N-lightenment

Something in you already knows.

Freedom from Thoughts = Freedom from Suffering

by 2 Comments

freedom-from-thoughtsThe reason I live free of thoughts is not because I no longer think, not because my brain no longer creates thoughts. It is because I completely understand what thoughts are. I experience thoughts as thoughts. I no longer mistake them for reality. And this is why I live free from thoughts. And freedom from thoughts is freedom from suffering.
 

Freedom from Suffering

If any experience of suffering, no matter how subtle, should arise, I open to it fully without resistance. It always leads back to a thought. In doing this thousands of times over the years with myself and others, this has never failed to happen even once. Sometimes the thought is deeply repressed and unconscious, but without resistance to the feeling, it bubbles to the surface and is set free. It’s set free because it is always realized as just a thought and, once it is let go, all suffering immediately ceases.
 

Resistance to Truth

This is very important to know. I realize how resistant most of us are to accepting the truth of this. There is very strong conditioning to experience thoughts as more than thoughts, to experience thoughts as reality, as truth, or at least as “my truth”.
 
And there is great resistance to accept that ALL suffering comes only from these thoughts that are believed as truth.
 
It seems that most of us would rather continue suffering, no matter how bad that suffering is, than accept
  1.  that thoughts are just thoughts, not reality, and
  2.  that ALL suffering is created by these thoughts mistaken for reality.

Freedom from Chronic Pain

I have helped many people experience complete freedom from chronic pain that has gone on for over 20 years, not because I’m a great healer or have some special skills, techniques or practices, but simply by helping them reduce their attachment to certain thoughts. This freedom from pain would be complete and permanent if the conditioning to believe their thoughts was not so powerful that it arose again within a few days of seeing me or sooner. For some this does happen. But for most the addiction to and belief in their thoughts is too powerful, so pain returns again along with the belief in their thoughts. It takes practice for this to be complete. It’s almost never a one shot deal. It depends on motivation and readiness more than anything else.
 
There are many simple practices to help free us from our addiction to and belief in thoughts. Most spiritual practices are for this purpose in one way or another. Only in this way can we experience Truth. But we must be willing to do this.
 

Suffering

When our addiction is very strong, as it is in most people, we are not yet ready to surrender this addiction. We must hit bottom first. That is the reason for suffering. That is the gift of suffering. It helps us hit bottom. For most of us it is necessary to hit bottom before we are ready to give up such an entrenched and reinforced addiction. Society looks down on alcohol and drug addiction, but it completely supports addiction to thoughts. Without addiction to thoughts we could not be manipulated or controlled by others.
 
Just as it is possible for a drug addict or alcoholic to be free of their addiction, it is possible to be free of addiction to our thoughts. It begins by understanding what our thoughts really are, not truth, not reality, just a thought, a limited, abstract representation of truth. When we no longer believe our thoughts are truth or an accurate representation of reality, we are in a position to see them as they are. Just accepting this, we can let them go, let them be what they are, and no longer an obstacle preventing us from experiencing life as it really is.
 
There are many simple practices on this website to help free you from this addiction to thoughts. But the first step is recognizing that the addiction exists. That’s always the hardest step. As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, “Denial is not just a river in Egypt.” If you ever experience suffering, no matter how subtle, hopefully you now know where to look for the true cause.

The 5 Myths of Ego-Based Spiritual Teaching

by 8 Comments

5-mythsExploding the 5 Myths of Ego-Based Spiritual Teaching

David Hoffmeister, a popular teacher of A Course In Miracles, was speaking at an event. A member of the audience asked, “You’ve been speaking for two hours and you haven’t said a single positive thing about the ego. What can you say positive about the ego?” David turned to him and said simply, “The ego wants you dead.”

I’m pretty sure that’s not the answer he was looking for. But that’s the question most of us have. We want something to support and reinforce our ego, our sense of self-identity. Our entire life is based on this. So when we enter a spiritual practice, we’re actually looking for the same thing. Only now we want an enlightened self-identity. And, unlike David Hoffmeister, there are many spiritual teachers who will promise us exactly what we want.

