A key component of the New Age which many people prescribe to is the belief that our planet and its population are literally moving into a New Age. This New Age is one of awakened consciousness where people give up their limited third-dimensional survival mode of existence and awaken to a higher, more enlightened world.
This coming New Age is an era of harmony, progress, knowing, and enlightenment.
Andrew Lutts
© Salem New Age Center
Introduction: Basic Terms
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Spirit
an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms, the immaterial intelligent or sentient part of a person -
Soul
the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life, the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe -
Mind
the element or complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons, the conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism, the organized conscious and unconscious adaptive mental activity of an organism -
Holistic
relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts (holistic medicine attempts to treat both the mind and the body)
The New Age Movement
The New Age movement means different things to different people.
However almost all New Age topics have one basic underlying theme:
personal spiritual development. Every day there are thousands upon thousands of people around the world who are waking up to the knowledge, understanding and realization of who they really are, where they came from, and why they are here. This collective transformation of individuals can be described as the New Age movement. As a whole, the New Age movement is dynamic, rapidly-growing, and gaining momentum. The New Age movement provides the framework and the tools to assist people with their own personal growth and spiritual development.
The New Age movement itself is somewhat of a paradox, since to organize into some kind of "movement" could be considered to be contrary to the fundamentals of individual spiritual development. That is why there is some ambiguity to the meaning of the New Age, because it can mean different things to people. But that's okay. What is important is that each individual embarks on their own journey of learning, adventure, and discovery.
New Age and Metaphysics
The New Age is strongly related to some of the concepts defined in the branch of philosophy commonly referred to as metaphysics. Although the academic branch of metaphysics is most concerned about the nature of ultimate reality, popular metaphysical topics often include discussion and analysis of subjects beyond the physical third dimension. Some examples of metaphysical topics include: free energy, out of body experiences, UFOs, psychic phenomenon, alternative healing, and other topics that our conventional sciences find difficult to explain.
New Age and Religion
Although it may be spiritual, the New Age is far from being a formal religion. In fact, many New Agers tend to shy away from the structure and confines of traditional religious practices. But at the same time the New Age is and can be intensely spiritual. The New Age person often prefers a direct spiritual experience rather than one from organized religion.
All religions are essentially cultural institutions, reflecting the cultures that manifest them. Thus the growth in numbers of people exploring New Age topics would suggest that as individuals and as a society, we are willing to explore alternative explanations of who we are. The New Age is simply one path to choose on the road of spiritual growth. It matters little which label we put on the path, since in the end all paths ultimately converge at the same place. Everyone is searching for the eternal truths to some of life's most challenging questions, it is simply the way that people choose to go about their own search that is different. One reason the New Age path is popular is that it is more concerned with the ultimate truths themselves, rather than the process of how they are arrived at.
Common New Age Beliefs
Here's an unofficial list of beliefs that some individuals in New Age may have in common:
- You create your own reality and destiny. This is a planet of free choice, and you have your own free will.
- You have certain challenges to face and overcome in this lifetime. If you don't learn your lessons this time, you'll get them again.
- There is no such thing as coincidence.
- There is more to life than meets the eye, much more.
- Nothing really matters in this life unless it is done for the benefit of others.
- We are not alone.
- We are multidimensional beings currently having a human experience.
- We are all receiving more help than we know, from angels, spirit guides, ascended masters and others.
- We can heal ourselves, our society, and our world.
- The ultimate transformation for mankind is ascension.
New Age Tools
A study of the tools of the New Ager can help define the task at hand. A person may include crystals, candles, incense, tarot, runes, a pendulum, bodywork, meditation, toning and chanting, drums, and more. These tools can help a person transcend into various states of consciousness, and thus ultimately help a person turn within to look inside oneself for understanding and awareness. One reason that there are so many different tools to assist the New Ager is that different people find different values within each tool. For many, the Tarot works well. Others like crystals. Others meditate or channel. It matters little how one achieves higher understanding and wisdom. What is most important is that an effort is being made to transcend our limitations and seek out a higher good.
Free Will versus Destiny
This philosophical question is one of the more curious contradictions in the study of metaphysics and free will:
Some metaphysicians would argue that a rational universe is always based on cause and effect. That is, every effect is preceded by a cause, all the way back to the First Cause, that being God or the Divine.
On the other side, the act of pure, genuine, uncaused free will is considered somehow to negate the divine rational order and makes the universe seem irrational.
My interpretation: Although certain things may occur in one's life that may be destiny, we do have free will. This is important. And as time passes, our ability to manifest things and situations will accelerate so quickly that we will see that we can create and manifest results quickly and easily. To me, if we can bring about such change, this means we do in fact have free will.
New Age and Science
Many people feel that new age thinking just simply isn't rational. Traditional scientific models often include observation, analysis, testing and measurement. Quite often these things cannot be easily performed on paranormal and metaphysical phenomena. So how can someone believe in something they can't even see, measure, quantify or analyze?
It all comes down to beliefs, and often a deep inner knowing. It involves intuition and trust. It involves listening. It involves a whole lot of things that are currently beyond the scope of accepted scientific thinking.
The important thing to remember is that new age beliefs don't reject science. Modern science has brought tremendous good to our society in many ways. New age beliefs simply expand beyond accepted thinking in the exploration and search for life's eternal truths.
