You must leave the door open

 The world of the “me, myself and I” is mostly fine, but the life of magic happens in a different realm. “I Am That I Am” is our birthright Ramana Maharshi said, and the Bible’s mandate of “Be still and know I Am That I Am” describes the method of getting there. That’s the meaning really of leaving the door open. Waiting in quiet anticipation,

 

S (erenity) prevails there;

E (nergy) meets us in a purity we never experienced;

L (ove) rushes to our side no matter what the circumstances, and the

F (low) of life directs all happenings seemingly without our involvement.

 

When we truly observe what happens within and without, and observe the fact that the without is a straight-forward projection our inner state, we become naturally very still. It’s an amazing matrix we live in, an intersection of thought-based and beyond-self energies. Don’t do anything other than observing and leaving the door open, and enjoy the ride!

 

Spiritual Roundtable Notes—Death, attachment and letting go

 Death came up as Tony’s teacher passed. Paul mentioned how devastated his partner was recently when a friend passed. When asked why she was so affected she concluded it just came too sudden. She couldn’t say good-bye! Tony conjectured that enlightened people cross over happily. They are ready to let go because they have been doing this all their lives.

 

Suzanne asked if we are able to face a difficult moment without much resistance. If the answer is yes, death may not be so difficult to face either.

 

Majid added that it is about attachment. We maybe able to let go of one activity but attachment follows us around. He added, “I am not as non-attached as I once thought I was.” Aren’t we all!

 

Exercise and body pain came up. Tony and Majid concluded they exercise to be in good shape through the ages.

 

Suzanne added that spirituality is about learning to live our life wholeheartedly without escaping. Some people even use spirituality to escape. Mindfulness about the body is key. Only when we are truly connected without body can be be truly connected with others. We are One.

 

Julie added that we have to feel well in order to be truly spiritual. A sick body can give us the feeling of being trapped inside.

 

Michael added that we need to be mindful of what we give energy too. Sometimes we first have to clean up the mess inside before we can be effective in the outside world.

 

I added that for me spirituality is about claiming abundance and waking up to the fear of scarcity. A healthy body gives us a feeling of having, a sick body communicates to us our fear of not having.

 

Charith added the fears of having a tiny existence. When we lose confidence, death can be very scary indeed. When we are confident, we can embrace it.

 

Suzanne remarked that we are scared of the unknown. That’s why we try to hold onto our body and our life. She observed how she clung to a popular form of therapy for her autistic son not because it was a good one but in fear that without it, she thought she would have to face his autism struggle just by herself.

 

I added a memory when my wife wanted to learn ice skating (she dropped it after the first lesson) but clung to the railing because she was afraid of falling. The teacher remarked dryly that in order to learn skating one has to let go of the support eventually! This is the trust of letting go!

 

Syed asked how we know the difference between giving up and letting go. Suzanne responded that we feel the energy difference. Giving up is frustrated energy, in letting go the motivation is not to get rid of something but about understanding what this energy of resistance is all about. Majid added that there has to be the awareness of attachment. Just be mindful!

 

As it turned out we started the discussion around death on the anniversary of J. Krishnamurti’s passing. He was 91 when he died of cancer. I remember reading that even on the day before leaving his body he went on his favorite walk up in the mountains. He strikes me as someone who was ready to face the next part of the spiritual journey.

 

Thanks everyone for participating. We have moved the discussion to meeting bi-weekly, our next discussion will be on spiritual pride. The zoom discussions are on Saturdays at 8am East coast time. Please let me know if you like to be added to the distribution list.

 

 

The Paradox of I

 The “I” casts off the illusion of “I” and yet remains as “I”.

Such is the paradox of Self-realization.

Ramana Maharshi

 

Eckhart Tolle reported that one of the reviewers of The Power of Now described his writings as mumbo-jumbo. That’s discouraging because he managed with his book to reach the hearts of millions. How many then are ready to solve Ramana Maharshi’s paradox, and how will the book reviewers feel about it? Only someone who is approaching that stage of dropping all conditioning can resonate with the seemingly impossibility of the situation.