The problem is there is no enlightened self-identity. Enlightenment is the end of the ego, the end of the illusion of self-identification. That’s why promising enlightenment AND the ego is a myth, an illusion. It’s not both / and as these teachers promise. It’s one or the other. It’s Truth or illusion.

Zen

I’ve been feeling very grateful lately for my many years in Zen practice. Zen is a very simple and incredibly focused spiritual practice. Its ONLY focus is enlightenment. And this focus evidently pays off. Over the centuries there have been many enlightened Zen masters.

Zen is a very challenging practice for most of us in the beginning. There is no support for the ego at all. We may have an incredible realization during meditation and take it to the teacher. The teacher will simply say, “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.” No support for our brilliant realization. No support for our brilliant realized ego. Just “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.”

Kensho or Satori are names for powerful spiritual experiences that break through our normal conditioned consciousness. When we experience these amazing breakthroughs we feel that we’re finally enlightened. The first thing we want to do is tell our teacher and have him realize how enlightened we are now. We rush into his room. And what does he say? “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.” There is absolutely no support for the ego anywhere in Zen at any time. Zen is a practice of enlightenment. And enlightenment means freedom from attachment to the ego.

Powerful Spiritual Experiences

An awakened master understands that there are many powerful experiences and breakthroughs on the spiritual path. But these are not enlightenment. These are just very powerful experiences. There are many spiritual teachers today who believe they are awake because they have had one or more powerful experiences. But this is not awakening. This is not enlightenment. These are just powerful experiences. They did not have a wise enlightened teacher who could see this and tell them to “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.” They didn’t have someone to tell them, “You’re not done. You’ve just peaked through the door. Keep going.” And that’s unfortunate. The result of not having a wise and enlightened teacher or friend available is that there are many “awakened” teachers teaching who are not awake. They’ve just had a few powerful experiences. The ego self-identity has not yet been uprooted. While there is still any attachment to an ego self-identity, there is not awakening. And when a teacher teaches from this place of ego self-identity, the teaching cannot be from Truth. It cannot be from awakened consciousness. It will just be the ego teaching its ego version of spiritual truth, which will always just be more illusion, even if now it comes with spiritual names.

The 5 Myths of Ego-Based Spiritual Teaching

And that, my friends, brings us to the 5 popular myths of ego-based spiritual teaching. They are myths because they do not come from awakened consciousness but from ego consciousness. They do not come from Truth, but from illusion. To the ego, they seem very logical, obvious and true. The ego does not understand awakened consciousness. Coming from illusion, the ego cannot understand Truth. And this makes it quite challenging to be an awakened spiritual teacher, but quite easy to be an un-awakened spiritual teacher. An un-awakened spiritual teacher, someone still living in ego consciousness, speaks exactly the same language as the majority of people also living in ego consciousness. A similar way of seeing the world, the awakened teacher no longer shares.

I will do my best to share these 5 popular myths encountered in much of today’s spiritual teaching hopefully in a way you can understand.

Myth 1 – You can do it.

You hear this a lot in spiritual marketing. “You can experience bliss.” “You can attain abundance.” “You can attain love.” “You can attain enlightenment.” This is a primary myth because the truth is you cannot attain anything. There is not even a you to attain anything. Your entire self-identity is a myth. In fact your self-identity is the primary myth that keeps you from awakening and keeps you living in illusion. Bliss, peace, love, complete contentment are all realized as soon as the separate self-identity is gone and not before.

Awakening is freedom from this myth of a separate self, not catering to it.

Doing Without A Doer

You may have heard the phrase, “doing without a doer.” Things are done but there is no separate doer doing them. In this way life and doings flow effortlessly and perfectly. This is the awakened way. You may have experienced a book, poem or painting flowing through you effortlessly with no experience of a separate you doing it. In fact it’s very clear the separate you could not possibly create anything this beautiful. You might have experienced this in sports where suddenly everything flows perfectly and you observe the body doing things it’s never done before. It may sound strange, but anything done by the personal self is done far better without it. That is living awake. It’s not logical. The ego consciousness doesn’t get it. But it’s very real and can be directly experience in our life.