Source: Andrew Lutts
© Salem New Age Center
For an overview of the New Age Movement visit:
Man and the Unknown - The Roots of the New Age Movement (an external link).
THE BODHISATTVA'S SEARCH
BUDDHA, THE GOSPEL
By Paul Carus [1894]
Source: www.Sacred-Texts.com
ALARA and Uddaka were renowned as teachers among the Brahmans, and there was no one in those days who surpassed them in learning and philosophical knowledge. The Bodhisattva went to them and sat at their feet. He listened to their doctrines of the atman or self, which is the ego of the mind and the doer of all doings. He learned their views of the transmigration of souls and of the law of karma; how the souls of bad men had to suffer by being reborn in men of low caste, in animals, or in hell, while those who purified themselves by libation, by sacrifices, and by self-mortification would become kings, or Brahmans, or devas, so as to rise higher and higher in the grades of existence. He studied their incantations and offerings and the methods by which they attained deliverance of the ego from material existence in states of ecstasy.
Alara said: "What is that self which perceives the actions of the five roots of mind, touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing? What is that which is active in the two ways of motion, in the hands and in the feet? The problem of the soul appears in the expressions 'I say,' 'I know and perceive,' 'I come,' and 'I go' or 'I will stay here.' Thy soul is not thy body; it is not thy eye, not thy ear, not thy nose, not thy tongue, nor is it thy mind. The I is the one who feels the touch in thy body. The I is the smeller in the nose, the taster in the tongue, the seer in the eye, the hearer in the ear, and the thinker in the mind. The I moves thy hands and thy feet. The I is thy soul. Doubt in the existence of the soul is irreligious, and without discerning this truth there is no way of salvation. Deep speculation will easily involve the mind; it leads to confusion and unbelief; but a purification of the soul leads to the way of escape. True deliverance is reached by removing from the crowd and leading a hermit's life, depending entirely on alms for food. Putting away all desire and clearly recognizing the non-existence of matter, we reach a state of perfect emptiness. Here we find the condition of immaterial life. As the munja grass when freed from its horny case, as a sword when drawn from its scabbard, or as the wild bird escaped from its prison, so the ego liberating itself from all limitations, finds perfect release. This is true deliverance, but those only who will have deep faith will learn."
The Bodhisattva found no satisfaction in these teachings. He replied: "People are in bondage, because they have not yet removed the idea of the ego. The thing and its quality are different in our thought, but not in reality. Heat is different from fire in our thought, but you cannot remove heat from fire in reality. You say that you can remove the qualities and leave the thing, but if you think your theory to the end, you will find that this is not so.
"Is not man an organism of many aggregates? Are we not composed of various attributes? Man consists of the material form, of sensation, of thought, of dispositions, and, lastly, of understanding. That which men call the ego when they say 'I am' is not an entity behind the attributes; it originates by their co-operation. There is mind; there is sensation and thought, and there is truth; and truth is mind when it walks in the path of righteousness. But there is no separate ego-soul outside or behind the thought of man. He who believes the ego is a distinct being has no correct conception. The very search for the atman is wrong; it is a wrong start and it will lead you in a false direction.
"How much confusion of thought comes from our interest in self, and from our vanity when thinking 'I am so great,' or 'I have done this wonderful deed?' The thought of thine ego stands between thy rational nature and truth; banish it, and then wilt thou see things as they are. He who thinks correctly will rid himself of ignorance and acquire wisdom. The ideas 'I am' and 'I shall be' or 'I shall not be' do not occur to a clear thinker.
"Moreover, if our ego remains, how can we attain true deliverance? If the ego is to be reborn in any of the three worlds, be it in hell, upon earth, or be it even in heaven, we shall meet again and again the same inevitable doom of sorrow. We shall remain chained to the wheel of individuality and shall be implicated in egotism and wrong. All combination is subject to separation, and we cannot escape birth, disease, old age, and death. Is this a final escape?"
Said Uddaka: "Consider the unity of things. Things are not their parts, yet they exist. The members and organs of thy body are not thine ego, but thine ego possesses all these parts. What, for instance, is the Ganges? Is the sand the Ganges? Is the water the Ganges? Is the hither bank the Ganges? Is the hither bank the Ganges? Is the farther bank the Ganges? The Ganges is a mighty river and it possesses all these several qualities. Exactly so is our ego."
But the Bodhisattva replied: "Not so, sir! If we remove the water, the sand, the hither bank and the farther bank where can we find any Ganges? In the same way I observe the activities of man in their harmonious union, but there is no ground for an ego outside its parts."
The Brahman sage, however, insisted on the existence of the ego, saying: "The ego is the doer of our deeds. How can there be karma without a self as its performer? Do we not see around us the effects of karma? What makes men different in character, station, possessions, and fate? It is their karma, and karma includes merit and demerit. The transmigration of the soul is subject to its karma. We inherit from former existences the evil effects of our evil deeds and the good effects of our good deeds. If that were not so, how could we be different?'
The Tathagata meditated deeply on the problems of transmigration and karma, and found the truth that lies in them. "The doctrine of karma, he said, is undeniable, but the theory of the ego has no foundation. Like everything else in nature, the life of man is subject to the law of cause and effect. The present reaps what the past has sown, and the future is the product of the present. But there is no evidence of the existence of an immutable ego-being, of a self which remains the same and migrates from body to body. There is rebirth but no transmigration.
