Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nonduality Highlights each day
#3001 - Thursday, November 29, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Excerpt from The Secret of Letting Go, by Guy Finley
Amazon.com Link: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Letting-Go-Guy-Finley/dp/0738711985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196388091&sr=1-1
Let Go of the Fear of
Being No One
By Guy Finley
Why is it that we will challenge and even work to change the
world's opinions as they concern us, but we almost never question
our own beliefs -- no matter how much stress and anxiety they may
produce within us? For example, we wouldn't dream of diving for
sunken treasure in our bathtub, because we know that the best we
can hope to find there are a few plastic pearls. And yet we still
dive headlong into this world every day to try and become “someone”
special. Over and over again, we sink ourselves into some new
scheme that promises greater self-confirmation. And even though
the best we have ever realized for our struggle is a temporary
kind of elevation that never fails to fall back to earth, we keep
doing the same thing. Here's the point: it is our belief we must
be someone special that punishes us, not the world that won't
confirm our beliefs.
With patient self-study and the help of truthful ideas, we can
learn to lead an entirely new kind of life. I know I have
stressed this time and again, but it is so important for us to
understand. What is timeless and true is not something
impractical and hopelessly distant from us. It is as close and
immediate as our wish to understand why it is that we keep
hurting ourselves and others. With this right intention to guide
us, let's look at this wish that we all have to become “someone.”
And during our investigation let's work to keep in mind it is
what we can see about this world that is our real safety,
not what we can win from it.
Everybody wants to be a “someone.” Why? Just ask
anyone, and they will tell you in so many words: to be somebody
special is to be someone who possesses power. The level of self
that seeks power sees it as a necessity; without it, one can’t
comfortably isolate and protect oneself from a crushing world of
others, from those who want at all costs what we want: to become
“someone.”
In short, the idea of becoming someone contains the unquestioned
and pervasive belief that whatever measure of safety, security,
and happiness we may win in this life depends directly upon just
how “special” we can become. This is, whether spoken or
not, what almost everyone on earth believes. And it is this very
belief, this treasure hunt in the tub, that holds the seed of
sorrow for all of humankind.
Neatly hidden within this false belief, not unlike the
too-tempting poison apple offered to Snow White by the wicked
queen, is this belief's opposite; an opposite that prowls
through the psychic system of each unsuspecting believer just
outside their ability to see and hear its message, but well
within their capacity to feel its presence. And what is it that
stalks the self that seeks power -- that pushes him or her along
through life? It is fear. And here is the unconscious mindset
that first produces these opposites, and that then unknowingly
serves them: the prevailing feeling is if we don’t become
“someone,” then we will never know safety and security.
Fear’s powerful, almost unshakable, silent implication is
that if we don't become special in our own eyes or in the
eyes of others, we will have no power; and being powerless, we
will perish and vanish. This is what drives men and women to the
point of collapse. The promise of being someone special -- one
who is powerful -- is only half the equation. The unseen half is
the threat of unceasing unhappiness that drives us to succeed, no
matter what the personal or global cost. Let's put it this way:
we have not been running to something -- that goal or that
dream -- we have been running from something. We have been
running from the fear of being no one.
There is no successful resolution to this kind of race because we
are tied to whatever we avoid. That's right. So far, fear has set
the course and the pace. This is why it’s so hard for us to
relax, even when the time has come for us to quietly enjoy the
fruits of our labor. The facts are, the more we try to become
someone special, or even seem to succeed at the task, the more in
jeopardy we feel. The good news is that this problem is nothing
new, nor is its real solution. Inspired men and women throughout
the ages have come to understand these self-defeating inner
traps, and, in doing so, have won lasting freedom for themselves.
You can do the same.
Excerpted from "The Secret of Letting Go" Rev. Edition,
Llewellyn, 2007
Copyright 2007 Guy Finley. All Rights Reserved.
Permission granted to reprint with author credit only. Reprinted in the Nonduality Highlights with
permission.
Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Letting-Go-Guy-Finley/dp/0738711985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196388091&sr=1-1