When we are fully conscious of our
perception, we realize how full of crap we really are. - Tom Von Deck, “Oceanic Mind”
Sometimes
I catch myself taking things too seriously, especially this “thing” called
me. Somehow, despite years of practice,
I forget to observe and simply become absorbed in my thought constructs. It’s kind of like building a cage around my
consciousness and then getting pissed off because I’m stuck. A lot of things can seemingly entrap me:
attachments, assumed responsibilities, guilt, fear, unconscious habits,
feelings of obligation, etc. And I
suspect I’m not the only one.
The
cage that we unconsciously create around ourselves becomes the object of our
stress, anxiety, anger, frustration and discouragement. It blocks the flow of life-energy in and through
us and leads to illness, perhaps even death.
(Yes, you can literally die from taking things too seriously –
especially sickness and death.) It affects
our relationships, careers and core spirituality.
Successful
people build a highly functional structure around themselves. It serves them in positive ways. The rest of us include self-sabotage as part
of our structure. We believe negative
things about ourselves and we take them very seriously. Even those successful ones need to become
conscious of their inner construct to remain successful; to continue to
evolve.
Fortunately
my daily meditation practice will clue me in to when and how I am getting
caught. Through meditation I can become
aware of the stress reflected in my body, the fixations within my mind and the
fact that I have disconnected from my soul, my deeper essence. Sometimes it takes awhile to disconnect from “the
world,” i.e. my construct of the world, and to reconnect with inner peace and
joy. It is not so much an effort as just
lightening up and letting go; surrender.
Often times I feel like I am being helped by my Guru on the subtle
level. Such is the gift of spiritual
relationship!
Ultimately
all of the elements of our ego construct are relative. Our world is as we dream it. Sure, there seem to be hard realities we have
to face, but it is not the situations that we encounter but our interpretation
of them that is crucial. The world we
encounter is our interpreted experience of that world. “Man’s mind,” writes Joseph Chilton Pearce, “is
a mirror of a universe that mirrors Man’s mind.” Our world is a shared interpretation, a
mutual hallucination or a work of art in which we each participate. Separation, or “duality,” is the greatest
illusion of all.
When
I get stuck in my ego-centric perspective my world can seem like a pretty
messed up place. Other people seem greedy
and self-centered. The economy,
environment, crime, drugs, disease, corporate interests, etc. all seem like
they are out to get me. I get defensive
and passive-aggressive. I don’t trust
nobody. I feel alienated and alone. Nobody understands me. When I surrender I know that I am held in an
interconnected web of being, Oneness of heart, mind and spirit which is beyond
ordinary thought. This doesn’t mean that
I don’t address all those things in the world but that I know to address them
within myself first and foremost. I can’t
see clearly to help the world when I am deluded by my own fear and
aggression.
We
have to come from a place of love. Love
is not something we have to work on, something we have to do. It is the core of who we are. It is Sat-Chit-Ananda, the
Being-Consciousness-Bliss of the Universal Self residing within each of us. The world is immediately a better place when
we awaken to the Love within. We can
start by not taking ourselves too seriously.
