Live Your Nobility

A great deal of what we do is influenced by our fear of what others will think. However, this is largely an unnecessary fear and and we neglect to take into account our own, intrinsic sacredness. We relegate ourselves to the scrutiny and approval of some outside “they” whose opinion is worthless and ultimately nonexistent. We need to stop projecting false feelings and judgements upon these others (who are actually our selves!) and also not allow the world around us to project its judgements and insecurities upon us. By doing this, we are saying that we love ourselves and those around us because we are allowing us and them to be, which is truly, all we can ever really do. When someone speaks negatively of us, it is a reflection of their perceived problems and insecurities. The same is true when we ourselves speak of others — our judgments, positive and negative, are our projections. We have a choice to create our perceived reality into how we want it, it is our dream, our movie.

By being mindful of what we say, of our thoughts, our actions, and by choosing truth over negativity, we are choosing life over death, bliss over hell. We can and do choose whether or not we are going to live in a heaven or drown in a cesspool of our own self perpetuated suffering. We have this power. This power lies in our choosing, our being mindful, and with our knowing. It takes practice, but it can be done, and the more often it is done, the more easily it is maintained.

Altruistic selfishness is also important. We need to choose ourselves first in order to have the capacity to give to others (again, who are actually our selves in different forms!). We need to respect our boundaries, say no when we need to say no. Say yes when we need to say yes. Do so with love and compassion (and always remember, have love and compassion for YOU), but if we do not give to ourselves, we will never truly be able to give to and love others. We must forgive ourselves and others of all perceived “faults” we have allowed to enter our dream. These are only faults because we have agreed to see them as such. Have self love and self righteousness. We are all gods. Act like one. We must embrace our nobility. We must see ourselves as living, capable, powerful awareness, because that is what we are. Stop letting others make choices for us. Don’t allow their feelings and their beliefs be our controlling force. In loving ourselves, we will choose rightly. If others think we are doing wrong, it is their projection of their beliefs and values. However, this is not an excuse to blatantly hurt others, we must always act compassionately, and know what we holistically need and want. What is going to bring the greatest good? What is in accord with the Universe? Live in the present, as that is all there truly is. Live life with exuberance and fullness, our body could be dead at any moment. See life as the sacred dance it is, love it, live it. Make mindful choices in every moment. If actions create suffering and do not ultimately create inner happiness, then do not do them. Make the choice to be happy, the choice to be liberated, because you always already are.

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Time and the Mind

Our minds are conditioned societally and egoically to exist in a constant state of discomfort, of yearning: states of dissatisfaction and seeming incompleteness. When separated from time, the mind lashes out, feeling anxious and as though it should be doing something, it must be forgetting something important. The ego wants us to always be existing in time, to always be doing something it deems of import, so that we can have some false sense of self-grandiosity which will trick us into thinking, for a time, that we are somehow better than others and that we have somehow “made it”. Often when we give our selves a moment to relax, our mind still has this sense that it should be doing something else, and when we don’t, we feel guilty. According to the mind, it’s never okay to simply be.

Humanity is the only creature on the planet that exists in a constant state of striving and rushing to get things that don’t essentially matter to our survival. We rush and rush, strive and strive and still we are dissatisfied. We exist in a constant trance of busyness. It is never enough that we have our basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter met, because there is something else we must find that will make us happy. And once we find that thing, then we must find something else. We would be much better off if we accepted the invitation to stop this. To bask in our being and to appreciate, for once, life as it is without our frenetic sense of searching, yearning, and wanting. We really can exist without those. In fact, once we do, we open up to a whole other level of being that is not encumbered by persistent dissatisfaction: peace, stillness, and silence.

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The Problem with Identification

When most of us are confronted with the question of who we are, we respond with such things as “I am a student, writer, brother, mother, sister, etc.” We expand this tendency to states of consciousness, “I am sad, I am happy, I am excited, etc.” We even apply it to negativity, “I am sick, I am depressed”. Some will even completely own that sickness or that depression fully, by which I mean it becomes a primary source of their identity. They no longer consciously identify themselves as someone separate from the state that is happening in their body (sickness), minds (anxiety), or roles (student). We say we indeed ARE these things. These states and roles that are transitory and ephemeral. Our identity is attached to these states rather than these states being attached to our identity. Our identity is tied to things and circumstances that are transient, lying in the namarupa, the realm of name and form— anything with form or thought. We tend to completely forget that there is something under these states. Something that is experiencing these experiences. Something which is boundless and not contained by labels. And it is this lie of identity that causes us to suffer. We are not depressed. Rather, there is depression in our mindstream at this time. We are not a student. Rather at this time, we are playing the role of a student. Of course, we don’t have to change our languaging about them in our everyday conversations and make it more awkward, but I do invite us to cease in identifying with these ephemeral states. Instead, place identification on the eternal, still, presence — that which you truly are. Then, happiness will unfold and you will begin to experience this realm much more deeply, fully, and powerfully.

