Blog #9
A disciple once came to a teacher to learn to meditate on God. The teacher gave him instructions, but the disciple soon returned and said that he could not carry them out; every time he tried to meditate, he found himself thinking about his pet buffalo. “Well, then,” said the teacher, you meditate on that buffalo you’re so fond of.” The disciple shut himself up in a room and began to concentrate on the buffalo. After some days, the teacher knocked at his door and the disciple answered: “Sir, I am sorry I can’t come out to greet you. This door is too small. My horns will be in the way.” Then the teacher smiled and said: “Splendid! You have become identified with the object of your concentration. Now fix that concentration upon God and you will easily succeed.”- How to Know God, Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood
Okay, this is part 2 and I am going to try and keep this fairly short and sweet (you know that I am lying, right?)
We live in a prison. It is the prison of the Ego. It is such a good prison that it keeps our Self (Atman in yoga philosophy), which is our indwelling, individuated manifestation of Supreme Consciousness, in ignorance of it’s own truest nature.
Go figure. This world of manifestation is so attractive (Gotta get the number of the prison’s interior designer. Oh yea, it’s that cunning Shakti… what a vibrant perpetrator of “stuff” is she. And, now she sleeps peacefully at the base of our spines as if she had no-where to go, nothing to say or do, and patiently waits to be re-awakened. Hmm… friend or foe? I have yet to decide… ), veiled in such a wondrously beautiful fabric, it even fooled our innermost piece of Supreme Intelligence- that by which all else is known (kinda makes one wonder how smart Divine Reality really is. Of course, who can blame the One Reality for wanting to experience the pleasures of myriad form? I guess, desire and otherness are an inherent part of the whole. And, with all of this terrific creating and pretending to be that which it is not, it would be really easy to forget that which it is… sometimes that mask is super glued on. Sigh, I digress.)
Our Self, mistakenly identifies with the mind and it’s contents (Ego). This identification, in essence, takes away our freedom, is binding and limiting. We are so much more than mere thoughts and emotions.
Why limit ourselves to the ever-changing nature of thoughts? I mean let’s face it, those slippery, one minute I think I am special, the next I think I am stupid, ugly and unimportant, rascals never stick to the same story. They cannot be trusted, so why do we put so much faith in them? Why do we believe their little fairy tales? Good grief, they will tell us anything… and, they do.
The Absolute Truth, on the contrary, is constant, unchanging. It does not shift just because you got a new haircut or moved to a new location or broke up with your boyfriend or have cancer, etc.
As out thoughts fluctuate, so our emotions go. If we think we are not worthy of such and such, we may get angry or depressed. If we are angry, we may hit our hand up against the car (you know who you are), kick the dog, yell at the kids, start a war… you get my drift.
In order to be free, unlimited, it would seem, then, that bringing the thought-waves under control, stilling them in order to re-awaken to our deepest truest nature (that Absolute, unchanging Reality) would behoove us.
Coming into Unity Consciousness brings with it a deep sense of peace and joy that is lasting. It does not change with the changing of the seasons. We can then abide in that all knowing, all powerful, unchanging, all pervasive essence which contains everything and which is also contained within everything.
We must try to remember, that this cannot really be explained very well. Words can only point to it. One must come into the experience where no words are necessary or possible. We will never fully understand Unity Consciousness until we can have a direct experience of it, and that my friends is why we are here.
Thing is, we gotta get out of the stinkin’ prison. And, as absolutely pleasurable or comfortable or whatever the prison may seem, it ain’t the whole enchilada (pardon the expression, but it seems appropriate).
What a fix. Seems we are somehow or other afraid to break out of the prison. What would happen to me? How would I get along? Who would I be? Can I still desire, enjoy? I want that cherry pie, and that woman, and my house, and that yoga class over there, and if only I could… on and on it goes.
Our ego keeps us bound to what is changing, fluctuating, slippery. It keeps us in flux, wondering what the next pleasure will be. We chase after sensory experiences and, yes, for awhile it is “oh, so good”. But, then when the sensory experience is gone, we miss it. Want it back. Now, there is a void and that brings with it a deep sorrow for we yearn, desire to get it back. We have become attached.
Ah, now we are getting down to it. Attachment!
How do we just have experiences (moments) for the sake of having the experiences? Can we rest in the realization that they are just that… experiences? Moments that come and go.
How can we not attach to, cling to, be bound and fettered by the moments? Is there a way to surrender and just let the moments freely come and go? What would happen if we did not get all caught up in the drama of desire and attachment for whatever feeling-tone the moments brought? For the drama only serves to create a false identity. It is just a play that has frequent character, plot and audience changes?
Can we not just play full on, plugged in without trying to bottle the moments up? How about just tasting the bliss of the headstand (okay, so for some of you that would not be even remotely blissful, so you fill it in) with each moment and then just as blissfully, letting it go?
We can do that. And, we can do it right here, right now. We can practice Ashtanga Yoga as codified by Patanjali in his Sutras. The methodology of Yoga is available as a path toward present moment awareness, Unity Consciousness, Perfect Yoga.
One way to do that, is to practice concentration techniques that can help still the thought-waves of the mind. It is very difficult for us to just stop attaching to our thought-waves, so a first step is to attach to thought-waves that are non-painful.
