another bob
22nd January 2013, 17:17
That which is not used becomes obsolete, whereas what is resisted is kept in the forefront of attention. Thus, the creative principle of change initially entails a thorough recognition and consequent discarding of old “tapes”, or storyline scripts, that we have used to assemble, reinforce, and perpetuate our sense of self, the one we have taken to be the central character — “me”. In other words, it involves identifying and then eliminating what doesn’t work.
To illustrate with one example, I spent a part of my professional career conflicted about living and working in the world, rather than isolated in some “spiritual” community, where I imagined I would be able to make more “progress” towards liberation. It was this very story I kept telling myself that robbed the life I was actually involved in of any power to awaken me, since I was always projecting the real work to be “elsewhere”. Of course, the more I reinforced my fixed idea, the more self-confirming it became. It was only when I was eventually able to recognize how I was seriously limiting myself by clinging to a narrow “either/or” position that I was finally able to discard the old presumptions and allow my present circumstance, whatever it might be, to serve as the fuel for real liberation.
Rather than waging a prolonged battle with this fictional entity we have created over the course of our lives, we can simply cease granting it any enduring and concrete reality by shifting our attention to awareness itself — in other words, shifting our attention to being aware of being aware, prior to the whole narrative and architecture of personhood, as well as the ensuing complication that artificial edifice implies.
This “house-cleaning” can be initiated by first developing the capacity for calm abidance in silence, where we can better inspect the subterranean elements of our psyche that have been driving behavior and affecting our relations without our conscious knowledge or consent.
From the detached vantage point provided by such stillness, we can then delve into our original motives that led to the creation of our current circumstances. Without clarity here, any effort to make substantial life changes that we might undertake will be tainted by old uninspected and chaotic influences, which will hamper our necessary one-pointedness, compounding our sense of frustration and inner division.
Once stabilized in the undistracted state, we can inquire: what is it that we most want, and what have we been doing to sabotage that original yearning? Old programming becomes obsolete when we cease investing in it, so it is wise to “empty the teacup” before filling it again with the fresh tea of projected changes.
Once clear about our motivation, and what we really want to achieve, combining sincere intent with undivided attention is the next step, and solidifying this combination through persistent reinforcement is the key to success. It is an uncompromising yoga in that respect, which requires steady devotion in order to reap results.
Furthermore, wedding our refreshed and awake intent to the “Cosmic Will” can help to insure that our motives remain pure and on-track. Such “union” is no obscure mystery, but really a matter of aligning thought-energy with the order of the universe. This can be done by us “stepping out of the way”, so to speak, and letting ourselves be lived by Love. After all, what other force in the universe would have our best interests at heart more than Love?
Letting oneself be lived does not mean that we must rely on some higher power outside of ourselves, however. On the contrary, to let go and embrace the unknown is most intimate, since it involves relaxing into full acceptance of the Love that we already are, and always have been. It is an act of genuine humility, without which, no real transformation is possible.
True humility is not a matter of humiliation, or humbling oneself before some external divinity, but entails the recognition that I do not really know what anything is. In fact, I exist in total state of not knowing, this is my fundamental condition, and so ego-mind has no place to plant a flag and turn my efforts at change into just another vanity project. It’s what real freedom is all about, in that respect, since there is nothing there to manipulate or corrupt.
Such humility is the red carpet to “getting back into our right mind”, in other words, but is only genuine when it is based on the recognition that all methods, schemes, and escape plans one has employed are destined to fail, as long as one is basing them on the presumed reality of a permanent and substantial person, a “me”.
From that place of not knowing, I can see things as they are, without the superimposition of provisional knowledge, beliefs, or conditioned programs, and it is only when we are able to see clearly that we are capable of making the changes in our attitudes and behavior that truly serve us and our relations.
To illustrate with one example, I spent a part of my professional career conflicted about living and working in the world, rather than isolated in some “spiritual” community, where I imagined I would be able to make more “progress” towards liberation. It was this very story I kept telling myself that robbed the life I was actually involved in of any power to awaken me, since I was always projecting the real work to be “elsewhere”. Of course, the more I reinforced my fixed idea, the more self-confirming it became. It was only when I was eventually able to recognize how I was seriously limiting myself by clinging to a narrow “either/or” position that I was finally able to discard the old presumptions and allow my present circumstance, whatever it might be, to serve as the fuel for real liberation.
Rather than waging a prolonged battle with this fictional entity we have created over the course of our lives, we can simply cease granting it any enduring and concrete reality by shifting our attention to awareness itself — in other words, shifting our attention to being aware of being aware, prior to the whole narrative and architecture of personhood, as well as the ensuing complication that artificial edifice implies.
This “house-cleaning” can be initiated by first developing the capacity for calm abidance in silence, where we can better inspect the subterranean elements of our psyche that have been driving behavior and affecting our relations without our conscious knowledge or consent.
From the detached vantage point provided by such stillness, we can then delve into our original motives that led to the creation of our current circumstances. Without clarity here, any effort to make substantial life changes that we might undertake will be tainted by old uninspected and chaotic influences, which will hamper our necessary one-pointedness, compounding our sense of frustration and inner division.
Once stabilized in the undistracted state, we can inquire: what is it that we most want, and what have we been doing to sabotage that original yearning? Old programming becomes obsolete when we cease investing in it, so it is wise to “empty the teacup” before filling it again with the fresh tea of projected changes.
Once clear about our motivation, and what we really want to achieve, combining sincere intent with undivided attention is the next step, and solidifying this combination through persistent reinforcement is the key to success. It is an uncompromising yoga in that respect, which requires steady devotion in order to reap results.
Furthermore, wedding our refreshed and awake intent to the “Cosmic Will” can help to insure that our motives remain pure and on-track. Such “union” is no obscure mystery, but really a matter of aligning thought-energy with the order of the universe. This can be done by us “stepping out of the way”, so to speak, and letting ourselves be lived by Love. After all, what other force in the universe would have our best interests at heart more than Love?
Letting oneself be lived does not mean that we must rely on some higher power outside of ourselves, however. On the contrary, to let go and embrace the unknown is most intimate, since it involves relaxing into full acceptance of the Love that we already are, and always have been. It is an act of genuine humility, without which, no real transformation is possible.
True humility is not a matter of humiliation, or humbling oneself before some external divinity, but entails the recognition that I do not really know what anything is. In fact, I exist in total state of not knowing, this is my fundamental condition, and so ego-mind has no place to plant a flag and turn my efforts at change into just another vanity project. It’s what real freedom is all about, in that respect, since there is nothing there to manipulate or corrupt.
Such humility is the red carpet to “getting back into our right mind”, in other words, but is only genuine when it is based on the recognition that all methods, schemes, and escape plans one has employed are destined to fail, as long as one is basing them on the presumed reality of a permanent and substantial person, a “me”.
From that place of not knowing, I can see things as they are, without the superimposition of provisional knowledge, beliefs, or conditioned programs, and it is only when we are able to see clearly that we are capable of making the changes in our attitudes and behavior that truly serve us and our relations.