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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3878, Friday, April 21, 2010, Editor: Mark
To be sure, we all have a great deal to learn from each other.
However, the process of subtle arrogance and self deception in
the spiritual arena is perhaps the most damaging of all
illusions. I am a Buddhist, or a Yogi, or a Pagan, or a student
of the Fourth Way or the Kaballah or some other mystical or
ecclectic school, and I imagine that Christians are at least
somewhat deluded. Or I am a Christian, perhaps a Catholic or an
Evangelical, or a Course in Miracles student, or a Muslim, or a
Jew, and maintain some pretense that my version of
"God" or "Love" is somehow more accurate than
"theirs." But in fact, when we think "Jesus said
so-and-so," or "The Buddha taught thus-and-such,"
we might ask ourselves, "How would I know, and why am I
repeating this?" If we face it sincerely, it is hard to
avoid the discovery that all we are doing is trying to justify
our own opinions and their connected feelings, perhaps seeking to
be tied in with some powerful authority figure(s) which is
fortified by our own conditioning. So we each have our private
and group stories about things, and continue to surreptitiously
elevate ourselves and put each other down.
But in fact, there is no private liberation or salvation. (Where
is the "one separate" from the rest, to be saved,
except in some mental fiction?) Of utmost importance, finally, is
putting an end to this devious and hurtful process of
"spiritual ego," of imagining there's some kind of
competition, and that there's someone who has to defend his or
her particular spiritual turf against others. If you stop using
your transient body or your thoughts or feelings as points of
reference, it will be obvious that there is no
"someone" and there are no "others." That
whole thing is a paranoid fantasy, a pathological delusion, in
this case in the name of whatever religion to which we happen to
subscribe. So let's call a spade a spade: God, the Absolute, does
not belong to anyone, nor to any particular group. (So why pay
homage to a limited god?)
Furthermore, Enlightenment, Self Realization, does not belong to
anyone either. (In fact, everything belongs to Enlightenment. So
why pay homage to a limited enlightenment?) Although it may occur
in virtually any context - Buddhist, Christian, Yogic, Sufi,
Hindu, Fourth Way, Muslim, Taoist, Jewish, Wiccan, 12-Step work,
shamanistic, agnostic, scientific and so on, Spiritual Awakening,
the Realization of Emptiness, the Tao, cannot be owned. How could
That which is infinite be possessed by any religion, tradition,
path, lineage, teacher, or hierarchy, all of which are limited?
Is God a Christian, or a Jew, or a Muslim? Is Enlightenment
controlled by Buddhists or Yogis or Hindus? How could That which
is formless be made to conform to any set of assumptions about
liberation, past or future? (If you still find yourself resisting
that possibility, you might ask yourself how you would know, one
way or the other, and what motives are tied up in thinking about
it in any specified way, for or against. Why maintain beliefs or
disbeliefs at all?) Is truth a really a matter of subjective
opinion? Is not truth, if that word means anything at all, an
ongoing process of careful observation and uncompromised,
undefended honesty?
It's time we stop pretending, subtly or overtly, that our
particular group is superior in some way. That's a hidden way of
saying, "I'm superior," (and therefore not inferior).
Let's bring our woundedness, our childhood fears and hurts of
inferiority, covered over by the pretense of individual or
collective superiority, to a total and absolute halt. Completely.
Now. If we need to weep, then let's weep together. And let those
tears of shame be tears of relief, tears of joy, in finally
putting down this burden of trying to defend and justify what we
have imagined ourselves to be. What doesn't exist doesn't need to
be defended. It never did.
Particularly in recent years, many of us have had very powerful
awakenings, but these experiences, in and of themselves, do not
mean that much unless we allow ourselves to be transformed,
completely, by what we have discovered. If we try to use them to
validate our religious and peer identities and opinions, with our
various secret and subtle motives and perceptions so shaped, we
corrupt our awakening, and are already entangled in delusion.
(And when we make ourselves or our group or our path or the
teacher we've identified ourselves with special, we make
ourselves separate.) The most any spiritual institution can do is
to support and celebrate what is already real and true without
reservation.
Full awareness, peace, freedom, clarity and joy can, and do, only
exist now. If any of us still find ourselves suffering from the
symptoms of ignorance, divisiveness or competition, that is to
say, fear, envy, anger, sorrow, frustration, disappointment,
jealosy, self-loathing, guilt, depression, loneliness, despair,
or confusion, it is because we are still negotiating with God,
still negotiating with Truth, still negotiating with Love, still
negotiating with Freedom, still negotiating with Serenity. The
pain is none other than the agony of lying to ourselves about
what we want more than anything else. It is like finally finding
the lover we have always longed for, but holding back in terror
of losing that love.
Why put this moment off? That which you seek is That which you
already are, and always have been - you are not separate, you
cannot be separate from the Absolute, from Infinite Consciousness
Itself. If you dare to stop pretending that you and your life are
based on some mental version of things that arises out of memory,
you will find out beyond any doubt! This is not some kind of
wishful thinking or grandiose mental trick. Rather, with total
and unflinching sincerity, with no psychological defense or self
deception whatsoever, search your heart and find out what you
permanently are, what you've been all along. Find out if there
has ever been a separate "Other." If you discover there
never has been an other, is there one now? Could there ever be?
Why pretend anymore?
If you dare to give your heart, your soul, your mind, your body,
and your life, unconditionally, to what you discover to be true,
you will know an infinitely deep and abiding peace that has never
been even a breath away. This bliss, this tranquility depends on
nothing, and It is not capable of ending. Furthermore, it doesn't
make a bit of difference what you've ever done... or not done.
You can put an end to the battle. Yes, that's correct, just walk
right out of the war, right now. All you have to do is surrender,
absolutely and completely, not to me, not to some authority
figure, or some organization or institution, but surrender only
to your own deepest Purity.
God and your own Unbounded Love are not different. If you truly
give yourself up completely, it will shock your whole system. It
will suddenly dawn on you,
"Oh my God, what a fool I've been! What was I
thinking?"
Then the absolute insanity of giving yourself to anything else
will become apparent. Why wait? Why put off your own complete and
total liberation? In your innermost and outermost places, in
every single moment, Love waits for you everywhere. Is there
really something else you would rather do? Is it possible that
the thing that you fear the most, the thing that you avoid the
most, is what you truly desire the most? It cannot abandon you.
Even if you choose to ignore It, betray It and walk away, It is
always closer than your next breath. Suspend all opinion and
debate, and find out for yourself.
- Scott Morrison, posted to NondualitySalon