Abide in Awareness of Being

Recently I watched a video of a figure skating  competition.
The video shows a couple demonstrating the Mastery of
Physical Movement in figure skating, and perhaps the Mastery of
mental concentration or one-pointedness
in the execution of complex movements.

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Although many people associate this sort of accomplishment
with Mastery of Self it is NOT that. It IS merely ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Mastery of Self does not pursue accomplishment,
although accomplishment is often the natural result of
true Mastery of Self. (Read the Tao Te Ching for more on this)

Mastery of Self involves the total mastery over mind,
which includes freedom from attachment to opinions, desires,
doing things with ulterior motives in mind, etc.
In essence Mastery of Self is freedom from the concept of
little old ‘me’ and my needs, and opinions and all the
baggage that comes with being conditioned by limiting
thoughts, beliefs and concepts. 

Mastery of Self is the road of self-realization. In other words
it is for those who genuinely seek the truth of who or what
they really are, which corrects the misconceptions created
by “THINKING” or believing who they are. It is not for
the timid, or the opinionated, or the lackadaisical‎. 

Those skaters in the video clip demonstrated great physical
accomplishment. We cannot tell from just the video whether
this stems from the Mastery of Self in the way that I have
explained it. It is still possible to accomplish great feats of
various sorts without ever having Mastery of Self. One could
be a great financial wizard, or a great salesperson, or a
marvelous athlete and still suffer the various ailments of
a limited, conditioned mind. Mastery of Self leads to total
freedom of the illusions and delusions of mind. 

The personal self is a product of mind.
In the Mastery of Self one recognizes this subtle manifestation.
A “personal self” identifies with mind and so
the mind becomes master over self.
For one who abides in the awaress of being
the mind is a tool not the master.