Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category
Platos Cave
Sunday, August 9th, 2009
This is a truly magical movie. It sums up the essence of everything we are experiencing…
Be free of the ego…
Monday, January 26th, 2009What is the ‘ego’? How does it operate in our lives? How can we transcend the ego? These are all very important questions that deserve in-depth consideration because, as most on the spiritual path know, the whole game is the game of the ego.
However, I don’t want to bore you with yet another theoretical discourse on the ego – but rather take this subject head on as an experiential reality. Those on a conscious spiritual journey will inevitably take up this topic again and again and shed more light on this fascinating, profound and cunning illusion that constantly effects our lives and even our dreams.
Firstly, we need to clarify what is meant by ‘the ego,’ as there are innumerable interpretations of this word in different traditions. The definition of the ego being used for the purpose of this article is as follows: The ego is a mechanism that creates ‘personal identification with anything limited or external.’
What this definition means practically, is that, when we consider our sense of ‘Self’ or ‘Me’ as anything whatsoever to do with what we can see, feel, sense, hear etc. (including people, places, possessions or even ideas), then we are acting/operating from the point of view of the ego. The ego limits our experience of ourselves as unlimited beings, pure consciousness, into an experience of the false self, the limited ‘i’ (the little ‘i’). Its job is to make us very short sighted. It turns us into children who can’t see beyond limited pleasures of now into the future. Little children do not understand the length of an hour, the ego does not understand eternity.
If our sense of ‘I’ or ‘Me’ is based on anything limited and temporary, then we are in the grasp of the ego, the false self, the limited self, the non-self illusion. The basic and undeniable fact is the body you perceive to have now as you read, and all that is associated with it, will die and end one day. This is a fact of life.
The ego does not like us to think of this. It prefers we think we will always be young, that we will always have a certain job or status and does not accept the fact that there is an end to all that it is based upon. It is like a cancer that relies on the host to exist and grow, then destroys the host and, ironically, dies itself.
The ego is a mechanism that condenses the experience of an eternal, unlimited being that is innately free and boundless, into the personified experience of ‘i’ or ‘me’ as a set of limitations such as: ‘I am so and so, I live in Hawaii, I like oranges, I am a mediator, I am good at x, I don’t like y, This is ‘my’ work, ‘my’ ideas, ‘my’ blog, these are my clothes, my wife, my children, I had various problems as a child, I went to this school, etc. etc. etc… Every one of these statements is a statement from the ego. The ‘Real You’ is unlimited and cannot be defined by such things in space and time. The Self is eternal. How can the Self ever be any of the limited experiences that come and go like clouds in the eternal sky?
The witness of life’s events is not the events or the sum total of the events. The real Self is eternally stable and outlasts all events and changes – it goes on after the death of the body. Nothing can destroy the true Self. Like the screen that a movie is played on does not get burnt when there is an image of fire, nor does it get wet when an ocean is projected, in the same way, the witness, the constant Self, is separate from the projections of light and exists aside from all the day to day experiences of the character on the screen, the limited self, the experience.
When someone addresses You as a person, bodily image or a human being on the screen, they are not addressing You* (the eternal being of light, who is far more than the sum of the bits and pieces of the person), they are addressing a character in a play, the limited, non-self. The ego is the mechanism that claims what is essentially ‘just happening’ as ‘me’. It says ‘I did it, this is MINE, I am this’, like claiming a cloud to be ‘mine’ just because you have been watching it move across the skyline for a while. In Reality, everything simply happens.
Lets test this.
If you were to be fully aware of the clear distinction between the One who is eternally you (the Presence, the Spirit) and the body/ego/’i', then you would never take offense at anything anyone said, nor would you be upset by ‘failure’, or excited by ’success’. It is all just happening on the screen of consciousness and You remain eternally the same. Nothing is lost nor gained. Everything is perfect just as it is.
From a truly spiritual point of view, as an eternal being, everything that happens is seen as an entertainment, as no more than a cartoon show. From this state of freedom and non-attachment, you are living in Grace, in the lap of the Divine, you are seeing life as it really is… a divine play. Not good, not bad, it just is.
Ask yourself: How often do I have this experience? How often do I experience the Divine Flow, the Eternal Presence or Pure Grace? In this state, you feel that everything is happening by its own hand, where there is a clearly visible perfection that runs through everything, effortlessly and permanently…you are relaxed, you can let go and allow, you are an instrument, you need nothing and have attained everything. This state is to be free of the ego.
