eyes [mind] not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 1

As a result, you will be transformed away from the dominance of worldly thought and be consumed by the peace and calm you are seeking a feeling of wholeness coupled with a sense of belonging an experience of the Inner Self.

Spirituality Like the Wind

The simple exchange of worldly thought for spiritual thought produces an awareness of self that the Inner Spirit immediately brings into reality. In searching for a better understanding of it, I found that this feeling is somewhat like the wind, as Jesus Christ has described:

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 2

The Spirit goes “where it wishes,” and you don’t know “where it comes from and where it goes. ” You do know, however, that as one who was created in God’s image, you are “born of the Spirit.” As it awakens, you can feel the spiritual nature of your “Inner Self” overcome you.

Interestingly, the wind cannot be captured or contained, but it can be felt. So it is with your own spirituality. The presence of this Inner Spirit like the wind is constantly in and around you, for:

“In Him we live and move and have our being.” 1

Often, this Inner Spirit is or becomes the Holy Spirit. There are many ways the Holy Spirit can come upon someone, the most common of which is through Baptism with water. There are, however, other methods, one of which is simply by hearing the Word of God.2 An additional method is through prayer as described by Luke another Apostle of Jesus Christ:

3

So, it’s possible that most people can have the Holy Spirit within them simply by praying for Him even if the prayer is by someone else. And again, a full understanding of this concept is not necessary. God can do anything if not, He wouldn’t be God.

The New Personality – Driven by the Power of the Inner Self

From within your abiding/chanting and the resulting meditations the Holy Spirit will begin molding the basic personality of your Inner Self. This occurs when you start to more actively seek and then receive at least in part these “Christlike Characteristics:”

- Love, Forgiveness, Faithfulness, and Goodness

- Kindness, Gentleness, Patience, and Perseverance

- Each leading to more Self-Control 4

Unfortunately, throughout most of my life, I had failed to call on God to help me have these characteristics and use them as I should have. This failure to intentionally fight the good fight with The Power of my Inner Self came about simply because I did not turn away from the more dominant flow of thoughts of my worldly life.

“How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Chapter 2

The Spiritual Transformation

Beginning with a short and quiet chant, the mind quickly exchanges the worldly for the spiritual. This is a transformation into an experience of the Inner Self. As this Inner Spirit awakens, your mind is filled with an awareness of your spiritual and eternal nature. This is the reality of the breadth and depth of your Inner/Spiritual Self as you are now:

No longer “conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind” 1 . . . “that you might be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” 2

However different or seemingly incomplete this experience, it remains real and personal. This is an experience of your spiritualness in which you live and move, and work. This is your true, complete self. What is most important is that you avoid any thoughtful analysis of it letting the experience be as it is different, undefined, and personal.

Primarily, it is excessive thought that prevents this spiritual awareness from arising into consciousness. As stated earlier, the overanalysis of the daily life always block-out an entry into the meditative state. And if a worldly thought returns, this escape into an inner awareness can easily be brought back with more chanting. Again, it’s actually that simple.

So be patient thinking of something Godly, something spiritual like your Inner Self, a Newness of Life, a life beyond this worldly life, and the concept of spiritual muscle for living with more of the characteristics discussed throughout Handbook.

1. Romans 12:2 2. Colossians 1:9

This transformation away from your human self can happen even if you don’t completely understand who the Spirit really is. Furthermore, even if you can’t explain the experience and the resulting feeling, it remains real unto your “self” and can easily come upon you again.

The experience of a much deeper “Spiritual Meditation” may seem some-what beyond the human mind and it is. Again, the strongest evidence that it actually exists is found in a personal experience of it and not in a thoughtful analysis or an attempted definition of it.

Any meditation however deep, however shallow is like bringing your most basic self into a conscious awareness of itself. The Inner/ Holy Spirit residing within is always available to bring this about, as described in the following verses:

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” 1

“You are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you.” 2

As previously described, the Spirit of God is also like the wind and can’t be seen, but it can be easily felt and awakened because it is always there within the self lying just below the surface of your human existence. The Spirit awakens because you have been:

“Transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 3

chanting again, and the escape will begin to flow once more and come to dominate your mind. So be patient and persevere fight the good fight again and again.