In the Yoga Sutras, it describes painful thought-waves (those that increase ignorance, addiction and bondage) and non-painful thought-waves (those that impel us toward greater freedom and loose the bonds of ego… get us out of the darn prison).
This means that, when we practice our concentration technique, what we focus on (attach to) is really important. It is a first step toward surrender, non-attachment, and ultimately Unity Consciousness.
Focusing on a personal, chosen ideal of Supreme Consciousness like Christ, Buddha, Ramakrishna or the Divine Mother (call it what you will) is considered a non-painful thought-wave or attachment as these figures represent self-less service, loving-kindness and compassion. Qualities that liberate one from an undo focus on ego and it’s incessant need for constant gratification.
What I am saying here is that typically, devotion to an ideal figure that is enlightened, can help lead us in the right direction as the thought-waves of love, service and devotion that they symbolize are superior to thought-waves of hate, indifference and isolation. These qualities keep us in ignorance as they tend to feed our ego keeping us in bondage with its inherent suffering.
So, we are actually choosing to create attachments to non-painful thought-waves. This is because, for most of us, it is easier to attach to and replace the painful thought-waves with non-painful thought-waves, rather than give up all attachments at once.
Ultimately, however, all attachments (even attachments to non-painful thought-waves) have to go, if the final stage of Samadhi is to be realized.
Let’s do this. Let’s make an attempt to break out of our prison. I say, we start by eating massive amounts of yummy food, drinking tons of intoxicating beverages, gratifying our senses in every way possible. And, then, when our egos are feeling really good about themselves, we can seduce them into our cells by promising to stroke them until they burst.
Ha! Now, we make a mad dash for the door, go through it and cross to the other side. Off we blissfully go, embracing moments of Pure Being-ness (a little intoxicated, maybe, but blissful never-the-less). Now that’s what I call the “perfect escape”.
Are ya with me?
i’ll have a martini, please! that seems to be the best way to get through this thing called “life”, not!
it all seems so complicated, but i think it isn’t. really. i must not be smart enough to see the complexities, never have i analyzed every little thing. i am, however, wearing my “rose colored glasses”. i think i’ll keep them on. me and my ego like it in here.
Right on!!!
Wow, I agree these two blogs are a great precis of the Yoga Sutras — and the paradox.
Your last comment reminds me of when I was at Notre Dame for my masters. A bunch of us went out for dinner — folks in philosophy, theology, education, all too smart for our own good. Well, I had one too many scotches (2 total — I’m a cheap drunk), and I remember having a phenomenal theological insight. Which I could not remember the next morning, or since. But it was really good! If you catch my drift.
So I don’t know what the hell (heaven) is going on. The now worn-out phrase of deChardin, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but … you know the rest. [EnlightenNext magazine suggests that this well-worn phrase be retired, along with 9 others in their top ten list of annoying spiritual cliches.]
But I ramble. One of the points of that phrase to me is that you never know what is going to be the cause of grace, no matter what you’re psychological or physical state. As we talked about: It could be a movie, the comment of someone in an e-mail, etc. Yet you can’t (at least I haven’t had success) purposely put yourself in an altered state and expect results. Some would say that contemplation is a purposely acquired altered state, and it is, but the odds of getting results are way higher.
One way of looking at the ’striving for samadhi’ is that the point should not be to acquire it, but to be an example of a fully integral and realized being. At least that’s a start.
Yeah, it would be great to criticize the Universe/God/Ultimate Consciousness for not making us with an ‘off’ switch to stop the mental and emotional meanderings. But what would be the fun in that. If we had an ‘off’ switch, we wouldn’t need to worry about attachments.
Maybe another question is how do our physical/emotional/spiritual states express the divine -for lack of a better word. Does God get mad? Jesus was pissed at the money changers in the temple — and things haven’t gotten any better, seeing what has happened in banking houses recently. Maybe he was prescient, or giving us an example. Anyway, I suspect that the ancients put divinity on our human energies: anger, jealousy, lust, etc., for a reason – they are difficult to control, if at all. The inhabitants of Olympus and the Vedic temples are not exactly the paradigms of virtue.
Or is that the point? All things are (could be) divine. Which leads me to the three most difficult words for a man to say: I don’t know.
And as far as breaking out of prison: As Wilber said, if you’re breaking out of prison, get a good map. The Vedic literature – and other literature – are a good map. Thanks for the Triple A version.
So, Quo Vadis? where are you going?
Now where did I put my Tom-Tom?
Now that is a response… I think you, me and my mom definitely should go out for cocktails… soon! Perhaps between the 3 of us we could come up with that map, or do you think the drinks are the map? Hahaha… Cheers my brilliant thinker and how about a 3rd round (of drinks that is… )?
what time do we go for cocktails? maybe if we all stayed in an “altered” state, the world would be a better place, ha! i think we need to play more and not take everything so seriously. someday, we will have the answers. i have always believed that when we die we will have this awakening and be aware of all there is. now’s the time to dance, besides it makes my brain hurt thinking about all that stuff.
this is from one who only skims the surface. i have seen reality and i don’t like it much hence the rose colored glasses.
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