Myth 2 – You need balance and integration.

When you hear spiritual teachers talk about “balance” and “integration” these are code words for “I’m still attached to my separate self-identity and I’m afraid to let it go.” As the teachers themselves are not awake, they’re not aware of this either. These teachings are very attractive to those who are also still attached to their separate self-identity. As this includes most of humanity, these teachers and teachings can attract a large audience. It sounds logical and makes perfect sense to ego consciousness. That your separate self-identity, “you”, don’t even exist makes no logical sense at all. Such is the challenge of true spiritual teaching.

Generally such teachers had some powerful spiritual experience and were frightened by it. Once briefly seeing it was possible to live without the separate self-identity, they became frightened of losing it, so they attached to it even more strongly than before. And this fear became part of their teaching. It doesn’t come from awakened consciousness. It comes from fear and attachment. They also teach the importance of being “more fully human”, which again is code for “I’m afraid of losing my separate self-identity.” And of course the ego consciousness loves this because it protects it from the danger of waking up, even though this is, on the surface, what it appears to be asking for.

Myth 3 – If you remain in a state free of separate self-identity, you’re not fully human.

This depends on your definition of what it is to be fully human. If it means experiencing anger, fear, jealousy, greed, despair and other negative emotions, then it’s true. Sometimes these teachers will hold up these negative emotions as something to maintain and encourage as being fully human. A being living in awakened consciousness no longer experiences these negative emotions. Only a separate self-identity is capable of experiencing suffering. Awakening is freedom from suffering, as all spiritual teachings through the years have shown us.

Yet an awakened being free of separate self-identity is far more fully alive, far more open to all of life without resistance or attachment. Such a being lives in a continuous state of profound peace, unconditional love and complete contentment independent of circumstances. To me, that is fully human. Living in an illusion of separation and suffering is not human, even though it’s so common in humans. It’s illusion.

Myth 4 – You can’t live or function without a separate self-identity.

If you’ve ever met or seen anyone who is awake, like Mooji for instance, you’ve seen someone living and functioning perfectly well completely free of a separate self-identity. These un-awakened teachers claim that without a separate self-identity you would be “living in a trance”, “unable to function”, “be a robot”, etc. There are plenty of YouTube videos of Mooji. Take a look. See for yourself.

I live in this freedom. I don’t think any of my students or friends would say I’m living in a trance, unable to function or a robot. It’s another myth created by the ego to scare you away from waking up.

Myth 5 – You can embody the divine.

An awakened spiritual teacher once told me, “To say I am God is the most humble thing any human can say because when you say this there can be no you.” Embodying the divine means there is no you. As soon as your separate self-identity is gone, everything is fully here. And that is the divine. You embody the divine by getting out of the way.

The divine has always been here. Truth, love, peace, contentment, everything has always been here. Enlightenment has always been here. It is only your belief in the primary illusion of a separate self that is standing in the way. Once that’s gone, everything is realized. You are awake. And, yes, you can live like this. In the traditions of the awakened masters it’s called “dying before you die”. The separate self-identity is gone. The body lives and carries on as an expression of this infinite awakened consciousness.

What you are is infinite and eternal. It is far too much to create an identity out of. It is free of identity, free of attachment and resistance, free of concepts and suffering. That’s what being awake is.

Living Awake

When we live awake our purpose and function in life becomes very simple, focused and obvious.

  1. Stay awake and don’t fall back asleep into the limited dream of a separate self. Continue expanding ever deeper into awakened consciousness, which happens naturally without any effort or anyone to make an effort.
  2. Awaken all sentient beings. That means to help sentient beings recognize their own pure awakened nature. Pure awakened nature is in every being, sentient or otherwise. There is nowhere it is not. This is done through skillful means. Sometimes it is teaching through writing or speaking or simply sharing a transmission through deep silence, what Buddha called the “lion’s roar”. Sometimes it is simply a smile and eye contact as you pass someone on the street or a kindness given to a stranger. Spontaneously and without any effort, in awakened consciousness you are a blessing wherever you go.