The Spirituality of Belonging

Any type of expression of the Inner Self produces a sense of belonging an identity to something within but also beyond the “self.” It is a personal sense of community an awareness of it and always without a complete definition. It is an identity with anyone who has a spiritual nature one that is driven by an experience of their “eternal circle.” This sense of belonging to something more than your “self” is described by the Apostle Paul:

As a result, we are with each other spiritually simply by thinking of each other, including those whom we do not know. This is a sense of belonging a personal identity that arises from within. Therefore, think of others who have or will have felt the reality of their own spiritual nature as a group, living somewhere throughout your community, even the entire world. Think about them as belonging to the community of us all whom Jesus Christ calls “the church.”

Simply by being in the spirit, we are all together even when we are not physically together. This interrelatedness becomes a personal reality simply by avoiding excessive thought and analysis on any topic, issue, or situation and letting the togetherness flow as a spiritual awareness a personal reality. Again, this experience arises from the relationship within the “eternal circle” of the “self,” and also the “self” of others. More than defined, it’s simply something to be experienced. 1.

“Although absent in the body, I am with you in spirit.” 1

Colossians 2:5

Within this process, the driving force for leading into a meditative experience may be the Worldly Self speaking to the Spiritual Self trying to awaken it. But it may be the other way around, whereby the Spiritual Self is trying to access the Worldly Self.

Whatever the case, it makes no difference. Don’t over-analyze it. Either way, the end result is the same a mind empty of worldly thought but filled with a Godly awareness containing a great peacefulness.

The Spirituality of the Inner Self

If you and I are truly spiritual beings and more than just saying the words we must accept the grounded truth that the Spirit actually lives within us and that it can be awakened. By offering back to God, “the Spirit of your mind,” 1 an awareness of your Inner Self instantly arises into consciousness. It is as simple as the Apostle Paul described; you will be spiritually transformed as you:

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

And that’s the great simplicity of this process that brings you into the meditative state. Again, this is driven by “His Spirit in the inner man”

and woman.

This is an experience of your Spiritual Self. The result of this is to live in this worldly life as a more peaceful and calmer person, projecting outward some of the personal characteristics of Jesus Christ that you now possess—at least some of them.

And from this Newness of Life, you will be breaking away from the stress and anxiety, the drugs and depression, along with other experiences that you want to avoid—such as anger, hate, and revenge.

and be gifted,” the experience. All the while knowing these deeper meditations will return but only on the Holy Spirit’s time schedule, not mine.

Experiencing the Sounds of Silence

The most important essence of God is found within the self its spiritual temple. 1 Unfortunately, your daily life is often driven by an excessive thought of itself, which blocks out the possibility of any meditative experience. This blockage can be overcome through a simple process of slow breathing and repeated chanting of a word or phrase. As a result, peace and calm will come to dominate your mind because you are no longer:

It is from this transformation that the sounds of silence arise. A silence that contains a feeling of wholeness and peacefulness. This experience carries a very clear message that you truly possess something beyond your physical self and that you actually have a spiritual existence within it.

This existence is driven by the inner sounds of silence that quickly bring your “self” into the reality of its own spiritualness. In this Handbook, this experience is called a “spiritual awareness,” and from it, a meditation will come upon you. Again, whether it is deep or shallow makes no difference it is always real and life-changing.

“Conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 2

Chapter 5 Breaking the Pattern of Worldly Thought

The muscle the spiritual muscle developed from this experience is used to “fight the good fight” against the recurrence of worldly thought and its many addictions both mental and physical. Most simply, it is excessive thought that often produces feelings of anxiety and stress, sleeplessness, and the seeking of some form of an escape a drug, alcohol, or other harmful behaviors. Even other addictions such as anger and hate can lead to excessive thoughts of revenge. Unfortunately, revenge produces many different types of behaviors that can lead to jail.

Determining whether anxiety and stress actually lead to anger, hate, and revenge, or if the reverse is true, where anger, hate, and revenge lead to anxiety and stress, is of no value. This determination is a distraction that prevents an escape into the Spiritual Self and its meditative state. Therefore, you should avoid it.

As stated above, this same meditative process can produce an escape from the physical addiction to drugs, alcohol, and medicines at least temporarily. By repeating this escape process, over time, a more permanent cure may be produced.

Most fundamentally, any spiritual awareness is an experience of God’s Holy Spirit, who brings forth inner peace and calm that is described in the words of a more than two-thousand-year-old Testament written by the ancient prophets King David and Isaiah:

“Be still and know that I am God.” 1

“Be silent in the Lord’s presence and wait patiently for him.” 2

“In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” 3

Think on these things but without intensity memorize them, at least in part. Let the personal experience that these words produce flow as it will.