"Is not this individuality of mine a combination, material as well as mental? Is it not made up of qualities that sprang into being by a gradual evolution? The five roots of sense perception in this organism have come from ancestors who performed these functions. The ideas which I think, came to me partly from others who thought them, and partly they rise from combinations of the ideas in my own mind. Those who have used the same sense-organs, and have thought the same ideas before I was composed into this individuality of mine, are my previous existences; they are my ancestors as much as the I of yesterday is the father of the I of today, and the karma of my past deeds affects the fate of my present existence.
"Supposing there were an atman that performs the actions of the senses then if the door of sight were torn down and the eye plucked out, that atman would be able to peep through the larger aperture and see the forms of its surroundings better and more clearly than before. It would be able to hear sounds better if the ears were torn away; smell better if the nose were cut off; taste better if the tongue were pulled out; and feel better if the body were destroyed.
"I observe the preservation and transmission of character; I perceive the truth of karma, but see no atman whom your doctrine makes the doer of your deeds. There is rebirth without the transmigration of a self. For this atman, this self, this ego in the 'I say' and in the 'I will' is an illusion. If this self were a reality, how could there be an escape from selfhood? The terror of hell would be infinite, and no release could be granted. The evils of existence would not be due to our ignorance and wrong-doing, but would constitute the very nature of our being."
Then the Bodhisattva went to the priests officiating in the temples. But the gentle mind of the Sakyamuni was offended at the unnecessary cruelty performed on the altars of the gods. He said: "Ignorance only can make these men prepare festivals and hold vast meetings for sacrifices. Far better to revere the truth than try to appease the gods by shedding blood. What love can a man possess who believes that the destruction of life will atone for evil deeds? Can a new wrong expiate old wrongs? And can the slaughter of an innocent victim blot out the evil deeds of mankind? This is practicing religion by the neglect of moral conduct. Purify your hearts and cease to kill; that is true religion. Rituals have no efficacy; prayers are vain repetitions; and incantations have no saving power. But to abandon covetousness and lust, to become free from evil passions, and to give up all hatred and ill-will, that is the right sacrifice and the true worship."
BUDDHA, THE GOSPEL
By Paul Carus [1894]
Source: www.Sacred-Texts.com
Purchase online a copy of The Gospel of Buddha, According to Old Records
Ego - The False Center
By Osho
The first thing to be understood is what ego is.
A child is born.
A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own self.
And when a child is born the first thing he becomes aware of is not himself; the first thing he becomes aware of is the other. It is natural, because the eyes open outwards, the hands touch others, the ears listen to others, the tongue tastes food and the nose smells the outside. All these senses open outwards.
That is what birth means. Birth means coming into this world, the world of the outside. So when a child is born, he is born into this world. He opens his eyes, sees others. 'Other' means the thou. He becomes aware of the mother first.
Then, by and by, he becomes aware of his own body. That too is the other, that too belongs to the world. He is hungry and he feels the body; his need is satisfied, he forgets the body.
This is how a child grows. First he becomes aware of you, thou, other, and then by and by, in contrast to you, thou, he becomes aware of himself.
This awareness is a reflected awareness. He is not aware of who he is. He is simply aware of the mother and what she thinks about him. If she smiles, if she appreciates the child, if she says, "You are beautiful," if she hugs and kisses him, the child feels good about himself. Now an ego is born. Through appreciation, love, care, he feels he is good, he feels he is valuable, he feels he has some significance. A center is born. But this center is a reflected center. It is not his real being. He does not know who he is; he simply knows what others think about him.
And this is the ego: the reflection, what others think. If nobody thinks that he is of any use, nobody appreciates him, nobody smiles, then too an ego is born:
an ill ego; sad, rejected, like a wound; feeling inferior, worthless. This too is the ego. This too is a reflection.
First the mother - and mother means the world in the beginning.
Then others will join the mother, and the world goes on growing.
And the more the world grows, the more complex the ego becomes, because many others' opinions are reflected.
The ego is an accumulated phenomenon, a by-product of living with others. If a child lives totally alone, he will never come to grow an ego. But that is not going to help. He will remain like an animal. That doesn't mean that he will come to know the real self, no. The real can be known only through the false, so the ego is a must. One has to pass through it. It is a discipline. The real can be known only through the illusion. You cannot know the truth directly. First you have to know that which is not true. First you have to encounter the untrue. Through that encounter you become capable of knowing the truth. If you know the false as the false, truth will dawn upon you.
Ego is a need; it is a social need, it is a social by-product. The society means all that is around you - not you, but all that is around you. All, minus you, is the society. And everybody reflects. You will go to school and the teacher will reflect who you are. You will be in friendship with other children and they will reflect who you are. By and by, everybody is adding to your ego, and everybody is trying to modify it in such a way that you don't become a problem to the society. They are not concerned with you. They are concerned with the society.
Society is concerned with itself, and that's how it should be.
They are not concerned that you should become a self-knower. They are concerned that you should become an efficient part in the mechanism of the society. You should fit into the pattern. So they are trying to give you an ego that fits with the society. They teach you morality. Morality means giving you an ego which will fit with the society. If you are immoral, you will always be a misfit somewhere or other. That's why we put criminals in the prisons - not that they have done something wrong, not that by putting them in the prisons we are going to improve them, no. They simply don't fit. They are troublemakers. They have certain types of egos of which the society doesn't approve. If the society approves, everything is good.
