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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4346, Sunday August 21, 2011
Editor's note: In the Saturday, August 30 edition, I misformatted
the link to the Robert Saltzman interview in non-duality
magazine. Here is the correct link:
http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine.4.robertsaltzman.interview.htm
Behave as best you know, do what you think you should. Don't be
afraid of mistakes; you can always correct them, only intentions
matter. The shape things take is not within your power; the
motives of your actions are.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That: Talks with Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to AlongTheWay
Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., posted to The_Now2
Be soft in your practice.
Think of the method as a fine silvery stream,
not a raging waterfall.
Follow the stream, have faith in its course.
It will go its own way,
meandering here,
trickling there.
It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices.
Just follow it.
- Sheng-yen, posted to The_Now2
Ask yourself repeatedly and directly, What do I really want? Let
the answers flow freely, rising up effortlessly from the
unconscious without censorship. There are no right answers.
Consider these questions a game, a game that can expose whatever
beliefs and concepts all still buried in your subconscious. As
you inquire within, let whatever sensations, emotions, and
insights that arise wash through you. If you have discovered that
what you finally want is peace, happiness, love, or
enlightenment, now is the opportunity to see where you have been
searching for them. You can investigate even further by asking:
Where have I looked for what I want? What activities have I
pursued to get what I want? Where do I imagine I will finally
find it? What do I imagine obstructs me from it right now?
Are peace, happiness, love, and fulfillment conditional on some
outside circumstance, or are they already alive within you? In
this moment, be willing to tell the truth, which may at first be
the relative, most apparent truth. For instance, your truth in
this moment may be what you believe is necessary for your
happiness. If your loved one is ill, you may be certain that you
want only for him or her to get well, and then you could
experience happiness. This relative truth can open the way to
telling a deeper truth that reveals the paradoxical, causeless
nature of true happiness, present now, whatever the
circumstances.
Tell the truth fully, whatever the cost, whatever the risk,
whatever the consequences. Investigating deeply into what you
really want opens the door to discovering the truth of who you
really are.
In our traditional Western understanding of psychology,
personality is often used as an indication of who we are as
individuals. But personality is actually a very superficial
costume or mask that can easily be changed.
If you want to change your personality, there are many books you
can read, or workshops you can go to, or instructions you can
follow. There is nothing wrong with working on or changing your
personality. It can be very useful. For instance, in order for
human beings to gather peacefully in a room, it is helpful if
their personalities have been conditioned enough so that there
can be common courtesy and respect. This is all in the realm of
personality.
Working on personality doesn't cause any harm unless you somehow
believe you are your personality. You may have already noticed
that no matter how much you work on your personality, or how
great a personality you have finally achieved, you are constantly
frustrated in your efforts to discover the deepest fulfillment of
yourself. More primary than personality is a basic sense of
ourselves as separate individuals, as separate "egos."
What is the ego, really? Can the ego be directly experienced?
Does it need to be eliminated or augmented in order for us to be
happy?
Ego is the Latin for "I". It is actually the thought of
"I", a thought that couples with the sensation, "I
am this body", and from this starting point expands into
endless complexities. In our experience of human incarnation, we
have the natural capacity to identify ourselves as individual
egos. This is an enormous power, and there is nothing wrong with
this power. It is a delightful power, an evolutionary adaptation
that has given the human species an advantage over other species
in almost every circumstance. However, ego has also generated the
root of all self-hatred, self-torture, self-love, and
self-transcendence. If our individual body/mind/ego is believed
to be our final truth, this belief subsequently gives rise to
enormous, unnecessary suffering.
If you base your life on the belief that you are limited to a
body, then both consciously and subconsciously the preservation
of that body becomes the overriding concern. In the growing
recognition that there is no real guarantee for your body's
safety, great fear arises. The body is obviously subject to a
multitude of attacks - genetic, environmental, and accidental.
Finally, it is subject to the inevitable exhaustion of its
functions. Obviously, any attempt to preserve and keep the body
safe gives rise to strategies of self-protection or defense such
as hiding or attacking.
These strategies give rise to both aggressive and submissive
traits, to social and sexual skills - all as a way of defending
the thought, "I am a body." This is ego. When
preservation of the body is primary, we live in a fearful and
defensive universe. Defensive action - whether in terms of
"me first", "my tribe first", or "my
nation first", at the cost of all other people, tribes, and
nations - gives rise to tremendous suffering...
At a certain point the reality of the death of your body and all
bodies, all forms of every kind, becomes apparent. Although much
of society, particularly in the West, seeks to keep this fact
hidden, the death of the body cannot finally be denied. This
demon death, which has been feared, denied, and run from, is
called out of the subconscious to be faced in the light of
conscious awareness.
At this point, you can realize the undeniable presence of
permanent, eternal awareness: the truth of who you are. This
realization is the death of believing in the ego as reality, and
the revelation of what is deathless. It is easily apparent that
you are much more than a body. You are actually that which
animates the body.
- Gangaji, from The Diamond in Your Pocket, posted to
The_Now2
We think that there is something hiding our reality and that it
must be destroyed before the reality is gained. It is ridiculous.
A day will dawn when you will yourself laugh at your past
efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and
now.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from Be As You Are: The Teachings of
Sri Ramana Maharshi, posted to AlongTheWay