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Nondual Highlights Issue #2074 Sunday, March 6, 2005
Freeing Yourself From the Laws of Form
We have a choice in life - to live by the laws of form, which are
very dense and binding, or to live by the laws of our Divine
Self. Life, relationships, and career begin to flow much easier
when we move from the laws of form to 'higher' laws.
One of the first steps on a spiritual path of growth and
evolution is to recognize that there is more to us than just a
personality and a body. Who we are takes on a body when we come
into form. Once we are born, we soon forget 'Who' we are and
begin to believe that we are a physical body. This is the way the
system is set up. We are meant to forget 'Who' we are so that we
can have a full experience of individuation. It is through
individuation that we are able to work on our piece of the
karmatic pie of humanity. Once we become adults, part of our
journey is to remember 'Who' we are.
The laws of form are very dense and confining. At different
levels of frequency, there are different laws in effect. The laws
of form are different than the laws of energy. For example, in
form like repels like. The same poles of a magnet repel each
other. In form, opposites attract - female attracts male,
electrons attract protons. In energy, it is often different -
like attracts like. So, for example, the energy of abundance
attracts abundance.
If we wish, therefore, to have a life that flows and to have
dominion (not the same as domination) over our lives, we need to
shift away from being bound by the laws of form. The first step
is to stop monitoring our external world and to begin monitoring
self. When we constantly monitor our external world, and try to
change self to fit that external world, we give our power away to
whatever, or whoever is in our external world. Moreover, when we
are constantly monitoring our external world, we are bound by the
laws of form.
When we begin to monitor self first instead of our external world
first, we come under the laws of the human self, which are less
dense than our external world. It is much easier to change self
than it is to change our external world. If we are in a
relationship, for example, it is very difficult to change the
other person. It is healthier to focus on what we need to change
in self in accordance to what we need. The healthiest first step
we can take in a dysfunctional relationship is to find what we
need in the relationship and do what we need to do to fulfill
that need. If, instead, we constantly monitor the other person
(external monitoring) and try to change self to please them, we
continue the dysfunctional pattern and create more pain and
suffering for ourselves.
- Kris Raphael, article taken from: The Toltec Path Newsletter,
Feb 2005, posted to MillionPaths
Enlightenment can be measured by how compassionately and wisely
you interact with others; with all others, not just those who
support you in the way that you want. How you interact with those
who do not support you shows how enlightened you really
are." "If you are a true seeker of liberation you've
got to be willing to stand alone. At the moment of Liberation
everything falls away...everything. Suddenly the ground beneath
your feet is gone, and you are alone. You are alone because you
have directly realized that there is no other, there is no
separation. There is only you, only Self, only limitless
emptiness, pure consciousness.
To the mind, the ego, this appears terrifying. When the mind
looks at limitlessness and infinity, it projects meaninglessness
and despair. To the ego Absolute Freedom can look terrifying. But
when the mind is let go of, the view changes from meaningless
despair and fear to the unending joy and wonder of Liberation.
In Liberation, you stand alone. You stand alone because you need
no supports of any kind. You need no supports because you have
realized that the very notion of a separate you no longer exists;
that there is nothing to support; that the whole ego experience
was a flimsy illusion. So you stand alone but never , never
lonely because everywhere you look, all you see is That, and You
are That."
- Adyashanti
We need to have patience to face this challenging task:
meticulously to observe all aspects of our life so that we can
see their nature, until the observer sees nothing when it looks
out except life as it is, in all its wonder.
- Charlotte Joko Beck, posted to TrueVision
Maharshi : So long as egoity lasts prayatna (effort) is
necessary. When egoity ceases to be, actions become spontaneous.
The ego acts in the presence of the Self. He cannot exist without
the Self.
The Self makes the universe what it is by His Sakti, and yet He
does not Himself act. Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavat Gita,
" I am not the doer and yet actions go on ". It is
clear from the Mahabharata that very wnderful actions were
effected by Him. Yet He says that He is not the doer. It is like
the sun and the world actions.
- Ramana Maharshi, posted to RamanaMaharshi
In many ways inaction is preferable to unintelligent action, for
it has at least the merit of not creating further samskaras and
complications. Even good and righteous action creates samskaras
and means one more addition to the complications created by past
actions and experiences. All life is an effort, a desperate
struggle to undo what has been done in ignorance, to throw away
the accumulated burden of the past, to find rescue from the
debris left by a series of temporary achievements and failures.
Life seeks to unwind the limiting samskaras of the past and to
obtain release, so that its further creations may spring directly
from the heart of eternity and bear the stamp of unhampered
freedom.
Action that helps in attaining God is truly intelligent and
spiritually fruitful because it brings release from bondage. It
is second only to that action that springs spontaneously from the
state of God-realization itself. All other forms of action,
however, good or bad, effective or ineffective from a worldly
point of view, contribute towards bondage and are inferior to
inaction. Inaction is less helpful than intelligent action; but
it is better than unintelligent action.
- Meher Baba
You breathe life into your ego in the form of emotional
addictions. Emotion is the very life-force of ego. So the point
of detachment isn’t to detach from things, but to detach
from your emotional bonds with things. And you don’t simply
let go of emotional bonds; you burn through them with
investigative awareness. You see them for what they are: prisons,
false structures holding you in spiritual infancy. You may think
that I am being a bit harsh - which I am, but awakening to truth
is a harsh business. Bottom line is "What do you want more:
to feel better or to realize the truth?" Sure, truth
realization feels really good, but no one gets there whose
driving motivation is simply to feel good. Feeling really good is
a byproduct of the awakened state; it is not the state itself.
The state itself is reality, and it’s won at the hands of
unreality. Simply put, ultimate truth comes at a cost, and the
cost is everything in you and about you that is unreal. The end
result is freedom, happiness, peace, and no longer viewing life
through the veils of illusion.
- Adyashanti