One man kills somebody - he is a murderer. And the same man in wartime kills thousands - he becomes a great hero. The society is not bothered by a murder, but the murder should be committed for the society - then it is okay. The society doesn't bother about morality.
Morality means only that you should fit with the society. If the society is at war, then the morality changes. If the society is at peace, then there is a different morality. Morality is a social politics. It is diplomacy. And each child has to be brought up in such a way that he fits into the society, that's all. Because society is interested in efficient members. Society is not interested that you should attain to self-knowledge.
The society creates an ego because the ego can be controlled and manipulated. The self can never be controlled or manipulated. Nobody has ever heard of the society controlling a self - not possible.
And the child needs a center; the child is completely unaware of his own center.
The society gives him a center and the child is by and by convinced that this is his center, the ego that society gives.
A child comes back to his home - if he has come first in his class, the whole family is happy. You hug and kiss him, and you take the child on your shoulders and dance and you say, "What a beautiful child! You are a pride to us." You are giving him an ego, a subtle ego. And if the child comes home dejected, unsuccessful, a failure - he couldn't pass, or he has just been on the back bench - then nobody appreciates him and the child feels rejected. He will try harder next time, because the center feels shaken. Ego is always shaken, always in search of food, that somebody should appreciate it. That's why you continuously ask for attention. You get the idea of who you are from others. It is not a direct experience. It is from others that you get the idea of who you are. They shape your center. This center is false, because you carry your real center. That is nobody's business. Nobody shapes it. You come with it. You are born with it.
So you have two centers. One center you come with, which is given by existence itself. That is the self. And the other center, which is created by the society, is the ego. It is a false thing - and it is a very great trick.
Through the ego the society is controlling you. You have to behave in a certain way, because only then does the society appreciate you. You have to walk in a certain way; you have to laugh in a certain way; you have to follow certain manners,
a morality, a code. Only then will the society appreciate you, and if it doesn't, you ego will be shaken. And when the ego is shaken, you don't know where you are, who you are. The others have given you the idea. That idea is the ego.
Try to understand it as deeply as possible, because this has to be thrown. And unless you throw it you will never be able to attain to the self. Because you are addicted to the center, you cannot move, and you cannot look at the self. And remember, there is going to be an interim period, an interval, when the ego will be shattered, when you will not know who you are, when you will not know where you are going, when all boundaries will melt. You will simply be confused, a chaos. Because of this chaos, you are afraid to lose the ego. But it has to be so. One has to pass through the chaos before one attains to the real center.
And if you are daring, the period will be small.
If you are afraid, and you again fall back to the ego, and you again start arranging it, then it can be very, very long; many lives can be wasted.
I have heard: One small child was visiting his grandparents. He was just four years old. In the night when the grandmother was putting him to sleep, he suddenly started crying and weeping and said, "I want to go home. I am afraid of darkness." But the grandmother said, "I know well that at home also you sleep in the dark; I have never seen a light on. So why are you afraid here?" The boy said, "Yes, that's right - but that is MY darkness." This darkness is completely unknown.
Even with darkness you feel, "This is MINE." Outside - an unknown darkness.
With the ego you feel, "This is MY darkness." It may be troublesome, maybe it creates many miseries, but still mine. Something to hold to, something to cling to, something underneath the feet; you are not in a vacuum, not in an emptiness. You may be miserable, but at least you ARE. Even being miserable gives you a feeling of 'I am'. Moving from it, fear takes over; you start feeling afraid of the unknown darkness and chaos - because society has managed to clear a small part of your being.
It is just like going to a forest. You make a little clearing, you clear a little ground; you make fencing, you make a small hut; you make a small garden, a lawn, and you are okay. Beyond your fence - the forest, the wild. Here everything is okay; you have planned everything. This is how it has happened. Society has made a little clearing in your consciousness. It has cleaned just a little part completely, fenced it. Everything is okay there. That's what all your universities are doing. The whole culture and conditioning is just to clear a part so that you can feel at home there. And then you become afraid. Beyond the fence there is danger. Beyond the fence you are, as within the fence you are - and your conscious mind is just one part, one-tenth of your whole being. Nine-tenths is waiting in the darkness. And in that nine-tenths, somewhere your real center is hidden.
One has to be daring, courageous. One has to take a step into the unknown.
For a while all boundaries will be lost. For a while you will feel dizzy. For a while, you will feel very afraid and shaken, as if an earthquake has happened. But if you are courageous and you don't go backwards, if you don't fall back to the ego and you go on and on, there is a hidden center within you that you have been carrying for many lives. That is your soul, the self.
Once you come near it, everything changes, everything settles again. But now this settling is not done by the society. Now everything becomes a cosmos, not a chaos; a new order arises. But this is no longer the order of the society - it is the very order of existence itself.
It is what Buddha calls Dhamma, Lao Tzu calls Tao, Heraclitus calls Logos.
It is not man-made. It is the VERY order of existence itself. Then everything is suddenly beautiful again, and for the first time really beautiful, because man-made things cannot be beautiful. At the most you can hide the ugliness of them, that's all. You can decorate them, but they can never be beautiful.