Not everyone or even most humans are ready to realize their true pure awakened nature. Attachment to illusion is still too strong. In those cases a simple smile and silence may be teaching enough. That is skillful means, the appropriate action arising spontaneously in the moment to offer the highest possible benefit. Freedom from a separate self-identity makes this possible. It allows the infinite to move through the body / mind without the obstruction of concepts and separate self-identity.

To live awake, we no longer live our previous self-centered life. Everything becomes very simple. We live a life of complete service because there is no longer the illusion of a separate self and other. We are no longer a part of the community of life, we ARE the community of life. 🙂

 

Seek and Ye Shall Not Find

by 2 Comments

 

seeker-conundrumWe’re all seeking something. Until we’re not. As long as we’re seeking bliss, peace, unconditional love or spiritual enlightenment, we’ll never find it. Seekers are not finders.

We get this idea that we can find bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment the way we find other things in our life. If we’re seeking a new car, we go to a car dealership. If we’re seeking a new house, we go to a Realtor. If we’re seeking an education we go to a university. If we’re seeking a meal, we go to a restaurant. We’ve been conditioned to believe that seeking and finding are connected. As long as we keep seeking eventually we’ll find.

Teachers and Retreats

So if we’re seeking enlightenment, why shouldn’t we go to a spiritual teacher, an ashram or monastery? Why shouldn’t we pay a thousand dollars for a week-long enlightenment retreat? Surely for a thousand dollars we should be able to get enlightenment. Unfortunately the only thing lighter after this retreat will be our wallet.

Seekers Remain Seekers

When it comes to bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment, that’s not how it works. Seekers do not become finders. They simply remain seekers. You may have noticed this already in your own seeking. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s only by giving up seeking, by giving up what is being sought and by giving up the one who is seeking that you actually find what you’re seeking.

Enlightenment Is Not a New Car

If you want a new car, you can find a variety of cars at a car dealership. But bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are not cars. You cannot simply go to a spiritual teacher or attend an enlightenment retreat and get enlightenment. You may get a very superficial and temporary taste of peace, love, bliss or enlightenment. And that’s usually what’s being sold. That keeps you coming back for more. It’s a good business practice. But you won’t get the real thing. You can’t get the real thing in this way. If you got the real thing, you wouldn’t need to come back again. Your seeking would be over.

Your Car Is the Only Car That Exists

Imagine that you want a new car, but the only car that exists is the very one you’re driving. There are no other cars. No other car exists. You have the only car in all existence. Your desire for this imaginary non-existent car is your seeking. Can you imagine the suffering and frustration that comes from seeking this non-existent car? It doesn’t exist. How can you find what doesn’t exist?

And yet, thanks to your illusion, you fail to realize that you’re driving the only car that actually does exist. So you have an existing car, but you’re seeking a car that doesn’t exist. That’s exactly the situation of spiritual seekers.

You’re seeking something imaginary that doesn’t exist. Your idea of bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are just ideas. They are not reality. And yet true bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are always right here. They’re not what you imagine them to be, nor can they be what you imagine them to be. That’s because they’re not thoughts; they’re real.

When you let go of all thoughts about peace, bliss, love and enlightenment, when you let go of all thoughts about you and what you are, when you empty your mind of all illusion, you realize that peace, bliss, love and enlightenment are right here and have always been right here. You have never for a single moment ever been apart form them. Even in the depths of your greatest suffering, everything you were seeking has always been here. Your illusions and all that seeking have simply hidden it from you. That realization is the end of seeking. You are now a finder. You have returned to a Home you never could have left.

You didn’t do this through seeking. You did it through the end of seeking. You did it through the surrender of illusion and openness to what is always right here now. You not only found enlightenment, but you saved a thousand dollars in the bargain.