Everything else is tainted by the limitations of the ego. To feel ‘I am doing this’, ‘Why is this happening?’, ‘This is my duty, this is my thing’, ‘I own this,’ etc. - all of this is the ego. It is the limited sense of self trying to take charge of life and pretending to exist as a temporary hologram – and nothing more. Things are happening and will continue to happen regardless of your claim that ‘I did it’.
Stop for a moment now.
Notice that your experience is constant. Try and see if you can stop doing anything. If you are really the one who is doing it, then you will also be able to stop doing it.
Try for yourself right now. Try to stop your doing, your thinking. If you are really the creator, then you will be able to stop your creation now at will…
Do you notice something inside of you is at work, planning, seeing, thinking…? That is the ego at work… It is on a mission to get things, to achieve, to feed itself. The one who watches silently is who you are. The stronger you identify with That, the more free you will be.
Know the ego by its incessant drive to get something ‘better’ in the never present future at the expense of the experience of the Now. Only Now can you experience who you are. Only Now in this moment can you open up to the Grace of God. Only Now can you be free.
To understand this more, here are some famous passages from the Ribhu Gita, taught by Sri Ramana Maharishi. Read them slowly and with enjoyment…
Which Path Are You Walking?
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009This article is by Mike George, a friend and best-selling author from the UK. You can subscribe to his articles at the bottom of the page. Enjoy! ; )
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Are you walking the right path? Some say there is a pathway through life that will take you to the right destination. Some call it a spiritual path based on self-realisation. Others see it as a religious path based on faith, and yet others say it is just a human path based on right values. Path in this sense implies there will be an arrival, a destination that is defined by the reward of freedom, happiness and goodness, and the recognition that you walked the ‘right’ path, i.e. you lived your life the ‘right’ way.
And then there are some who say there is only ‘one’ right path. It’s their way or no way! They spend much time in attempting to convince others to follow in their footsteps, otherwise, they say, “There will be trouble ahead”! And then there are those who say life has no path. They believe that ‘real’ life is simply living from day to day and from moment to moment. They say that life happens in a pathless land, so forget all about ‘finding your path’ and just get on with it…they say!
And then there are those who say that we are here to carve our own path, plow our own furrow, and, like the white water behind a boat, we leave our own unique wake. They are convinced there is no one right way, just the way you ‘create’ as you go. This ‘can’ sound ‘righter’ than the others, as it seems to honour the two callings or imperatives already present within us all. First our creative capacity, whereby true creativity is based on how we live our life, which means how we respond to people and situations around us. The second is an innate awareness of what is true, of how to act and how to create the right actions in alignment with our truth. And when we act in alignment with our truth then the way forward opens up smoothly and we are in harmony with ourselves and with the world around us. Sometimes this is called ‘flow’. When we act against the current of what is true then there is a ‘jarring,’ an awkwardness, things do not proceed smoothly, and we ‘feel’ something is not quite right.
The reality for most of us is that our day-to-day lives are filled with moments of discomfort at some level. We see obstacles in our way, have stressful feelings and occasional, if not frequent, waves of negative thoughts. These are signs that indicate we are not creating our way forward in the right direction or in the best way. It means our creativity is either distorted, disabled, deluded or disconnected from our truth. We are not responding with wisdom to the world around us. It also means we are most likely to be creating and walking the Path of the Slave. It is a common path that has seven essential steps, not necessarily always in this order, and not always all in the same day. See if this path is familiar to you. In essence, it goes something like this.
Something or someone gets your ATTENTION. You become ATTRACTED and go towards the object/person of attraction. You then lose your self in the person/object, which means you are ABSORBED. This seems nice at the time, it seems normal as you enjoy the stimulated pleasure of the object/person, but it also means you are becoming ATTACHED. This will be signaled by a craving/desire for more! Some time later if something happens to the object/person, or access is denied, you become AGITATED with emotion. But instead of seeing the emotion as a signal that you are on the wrong path, you become ADDICTED to it and crave more of the objects/persons. And that means that at some stage you will have to ATONE, which simply means ‘pay the price’ for your attachment/addiction.
This is not only the Path of the Slave, you may also recognize it as the way to all suffering, whatever form the suffering may take. As you explore each step a little more closely you may also begin to see the nature of your miscreation.
ATTENTION
As a conscious being you have the capacity to focus and ‘concentrate’ your attention at all times. When you allow your attention, which is essentially your self, to be distracted, you are not exercising your ‘power of concentration’, you are not aligned to the truth that it’s your job to focus your attention. This is why a loss of concentration is a signal for mental discomfort. The first and recurring choice throughout day-to-day living is what you give your attention to. Where your attention goes your energy flows. And today it seems our attention is easily ‘pulled’ and impressed by the world and its objects. Our attention is up for sale and we allow ourselves to be bribed. We ‘pay’ with our attention and as a result don’t pay attention to the quality of what we attend to. We are easily led. Modern technology is screaming for us to attend to it, and it’s multi-media messages. Lesson: If you want to maintain conscious choice in your life, strengthen your ability to concentrate and focus your attention.