The difference is just like the difference between a real flower and a plastic or paper flower. The ego is a plastic flower - dead. It just looks like a flower, it is not a flower. You cannot really call it a flower. Even linguistically to call it a flower is wrong, because a flower is something which flowers. And this plastic thing is just a thing, not a flowering. It is dead. There is no life in it. You have a flowering center within. That's why Hindus call it a lotus - it is a flowering. They call it the one-thousand-petaled-lotus. One thousand means infinite petals. And it goes on flowering, it never stops, it never dies.
But you are satisfied with a plastic ego. There are some reasons why you are satisfied. With a dead thing, there are many conveniences. One is that a dead thing never dies. It cannot - it was never alive. So you can have plastic flowers, they are good in a way. They are permanent; they are not eternal, but they are permanent. The real flower outside in the garden is eternal, but not permanent. And the eternal has its own way of being eternal. The way of the eternal is to be born again and again and to die. Through death it refreshes itself, rejuvenates itself.
To us it appears that the flower has died - it never dies. It simply changes bodies, so it is ever fresh. It leaves the old body, it enters a new body. It flowers somewhere else; it goes on flowering. But we cannot see the continuity because the continuity is invisible. We see only one flower, another flower; we never see the continuity.
It is the same flower which flowered yesterday. It is the same sun, but in a different garb.
The ego has a certain quality - it is dead. It is a plastic thing. And it is very easy to get it, because others give it. You need not seek it, there is no search involved. That's why unless you become a seeker after the unknown, you have not yet become an individual. You are just a part of the crowd. You are just a mob.
When you don't have a real center, how can you be an individual?
The ego is not individual. Ego is a social phenomenon - it is society, its not you. But it gives you a function in the society, a hierarchy in the society. And if you remain satisfied with it, you will miss the whole opportunity of finding the self. And that's why you are so miserable. With a plastic life, how can you be happy? With a false life, how can you be ecstatic and blissful?
And then this ego creates many miseries, millions of them. You cannot see, because it is your own darkness. You are attuned to it. Have you ever noticed that all types of miseries enter through the ego? It cannot make you blissful; it can only make you miserable.
Ego is hell. Whenever you suffer, just try to watch and analyze, and you will find, somewhere the ego is the cause of it. And the ego goes on finding causes to suffer. You are an egoist, as everyone is. Some are very gross, just on the surface, and they are not so difficult. Some are very subtle, deep down, and they are the real problems. This ego comes continuously in conflict with others because every ego is so unconfident about itself. Is has to be - it is a false thing. When you don't have anything in your hand and you just think that something is there, then there will be a problem. If somebody says, "There is nothing," immediately the fight will start, because you also feel that there is nothing. The other makes you aware of the fact. Ego is false, it is nothing. That you also know. How can you miss knowing it?
It is impossible! A conscious being - how can he miss knowing that this ego is just false? And then others say that there is nothing - and whenever the others say that there is nothing they hit a wound, they say a truth - and nothing hits like the truth. You have to defend, because if you don't defend, if you don't become defensive, then where will you be? You will be lost. The identity will be broken.
So you have to defend and fight - that is the clash.
A man who attains to the self is never in any clash. Others may come and clash with him, but he is never in clash with anybody.
It happened that one Zen master was passing through a street. A man came running and hit him hard. The master fell down. Then he got up and started to walk in the same direction in which he was going before, not even looking back.
A disciple was with the master. He was simply shocked. He said, "Who is this man? What is this? If one lives in such a way, then anybody can come and kill you. And you have not even looked at that person, who he is, and why he did it."
The master said, "That is his problem, not mine."
You can clash with an enlightened man, but that is your problem, not his. And if you are hurt in that clash, that too is your own problem. He cannot hurt you. And it is like knocking against a wall - you will be hurt, but the wall has not hurt you.
The ego is always looking for some trouble. Why? Because if nobody pays attention to you, the ego feels hungry. It lives on attention.
So even if somebody is fighting and angry with you, that too is good because at least the attention is paid. If somebody loves, it is okay. If somebody is not loving you, then even anger will be good. At least the attention will come to you. But if nobody is paying any attention to you, nobody thinks that you are somebody important, significant, then how will you feed your ego? Other's attention is needed.
In millions of ways you attract the attention of others; you dress in a certain way, you try to look beautiful, you behave, you become very polite, you change. When you feel what type of situation is there, you immediately change so that people pay attention to you. This is a deep begging. A real beggar is one who asks for and demands attention. And a real emperor is one who lives in himself; he has a center of his own, he doesn't depend on anybody else.
Buddha sitting under his bodhi tree...if the whole world suddenly disappears, will it make any difference to Buddha? -none. It will not make any difference at all. If the whole world disappears, it will not make any difference because he has attained to the center.
But you, if the wife escapes, divorces you, goes to somebody else, you are completely shattered - because she had been paying attention to you, caring, loving, moving around you, helping you to feel that you were somebody. Your whole empire is lost, you are simply shattered. You start thinking about suicide. Why? Why, if a wife leaves you, should you commit suicide? Why, if a husband leaves you, should you commit suicide? Because you don't have any center of your own. The wife was giving you the center; the husband was giving you the center.