Surrender – the Key to Awakening

by 6 Comments

surrenderToday, on three separate occasions, I heard some popular spiritual teachers speaking about surrender. There was something deeply off about it, not in alignment with spiritual Truth. That’s the reason for this post. As important as surrender is to the spiritual path, it needs some clarity.

Each of these teachers were speaking about surrender as something to avoid fully embracing. They were teaching about balance, a popular spiritual teaching today. This was in regard to students who have been abused by certain spiritual teachers. They felt that it was because they had fully surrendered to these teachers and didn’t use enough discrimination. Their advice was to seek a balance between complete surrender and personal determination.

Wisdom and Common Sense

On the surface this sounds like wisdom or even common sense. You don’t surrender your autonomy, independence, or judgment. You don’t surrender your self. There are many popular spiritual teachers who teach this. “Surrender is good, of course, but only up to a point. There has to be a balance.” You’ve probably heard this before – the balance of the Divine and the human.

It’s Safe

Of course the ego loves this. It’s safe. It’s not dangerous. It avoids the danger of dying or extinction. What appears to be wisdom, practicality and common sense, is based entirely on fear. And fear is the source of the ego, illusion and what keeps us from waking up. So what seems like wisdom to the ego is actually just another strategy to avoid waking up. Because waking up is the death and extinction of the egoic separate self. It’s not that it no longer exists. But it is no longer believed, no longer identified with, and to the ego that’s death. It’s the death of the illusion of a separate, independent self.

Some Clarity About Surrender

That I heard three different popular spiritual teachers speak about this at different times on the same day made it clear that some clarity was needed.

I’m certainly not advising anyone to surrender completely to these abusive teachers. They are also not awake. Awake beings do not act in this way. That is the ego. An awake being no longer experiences a separate personal identity. That illusion has been fully surrendered. In this way the type of desire and need that these abusive teachers exhibit cannot happen. There is only acting in the highest benefit of all, because there is no separation from all.

What We Surrender To

First, we have to understand what we surrender to. We don’t surrender to a person, whether it’s a spiritual teacher, a guru or a zen master. What we surrender to is Truth. What we surrender to is the Something More that is beyond all thoughts, concepts and beliefs, beyond all persons. This may and does appear in awake spiritual teachers. But it is not them. It is Truth expressing Itself through them. And that is what we surrender to, fully and absolutely, with no reservations, resistance or attachment. How do we know it’s Truth? This same Truth has always been in us. There is a resonance. Truth speaks to Truth.

What We Surrender

In addition to knowing what we surrender to, we also need to know what we surrender. We surrender everything. We surrender our identity as a separate self. We surrender our thoughts, knowledge and beliefs. We surrender our perceptions of the world, ourself and others. We surrender all attachments and resistance. We surrender the world and ourself. We surrender everything. Clearly this is not very popular to the ego. Many spiritual teachers have still not surrendered themselves in this way and this completely. They prefer balance. Surrendering is never going to be popular. But it is the only way we can awaken. There is no other way.

Truth Outshines Illusion

Some awakened beings have such a powerful awakening that Truth completely outshines all illusion. This can happen in a single night as it did for Eckhart Tolle and Ramana Maharshi. It’s rare, but it does happen. But this too is surrender. It just happened completely in a single day. All thoughts, concepts, beliefs, the world and the self identity were surrendered in one moment because their realization and experience of Truth was so powerful it completely dissolved all illusion.

Usually It Happens in Stages

Most of us need to do this in stages. It’s not a problem. We do this step by step, continually surrendering more. And as we do, as the surrender is deeper and more complete, we experience all the rewards that come with surrender, so we continue.

At some point, we’ve surrendered everything and Truth is revealed as always having been here. It was simply covered up by what we were afraid to surrender, by our attachment and resistance.

Fear

Fear is why we don’t surrender. The egoic self identity is based in fear. Our attachment to it and its survival is why we don’t truly awaken. We may experience moments of freedom, as many spiritual teachers have, but then the fear returns and we “play it safe.” We seek a balance between being awake and being asleep. It sounds good to the ego, but this balance is an illusion. This balance doesn’t exist. We either fully surrender the illusion or we don’t.