ATTRACTION
As a conscious being, you are first and foremost an ‘attractor’. You are at your most ‘attractive’ when you are not attracted by anything or anyone. Being constantly attracted usually means you are suppressing your own self-esteem. It’s as if you are bowing down to something/someone outside your self and saying ‘I am less than that’ or ‘I need that to make me more attractive to others’. Lesson: If you want to build and maintain your self-esteem, then practice not being attracted to and not being impressed by things and people. At the very least, ask your self what is it about the object of attraction that seems to fill a neediness in me?
ABSORPTION
As a conscious self-aware self, when you are in your highest and truest state you know and feel your self to be whole and complete. This feeling and ‘knowingness’ disappears when you allow your consciousness to be absorbed in or by something or someone. When we become absorbed in anything we feel overpowered, sometimes overwhelmed, and eventually we may realise we only disempower our self. Lesson: If you don’t want to lose your power, don’t lose your self in anything or any one. That doesn’t mean you stop ‘caring’. Quite the opposite, when not absorbed you will be free and therefore able to discern and offer the most appropriate form of care.
ATTACHMENT
When we constantly allow our self to lose our self in others, in objects or in situations, we are initiating and creating an attachment. The original and true state of the self is freedom. You are a free spirit by nature and so it is unnatural not to be free! And real freedom at this inner level, what some call the spiritual level; means there is no attachment to anything or anyone. Attachment means the self is ‘trapped’ in the object of attachment and that is where happiness is lost and all fear originates. Lesson: If you want to maintain your freedom don’t get attached to anyone or anything. If you don’t want to lose your true happiness or contentment, don’t get attached. If you want to be free of fear it’s a good idea not to be attached. Not so easy after a lifetime of… attaching!
AGITATION
The consequence of any attachment to any thing will be some kind of inner disturbance or agitation. This is simply because attachment will ‘always’ result in one of three families of emotion – sadness, anger or fear. The true nature of the self is peace. To be agitated is the sign you are out of alignment with your true nature. All emotion is agitation so all emotion is a signal you are out of alignment with the true you. Lesson: If you want to be free of suffering, and therefore at peace with your self and the world, don’t express or suppress whatever emotion arises. Transform the emotion by first observing it, seeing the internal cause of the emotion and then detaching from both the emotion and the cause. This process is sometimes referred to as meditation!
ADDICTION
Even though the emotion/agitation is not comfortable we will still become addicted to it, as it seems to be ‘enlivening’. We may even become addicted to a ‘deadening’ state such as sadness and depression. And eventually we will become dependent on what triggers these states and then to the states themselves. As a spiritual being you can only be truly, sustainably happy, which means content, when you are not dependent on anyone or anything. Any dependency at any level sets up cravings and desires, which are simply signals that you are compromising your true state. Lesson: Watch out for your cravings, see the addiction/dependency behind them, and experiment with letting go or doing without for progressively longer periods.
ATONEMENT
The true state of every human being, which means every point of consciousness, is to be whole, complete and ‘one’. It is a state of consciousness in which there is no sense of fragmentation within the self, there is no confusion about identity, no desire to subtract anything from the self or to add anything to the self. The Path of the Slave is the journey away from this inner natural state. Atonement means a return to this awareness of one’s own oneness, to be ‘at one ment’…again! It is a deep inner state of your being that can never be lost or changed, only temporarily lost to your awareness. Lesson: If you want to feel whole and complete, remind yourself you do not need to acquire anything from anyone to be content with your life. Find ways to give of your self unconditionally without wanting in return. In time, you may see you already have, you already are, all that you can be.
But, as always, it’s only possible to ‘not’ walk what could be called the Path of the Slave when you realize you are the one who is actually creating it. In other words don’t believe a word you have just read. Go within, watch carefully, observe accurately, and see for your self. Then you will know beyond belief. And the power of knowing the truth that it’s you and not someone else that is creating your path may be the beginning of your journey along the Path of the Master. One thing you will see for sure is that the real path, the true path, is within.
Question: Which of the above steps did you recognize in your self most strongly?
Reflection: What is the most frequently occurring form of agitation (emotion) in your average day and what is the attachment behind it?
Action: If this is the Path of the Slave what might the Path of the Master look like?
If you would like to respond to the above or clarify any of the content contact mike@relax7.com
Feel free to forward to friends/colleagues
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