This is how people exist. This is how people become dependent on others. It is a deep slavery. Ego HAS to be a slave. It depends on others. And only a person who has no ego is for the first time a master; he is no longer a slave.
Try to understand this. And start looking for the ego - not in others, that is not your business, but in yourself. Whenever you feel miserable, immediately close you eyes and try to find out from where the misery is coming and you will always find it is the false center which has clashed with someone.
You expected something, and it didn't happen. You expected something, and just the contrary happened - your ego is shaken, you are in misery. Just look, whenever you are miserable, try to find out why.
Causes are not outside you. The basic cause is within you - but you always look outside, you always ask:
- Who is making me miserable?
- Who is the cause of my anger?
- Who is the cause of my anguish?
And if you look outside you will miss. Just close the eyes and always look within. The source of all misery, anger, anguish, is hidden in you, your ego.
And if you find the source, it will be easy to move beyond it. If you can see that it is your own ego that gives you trouble, you will prefer to drop it - because nobody can carry the source of misery if he understands it.
And remember, there is no need to drop the ego. You cannot drop it. If you try to drop it, you will attain to a certain subtle ego again which says, "I have become humble." Don't try to be humble. That's again ego in hiding - but it's not dead.
Don't try to be humble. Nobody can try humility, and nobody can create humility through any effort of his own - no. When the ego is no more, a humbleness comes to you. It is not a creation. It is a shadow of the real center.
And a really humble man is neither humble nor egoistic. He is simply simple.
He's not even aware that he is humble. If you are aware that you are humble, the ego is there. Look at humble persons.... There are millions who think that they are very humble. They bow down very low, but watch them - they are the subtlest egoists. Now humility is their source of food. They say, "I am humble," and then they look at you and they wait for you to appreciate them.
"You are really humble," they would like you to say. "In fact, you are the most humble man in the world; nobody is as humble as you are." Then see the smile that comes on their faces. What is ego? Ego is a hierarchy that says, "No one is like me." It can feed on humbleness - "Nobody is like me, I am the most humble man."
It happened once:
A fakir, a beggar, was praying in a mosque, just early in the morning when it was still dark. It was a certain religious day for Mohammedians, and he was praying, and he was saying, "I am nobody. I am the poorest of the poor, the greatest sinner of sinners."
Suddenly there was one more person who was praying. He was the emperor of that country, and he was not aware that there was somebody else there who was praying - it was dark, and the emperor was also saying:
"I am nobody. I am nothing. I am just empty, a beggar at our door." When he heard that somebody else was saying the same thing, he said, "Stop! Who is trying to overtake me? Who are you? How dare you say before the emperor that you are nobody when he is saying that he is nobody?"
This is how the ego goes. It is so subtle. Its ways are so subtle and cunning; you have to be very, very alert, only then will you see it.
Don't try to be humble. Just try to see that all misery, all anguish comes through it. Just watch! No need to drop it. You cannot drop it. Who will drop it? Then the DROPPER will become the ego. It always comes back.
Whatsoever you do, stand out of it, and look and watch.
Whatsoever you do - humbleness, humility, simplicity - nothing will help.
Only one thing is possible, and that is just to watch and see that it is the source of all misery. Don't say it. Don't repeat it - WATCH.
Because if I say it is the source of all misery and you repeat it, then it is useless. YOU have to come to that understanding. Whenever you are miserable, just close the eyes and don't try to find some cause outside. Try to see from where this misery is coming. It is your own ego.
If you continuously feel and understand, and the understanding that the ego is the cause becomes so deep-rooted, one day you will suddenly see that it has disappeared. Nobody drops it - nobody can drop it. You simply see; it has simply disappeared, because the very understanding that ego causes all misery becomes the dropping. THE VERY UNDERSTANDING IS THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE EGO.
And you are so clever in seeing the ego in others. Anybody can see someone else's ego. When it comes to your own, then the problem arises - because you don't know the territory, you have never traveled on it.
The whole path towards the divine, the ultimate, has to pass through this territory of the ego. The false has to be understood as false. The source of misery has to be understood as the source of misery - then it simply drops.
When you know it is poison, it drops. When you know it is fire, it drops. When you know this is the hell, it drops.
And then you never say, "I have dropped the ego." Then you simply laugh at the whole thing, the joke that you were the creator of all misery.
I was just looking at a few cartoons of Charlie Brown. In one cartoon he is playing with blocks, making a house out of children's blocks. He is sitting in the middle of the blocks building the walls. Then a moment comes when he is enclosed; all around he has made a wall. Then he cries, "Help, help!"
He has done the whole thing! Now he is enclosed, imprisoned. This is childish, but this is all that you have done also. You have made a house all around yourself, and now you are crying, "Help, help!" And the misery becomes a millionfold - because there are helpers who are also in the same boat.
It happened that one very beautiful woman went to see her psychiatrist for the first time. The psychiatrist said, "Come closer please." When she came closer, he simply jumped and hugged and kissed the woman. She was shocked. Then he said, "Now sit down. This takes care of my problem, now what is your problem?"
The problem becomes multifold, because there are helpers who are in the same boat. And they would like to help, because when you help somebody the ego feels very good, very, very good - because you are a great helper, a great guru, a master; you are helping so many people. The greater the crowd of your followers, the better you feel. But you are in the same boat - you cannot help. Rather, you will harm.