Spiritual teachers who have abused their students create a great deal of harm. Maybe the worst harm they have done is to increase the fear in seekers. Even these three popular spiritual teachers seem to have fallen victim to this fear. This is why they’re not awake. They’re not fully surrendered. And their advice encourages their students to also remain afraid and avoid waking up.

It’s Not Rocket Science

Awakening is not rocket science. Although to hear many teachers talk it seems to be. There are so many practices, approaches, philosophies, theories, teachings and explanations. But it’s not nearly as complicated as all that. Most of these complicated theories are simply more ways to avoid surrendering. It really comes down to surrender. We surrender the illusion to Something More, to Truth. Fear is a great obstacle. But if we’re truly determined to live in Truth, we surrender anyway. Not to a person, but to Truth. Yes, it takes some trust. This Truth cannot be seen, named, described or even imagined. Yet it is very real, infinite and unchanging. It’s the only thing that is truly reliable in this world or any other. And you CAN directly realize and experience it. Right now and always it is more intimate to you than your heartbeat. The only price of admission is your full and complete surrender. You pay everything and in return you get everything. The good news is you’re only paying with illusion, what is temporary, what cannot last. And for this you receive what is eternally True. It’s a highly beneficial exchange.

The one who doesn’t want to surrender completely is also an illusion. This is the main illusion that you surrender. It is the one seeking balance. The surrender of this is the final step before awakening to Truth. You cannot walk through the gateless gate of Truth dragging this illusion of a separate self. That has never worked.

Surrender

Surrender is essential. There is no other way. You can surrender easily, effortlessly, willingly and even joyfully. Or you can succumb to fear and resist, fight and struggle. The second approach is what most of us do. That’s why surrender and awakening seem so difficult and are so uncommon.

Satsang

In Satsang, surrender is happening too. But there is less struggle, less resistance. You’re with others who have surrendered or are in the process of surrendering. It doesn’t seem so bad. Everyone is happy and at peace. The teacher, if he or she is awake, fully surrendered, seems to be an embodiment of freedom, peace, love and joy. How bad can it be? Of course not bad at all. In fact, there is nothing more precious in all existence.

 

The Inner War

by 8 Comments

inner-warThere’s a war going on inside. It’s a conflict between the ego and truth. It’s a strange war because only the ego is fighting it.

But it’s fighting hard.

It’s fighting for its life.

The Kingdom Lives in Peace … Sort Of

Until we have our first awakening experience, we’re not aware of this war. The ego is firmly enthroned. It’s the absolute ruler of its domain. It sees very few real threats to its dominance. It doesn’t mean this is a peaceful kingdom. There are constant small threats. But for each insult and attack, the ego re-builds itself. These attacks are all external. They’re outside the walls of the ego’s castle. The ego can handle this. It may not be a happy kingdom but the ego remains the ruler of it. And that’s all the ego really wants.

The First Volley is Fired

But then one day something happens. A great and sudden feeling of freedom arises seemingly out of nowhere. It doesn’t come from outside. It comes from right inside these castle walls. And, for a moment, it completely sweeps the ego right off its throne.

Like any powerful ruler, the ego is upset. Clearly it’s been attacked by a formidable enemy. Difficult as the challenges from outside the castle walls have been, this new attack is totally disorienting. And what’s even worse, it feels incredibly good. Where the external attacks always left the ego feeling small, weak and vulnerable, this new attack feels wonderful, overflowing with freedom, peace, love and bliss. It’s a completely different type of threat and the ego doesn’t know what to do with it. When this new attack comes, the great freedom that is felt is freedom from the ego itself.

How can a king rule its kingdom if the king isn’t even here?

Awareness of the Inner War Begins

After our first taste of this great freedom, we become aware of this inner struggle between the ego, which we had always experienced as ourself, and something else. We don’t know what this something else is. We only know it’s accompanied by a great and profound feeling of freedom, peace, unconditional love and total well-being. We don’t know where this comes from or how or why it happens. But it is here. We experience it. This cannot be denied. Except the ego does deny it.