 

It’s a fact that with “me” missing in action all problems go away. It is equally true that the desire to rid ourselves of ego is the ultimate bypassing. What to do? How to overcome this paradox? Simply observe and the self drops by itself. When you truly observe, the experience of “me” is at its root a sensation. How does desire come about? It’s a sensation coupled with a story to make the sensation lastingly so. How does sorrow come about? It’s a painful memory that hits us, added with a story of how miserable we are. How does fear arise? It’s a sensation coupled with a vivid imagination of how the awful present moment will be extrapolated in time.

 

In the here and now there is no story, no thought process that comments on the future implications or the comparisons to the past. There is no center of perception. There is no “me” to speak of. How can we live in the here and now moment by moment? Only by being aware of the amazing surroundings and the inner storyteller who is always happy to grab the microphone. Notice the sensation and move on!

 

 

Many paths lead up the imaginary mountain

 Many paths lead from

the foot of the mountain,

but at the peak

we all gaze at the

single bright moon.

Ikkyu (1394-1481)

 

When I started writing about spirituality, I was influenced by the New Age concept of ego, this part of our self that “edges-God-out”. Often it is not hard to see when ego rules our behavior, and once we become aware of what we are doing, we can play little games like doing exactly the opposite and see what happens.

 

These days I am more influenced by advaita, the feat of being aware of Oneness and the ability to look through self’s presence altogether. The power of the here and now is that our self identification melts in the magnificence of the moment. Thought stops altogether and within there is a feeling of serenity, abundance and love.

 

It’s not wrong to contemplate the presence of ego within and in all of our interactions. In fact, the mindfulness of ego presence is also a form of self inquiry. While we have to be careful to mind the decision maker as he often is a self-appointed thief as police-chief, our heart and our environment will be glad to disrobe him if we are honest enough to listen.

 

Christianity’s love, the Torah’s golden rule of doing unto others as we want them to do unto us, the general practice of meditation and mindfulness, the zen approach of seeing life as it is, ego contemplation, self inquiry, you name it. Eventually all practices lead us up the imaginary mountain as long as we are serious practitioners; sooner or later we spot the self at work.

“Me” is a sensation

 How does desire come about? It’s a sensation coupled with a story to make the sensation lastingly so. 

How does sorrow come about? It’s a painful memory that hits us, added with a story of how miserable we are.

 

How does fear arise? It’s a sensation coupled with a vivid imagination of how the awful present moment will be extrapolated in time.

 

In the here and now there is no story, no thought process that comments on the future implications or the comparisons to the past. There is no center of perception. There is no “me” to speak of.

 

How can we live in the here and now moment by moment? Only by being aware of the amazing surroundings and the inner storyteller who is always happy to grab the microphone. Notice the sensation and move on!

The spiritual antenna

 Consciousness is. It is available in different dimensions dependent on our readiness. For modern wo(man), eons of conditioning has been added to our reception. Nearly every day we have financial news, romantic news, family news, professional news, health news, and so forth. A little trigger reaches our radio station and the story of the ‘me, myself and I’ takes over.

 

A sage has a clear reception. These triggers are absent and what could have developed into a news story fails to get our attention. It is as if we meet our boss or our lover for the first time every day. We also have access to news so to speak but it always comes from the source, there is no adding or subtracting according to our own. We operate in a different dimension.

 

Awakening is like an fm radio station on the outskirts. We receive the unconditioned downloads on a good day and are as biased as the fellow next door on a bad day. It’s a bi-polar existence that has the mission statement to get the self out of the Way. For how long have you been operating in that twilight zone? What ways have you found the sharpen the reception?

What energies are running you?

 I was having dinner with our youngest at our favorite pizza place. He talked about his friends and how much ego he observed in some of them. “You don’t have any ego”, he said to me. I knew what he meant. I don’t when it comes to our boys, but I can’t really take credit for it. Our parents didn’t have any ego either when it came to us. That’s what happens. We take the good from our parents and just have to work a little on their homework.

 

Still, I have ego, it’s just that he isn’t aware of it yet. The way I fought at work for “my” investment thesis, and the fear in me when this thesis came under attack. Just leaving the workplace doesn’t solve the problem. The “me, myself and I” force may be harder to spot now, like the frustration that I experience as a writer when I cannot express to the reader what I know to be true. Watching is all we can do. It’s not about being good or bad. It’s about spotting the processes that drive us and that claim to be us. Insight is instantaneous, but we have to see the troublemaker at work first to step out of the energy field. What energies are running you?

 

#ego #spirituality #awakening #mindfulness