Character Is Destiny
By Paul Hourihan

According to Buddha, What you think you become. The more often we dwell on anything, the more proficient we become in it and the more we come to master it or realize it. This is a common worldly experience for us all. So here, too, with spiritual life; if we want Self-realization we must think about it often.

Do you think spiritual life is too high to reach, too difficult, strange or remote?

We are changed and perfected by thought. So we can start here and now with a thought. If that is all we can bring to the challenge, it is enough.

Just a thought.… Then feeling comes—an emotional urge to do something, to commit oneself, to awaken.

Desire comes, and then eventually action flowing out of desire. A sense of purpose starts to grow; a pattern begins to develop—more action is fueled by more desire.

Gradually, as the process continues, a habit begins to be formed. We are saved by some habits, doomed by others. But this is a creative, willed, and purposeful habit you have longed to form. With the help of reflection and a systematic method of meditation, one day it is formed and established.

Then the character is affected … change slowly comes … little by little … then more and more … then still more.

A new, ever-waxing momentum has been launched and has been created, and moves forward, riding you towards the creation of a new character and true self-discovery. Then you are within sight of the goal, though it is still distant. The light beckons; it is no longer a dream. You can almost see it.

Character is destiny. Let us shape and forge our characters so that they will inevitably give rise to the destiny that will lead us to the bliss of enlightenment.
 

See also Words of Wisdom: Meditation and Spiritual Life.

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