People who still have their own problems cannot be of much help. Only someone who has no problems of his own can help you. Only then is there the clarity to see, to see through you. A mind that has no problems of its own can see you, you become transparent. A mind that has no problems of its own can see through itself; that's why it becomes capable of seeing through others.
In the West, there are many schools of psychoanalysis, many schools, and no help is reaching people, but rather, harm. Because the people who are helping others, or trying to help, or posing as helpers, are in the same boat.
...It is difficult to see one's own ego. It is very easy to see other's egos. But that is not the point, you cannot help them. Try to see your own ego. Just watch it.
Don't be in a hurry to drop it, just watch it. The more you watch, the more capable you will become. Suddenly one day, you simply see that it has dropped. And when it drops by itself, only then does it drop. There is no other way. Prematurely you cannot drop it. It drops just like a dead leaf. The tree is not doing anything - just a breeze, a situation, and the dead leaf simply drops. The tree is not even aware that the dead leaf has dropped. It makes no noise, it makes no claim - nothing. The dead leaf simply drops and shatters on the ground, just like that.
When you are mature through understanding, awareness, and you have felt totally that ego is the cause of all your misery, simply one day you see the dead leaf dropping. It settles into the ground, dies of its own accord. You have not done anything so you cannot claim that you have dropped it. You see that it has simply disappeared, and then the real center arises. And that real center is the soul, the self, the god, the truth, or whatsoever you want to call it. It is nameless, so all names are good. You can give it any name of your own liking.
Copyright © by ThothWeb - Your Portal to the Unknown All Right Reserved.
Reply to this article posted on the DailyGrail blog
Submitted to theDailyGrail blog by Richard on Thu, 19/01/2006 - 5:29pm.
Souls are not separate self-existent because they are more like experience-seeking memory-accumulators that refine their central ‘diamond’ for eventual sublimation or integration as finality to their purpose.
The intersection between the penetrating 'ray' of the spirit, or source for some, and the fabric, the envelope of the soul, creates the impression of self; the thinking ego. The ego not being transparent but full of the energy of the soul is under the influence of the world from which the soul depends. This remains until the source makes itself manifest when its time has come.
This connection is severed at death for the simple reason that the Spirit or Source does not reside in the world of the dead. This means that consciousness, as we understand it is not perpetuated.
At death, the soul goes back to its world as a contemplative entity for which a new experimental medium is being studied and its memory archived while the source remains to its realm. The soul is then simply and only an active manifestation of the memory of the experience and is blocked from further evolution until it is back into a material body to reconnect with its source.
The body of course also returns to its realm (or remains) but having lost its anima is recycled.
As much as some wish to perpetuate their consciousness into another plane after death, others wish to perpetuate their consciousness pattern during this life by achieving material immortality or at least postpone the demise of their body for as long as possible.
One is like the other, not having understood the experimental, therefore illusory reality of their psychological parameters that are set in the interaction of the source that provides the raw energy of thoughts that is interpreted in relation with the soul's particular need for experimentation within a particular incarnation for the benefit of itself. The vibration of the energy has then been densified from its passage through the soul, the world of the dead, into a form that can be interpreted by the intellect. Of course, in that process, all the implications, including the consequences, have been lost and only the purpose, without explanation, has been retained, to give the ego a direction that will often lead it into a nightmare, personal or collective.
(Not for the benefit of the ego who then becomes trapped in a contest of wishes and yearnings driving him forward or backwards, towards or away from pain and confusion, until his source reveals itself to transmutate the soul's fabric, automatically extirpating it from death but at the same time destroying the self-impression of the ego.
Of course the self-impression is destroyed because that self-impression is a condition of the soul's program for experimentation that becomes the personality traits. Funny that this personality would then insist on wanting to be right where in reality it is only a product in reaction and not a self-construct that creates, that is the center of the conditions of his movement in time.)
This of course means that the self proceeds from the world of the dead and not from the world of the source-spirit, until the source-spirit has made of the ego its own territory.
That is why it has been said that man cannot save himself.
That is also why it has been said that the dead were burying their dead.
Truth, taken in the sense of this text means the penetration of the light of the source-spirit which is the real identity of man.
This is why the ancients often said that the creator talked through them and not from them interpreting reality. Reality talked through them. Reality being their ‘father’ or source.
In that context, where self is ‘truth’ cannot be because the self or the impression of self is destroyed by the penetration of Spirit-reality-source or ‘truth’. On the other hand, there cannot be a return to the world of the death like before when the body is left behind.
Immortality is not that of the body but that of consciousness. It is not the perpetuation of a handicapped psychology but its destruction. It is not an appendage of the instinct for survival or of any instinct whatsoever. It is the superimposition of the energy of life, a takeover of the dense universe.
Life is life and death is death. When we say death is part of life, it is part of our life which is death itself but in no way is it part of life.
This is where it was also said that the ego had to die so it could live.
Just my 2¢
Submitted to theDailyGrail blog by Richard
[...]
What I mean by 'not separate self-existent' is that the soul does not have an entire consciousness range but rather has a consciousness programmed for a purpose.
That is if one considers the main aspect of the soul, being memory, accumulating the experiential value all the while pressuring the ego into more experiences for its benefit.
The 'Diamond' I am referring to is what could be referred to a seed. A seed that was 'dropped' into the astral by the spirit and that must have acted as a magnet to densify consciousness in the astral.