Chapter 7 Avoiding Excessive Thought

The Return of Worldly Thought

Within the meditative experience including the more human entry process your mind may sometimes move back and forth between worldly thought and spiritual awareness. This may occur for only a few moments, and at other times it may be longer. Never think you are on the wrong path. Be patient and persevere. Resist the temptation to think about it. Just continue to repeat and chant the same word or phrase.

Only God Knows

Most often, it is only for God to know the depth and breadth of your meditation. The complete acceptance that His knowledge of your experience is sufficient is a necessary mindset a personal power for avoiding excessive thought and analysis. And from this, you will be able to more quickly experience the reality of your own spiritual nature.

An example of this acceptance is found in the following verse, which is repeated again from page 7 of this Handbook. Here, Paul asks and answers if he were in deep meditation while fully accepting the fact that only God knows:

“In the body, I do not know, or whether out of the body, I do not know, God knows.” 1

To accept this concept of God’s knowing as a practical reality Paul continues by describing his own experiences as being not of himself but gifted of God. To do this, Paul did not over-analyze his “self” spiritual or worldly. He simply submitted to the knowledge and sufficiency of God:

Following Paul’s example, you should avoid any attempt to define the impossible a Spiritual Meditation. You can, however, describe parts of the entry process. For if you can describe the great depths of a meditation in detail you probably didn’t have it. This is because that description meant you were thinking and not letting the experience flow naturally. The simplicity here is as Paul described: “I do not know, God knows.”

The foundation of this acceptance lies in the fact that only God knows of all that exists, was created, will be, and is eternal. Men and Women cannot. They can, however, feel the awareness of God, His creation, and His eternity just by abiding in Him and letting it all flow as it will as an experience of the Inner Self.

Another example of a personal acceptance of “this knowledge and sufficiency of God” is found in the experiences of Elijah and Elisha:

“

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” 1

Usually, the details of a Spiritual Meditation cannot be remembered— simply because they occur at the maximum depth of an empty mind. This is a quiet and peaceful experience of the self with God—an awareness of His presence and His influence upon you, but again, without a thought of it—just an experience.

One exception, however, is that it can sometimes be remembered, but only as a general concept like love, peace, forgiveness, or others. But only sometimes, and even then, with limited comprehension. There are, however, parts of it that may be remembered as the Holy Spirit works His power within you.

In contrast, the memory of a dream has within it a flow of events and experiences. And unlike a dream, Spiritual Meditation always occurs without any knowledge of the flow of events within it but again, at other times, a partial memory may arise. And that is the richness of it an association and encounter with God driven at the outset by the spirituality contained in His Word: a reading, chanting, or just a simple thought.

Any meditative transformation is not only a receptive experience, but it is also an expression of the self the Inner Self that drives the two-way flow of the entry process. Which, again, is the outward flow of selfexpression and the reception of the inward flow of spirituality gifted by the Holy Spirit making Christian Meditation much simpler than in other religions. Plus, Christianity offers an eternal life that others don’t.

Most of my meditative experiences are quick and easy, usually occurring as Contemplative Meditation. This happens simply because a deeper Spiritual Meditation was not brought upon me. I have, however, experienced many at this level they just don’t occur with any regularity.

The Dream

A Dream is a visual in-motion experience, like a movie but the Dream is always an unconscious experience. Unlike a Dream, the Vision is a fully conscious experience. Interestingly, a Dream is usually an experience that cannot be remembered, and when it is, it seems as though it’s only a small part of it.

In these situations, we are fully aware that there exists another part of the Dream that cannot be remembered. It seems like we are living on the edge of it, knowing it is there, but not completely into it and yet, neither are we completely out of it.

Although this unremembered part of a Dream is somewhat beyond our worldly minds, it somehow exists within us, and the awareness of it is always a very real and conscious feeling. It’s a different part of ourselves.

We can only describe the part of the Dream that arises into memory. Often, the majority remains in our unconsciousness, all the while remaining aware of its existence. This reaction to a Dream is just like the experience of spiritual awareness, as described throughout this Handbook. We all know certain things in life exist and are real but can’t always be described even if we have experienced them. Likewise, the human mind can become aware and comprehend but maybe not describe a spiritual experience.

In addition, we also know that the Dream is driven, in part but only once in a while by whatever it is that we have experienced or something we have read or even heard just before going to sleep. A Dream can also result from a discussion, like an experience of daily life or even a Bible verse.