It denies it.

It tries to explain it and understand it in limited dualistic terms that limit and distort the life right out of it.

And, although it sometimes seems to seek it (spiritual ego), it sabotages this freedom at every turn.

The Ego Releases Its Big Guns

As these experiences of freedom become more frequent, the ego brings out its big guns.

There is the big gun of pride. “I’m special. I’m waking up. I’m becoming enlightened.”

There is the big gun of doubt. “I can’t do it. I’m not good enough. I’ll never wake up.” And the always popular favorite: “Maybe I’m going crazy.” Doubt is just the flip side of pride. They work well with each other, frequently changing places at a moment’s notice.

Fear

And there’s the biggest gun in the ego’s whole arsenal: fear. When the ego is most threatened by truth, it always relies on this big gun. Fear says, “Back off. To go any further is dangerous. If you continue, terrible things will happen to you. If you continue, you will die.” The fear of death is a wonderful threat. How are you going to wake up if you’re dead?

Fear is very effective. It’s often fear that stops the Seeker from waking up, at least for awhile.

The ego has an inside track on fear, an unfair advantage. It knows exactly what you’re most afraid of. It knows every thought and fear you have, because it’s you – kind of. The ego is like a very small and extremely limited, abstracted, thought-based version of you. Like Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies. But a lot less real. 🙂

Since it’s not really you, only pretending, and it’s gotten away with it for so long, you can begin to see why it’s so afraid of truth. And truth is what you’re beginning to experience.

That’s good for you.

But not so good for the ego.

How Fear Backfires for the Ego

Although fear can stop you from progressing deeper into Truth for awhile, unless you’re very courageous and determined, in the long run it doesn’t work. The sheer unpleasantness of these barrages of fear cause you to take a closer look at the ego. And because of these fear tactics, you don’t like what you see. The contrast between the fear, despair and general suffering of the ego and the wonderful freedom, peace, love and well-being you experience as your True Self motivate you to spend increasingly more time in this great space of freedom from the ego. It just feels so much better. And this contrast only makes it all the more obvious. So the ego’s attempt to prevent you from waking up actually motivates you to wake up even sooner.

They’re Only Thoughts

As you spend more time in truth, you begin to realize through direct experience that all those fears which once overwhelmed you are really only thoughts. They actually have no power over you at all. At this point you naturally lose your attachment to and belief in thoughts. You realize they’re only thoughts. Thoughts no longer have power over you.

And one of those thoughts is the ego itself.

Truth Wins the War without Firing a Single Shot

You may notice that only the ego was fighting this war. Truth never fired a single shot. It never needed to. When we begin paying attention, truth is simply truth. It doesn’t need to prove itself, as the ego does. No matter what happens, truth simply remains what it is.

When we realize that all thoughts are simply thoughts, not reality, not truth, they lose power over us. Fear, the biggest gun in the ego’s entire arsenal, no longer has any power over us at all. It’s just another thought.

In this way, the inner war comes to an end. The ego takes its rightful place, not as the ruler, but as a servant, a servant of truth.

 

 

Freedom

by 2 Comments

bird-cage2To erase all concepts from the mind is to see life fresh, new, alive and unlimited. The great bliss, freedom, peace and love that arise naturally and effortlessly as soon as we do this shows that it was never more than these concepts that kept us from realizing the miracle of life as it is.

We may feel that we are prisoners of our conditioned minds. But this has never been so. We’ve been sitting in a cage of our own making, but the door has always been wide open. We could always step outside at any time. How about now?

We can use spiritual practices like Self-Inquiry to free ourselves from addiction to the limiting and distorting concepts that have ruled our lives. We may have build a foundation of these limiting concepts, but that doesn’t mean they are as solid as we think. Simply questioning them reveals their fragile and insubstantial nature. When looked at clearly, they crumble.

You’ll find many practices on this website that will help you step out of this limiting conceptual prison and realize the great freedom you already have.