This in turn allowed the soul to evolve and gave the spirit a terminal with which to connect once the soul was incarnated.
If you consider the spirit as not being a space-time entity then we can consider it as a radiating ray that transpierces the layers of ether of lower vibrations. The connection between this ray and the seed forming a multidimensional consciousness of which the ego is one manifestation that happens at the intersection between the spirit and the ‘surface’ of the soul can then be considered a non-integrated multidimensional consciousness.
I say non-integrated because I see that in time, this consciousness must become a single identity, fully integrated by the experimental counter-part, the ego.
What I mean by this is that after the final penetration of the human psychic field, the ego must overcome that energy and in turn integrate it. The ego then becomes the next evolutionary step of the spirit.
On the other hand, it made the spirit-part (seed) of that soul prisoner of astral reality effectively locking it into the world of the dead, the astral, forcing it to accumulate more experience that also lead to a densification of consciousness as the soul was retaining more and more of that experience and the emotional charge they generate during the incarnated experience. The other factor that lead to the densification of consciousness was that the accumulated astralized experience acted as an ever thicker veil against the light of the spirit, eventually cutting off all possibility for the ego to recognize its origin. A good description of what a fallen angel might be.
The sublimation of which I was speaking means the destruction-integration of the soul's energy.
Spirit incarnation does not happen like soul reincarnation.
I guess my words sound twisted because I do not see these things as linear correlations but rather as an intertwined web of willed causality.
Anyway, I hope this clarifies some.
Submitted to theDailyGrail blog by Richard
Synthesis of the light expressed by several individuals might lead to a greater reason than the sum of the parts.
One question to bring the two exposes together might be what is ‘awaken matter’.
One could suggest that the soul acted to densify consciousness to first create a sense of self by means of disconnection with the guidance of the identity, forcing the mortal to develop an intellectual and giving the ego the impression of being the center of his reality.
This densification also might result in a totally material mentality (by now the spirit, even the soul, have become the stuff of legends).
I see the ‘vehicle’ and its creation as mechanical constructs. It is a vehicle but not a will. I mean that all energy can be considered at the consciousness level. Not all consciousness has the attributes of universality, this factor being dependent on the presence of spirit and not soul.
I also agree that the incarnation of spirit is dependent on the construction of a vehicle sufficiently equipped to support the fire it brings when it penetrates and that the ego must then be able to support the integration of the soul and the soul’s memory that lead to the destruction of the impression of self, the destruction of the ego’s false security.
The spirit requires an ego strong enough to eventually support and integrate the spirit energy. An ego strong enough to resist the destruction of its personality and its impression of identity; including its values, concepts, beliefs, emotional ties, etc.
To allow this is not only to allow the expression of spirit in this world but to allow the manifestation of a new entity, a new consciousness paradigm. The spirit is not personal but pre-personal. Its integration with the mortal for the immortalization of consciousness also opens the door of the multidimensional reality of consciousness to the ego.
And lastly, in regards to this vehicle, it should replace the astral body that limits interaction with matter from a astral (read world of the dead) perspective and allows the new born ‘son of man’ to project its consciousness in ethers that were hidden behind the cosmic lies carried by the polluted expression of the soul who has been gathering astral dust for too long.
Consciousness as vehicles or, like the ego, as channels, reflect what they contain. If their consciousness is full of the energy of the dead, they are dead. They must be filled with life to radiate life.
For this, the vehicle itself must be transmuted as well as its content integrated and transformed (maybe an equivalent to conscious matter) to start a new evolution outside of the reincarnation cycle that was necessary to personalize consciousness by means of densification of consciousness.
Then, I can see the pre-personal identity becoming a universal personal principle through its integration by its own son.
Submitted to theDailyGrail blog by Richard
No Self
From Original Essays and Shadowless Poetry
Warrior Prince Siddharta Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, experientially confirmed that there is no separate self, no existential other. All phenomena are inseparably ONE with the egoless nonmaterial energy, the unconditioned primordial ONEness, that contains and sustains all existence, including itself.
Reciprocally emergent entities create energetic image events which are stored and holographically reconstructed in the transcendent thought-wave matrix that emerges reciprocally within unconditioned Pure Consciousness, thus conditionally relative phenomena remain inseparably ONE with uncreated absolute Pure Being.
Each and every ego is an illusion, a pretentious concatenation of capricious thought vibrations created by an insouciant holonomic Mind that abides within the transcendent thought-wave matrix. Happily, beyond time, beyond inverted holonomic space, beyond all dissociative thought processes, that which we originally were, we are, we ever will be, imperturbably remains inseparably ONE with the egoless, nonmaterial physical energy, unconditioned Pure Consciousness, uncreated absolute Pure Being, that contains and sustains all existence, including itself.
Mortality
Carefully confronting material mortality leads directly to the inescapable conclusion that all human bodies necessarily cease functioning at some point, thus each transcendent mind cohabits human form for a time, then moves on.
The only question of consequence is whether the human host is capable of piercing the veil of ultimate reality just-as-it-is and conveying novel insights which may advance the enlightenment of future generations.
All verses and essays in this collection are original and were created by Alan T. Williams. Copyright © 2001-2004. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.cox-internet.com/hermital/index.htm
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