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Absolute and Relative Reality

I have been trying to encapsulate into words my interpretation on the nature of reality. This of course, is ultimately beyond words and form and this is not completely meshed out, but this is the explanation I have so far.

At the very essence of everything exists what I will call the ultimate ground of being. It is that which many religions and philosophies have called “God”. Some teachers have also called it presence, beingness, isness, and so forth. From the ground of being, arises consciousness, which is created so that the ground of being can know and experience itself through the multiplicity of the totality of reality. Consciousness is awareness, knowing, that which can observe that we are thinking. It can be still or active and it exists in everything that is created. These are the Absolute levels of being, the levels from which all else comes into existence, the levels at which everything is unified. From consciousness, we then have mind. In its essential state, mind is made of pure consciousness and it is also part of the Absolute.

On the Relative level of reality, which comes forth from the Absolute level, but is ephemeral, and transitory, we have forms, bodies, the namarupa (the realm of name and form). Things that come into and out of being. It is here where Mind meets the secondary level of reality and joins a body. Mind will often become exceedingly preoccupied with the namarupa, the secondary level of reality and forget its ultimate nature. It begins to become sucked into the dream of reality which is created by the mind. The mind identifies first with its personal thoughts, believing them to be ultimately real and abiding. Then it ascribes the same qualities to the body. Identifying with it, creating an ego, sets of beliefs, giving form to emotions, societal indoctrinations, societal dreams, and societal egos.

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Stop and Be

The mind is never going to let you do less. It’s always going to tell you that there is still something else to do, something else you must acquire, some piece of information that you must have in order to be happy, fulfilled, something you need in order to make it as a human being. You are incomplete and you will remain so until you finally “make it”, says the mind. The mind will tell you that you will be happy after you get your next promotion… but you won’t be. You’re either more stressed or you’re planning on how you are going to get yet another promotion. It will tell you that once you attend another meditation retreat, you will finally have “it”. Once you read the latest Deepak Chopra book, awakening will dawn. All your worries and fears will fade away and you can finally bask in the resplendent glory of enlightenment.

These are stories your mind creates. Stories that we have been conditioned socially and individually to believe. Stories that tell us that “I have to constantly create, I have to constantly buy, I have to leave a legacy, I must have the best car, the biggest house, I am a middle class American and I thereby must fulfill these various roles given to me by society so that I can make it. So that I can be somebody.” But these roles are pointless illusions. Once you make it, there’s always something else to become. This level of being never leads to fulfillment. It never leads to a place in time where you are embraced with a sense of expansiveness wherein you exclaim, “I am happy! I am alive! I am vibrant!” No. Instead we often choose to just make it by, day by day, lifetime after lifetime. Sadly,f we exist in a languishing state of survival instead of thriving while missing all of the life happening right before us because we are so caught in dealing with a future that has yet to manifest or dwelling in a dead past that we can not fix.

There is an alternative. The alternative exists in seeing the lies of the mind for what they are. The alternative is to uncover the illusions, via silence and rampant, voracious self inquiry. To vigilantly stop. Stop here. Stop now. Stop and know that this already is the pinnacle. This already is what you wish to achieve. It’s already here. In the present moment. You don’t need to continue to strive, to keep pushing it away into the future. You can bask in the resplendent glory that you are and always have been right now. Strip your fears away and be. Embrace your sacrosanct nature. Embrace your wholeness. Embrace your stillness. And embrace the vastness that is the true you, unfettered by the lies of society. I don’t mean to imply that we should not have goals or aspirations. Yes! By all means we want to make something of our lives, create this dance in the most magnificent way possible. However, choose your choreography from a place of balanced stillness rather than a frenetic search for fulfillment that will not be attained. Happiness is found in our stillness, not in our constant running toward things we think will complete us.

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The Beauty of Unity

A rampant situation in our world is that of ceasing to see another human being as an equal, as a fellow human  focusing on their differences rather than our similarities. In so doing, we see them as “other”. In our reality, we turn this person into an enemy. They practice a different religion, eat different food, see the world in a different way, so they are not the same as us. They are less than us, thereby undeserving of our utmost love, attention, and compassion. Sometimes this occurs nearby, in our neighborhoods and towns. We have enmity towards the Jewish neighbor because he doesn’t celebrate Christmas or the Muslim woman in the apartment next door is somehow inferior because she wears a hijab and refrains from eating pork. Often, this hate is directed outside our borders, far away, to those we haven’t even met. Our knowledge of them is second hand, fed to us by our media. We are told to hate them because our worlds are far too different for there to ever be accord. Because of this, we go to war. We kill, innocents and warriors alike. Civilizations are destroyed under the guise of protection and freedom, so that ultimately avaricious corporations can increase their wealth. Sometimes it becomes so intense and difficult to deal with that watching the news brings us sorrow and tears to our hearts. Reading the newspaper makes us want to check out of the current social paradigm, to go somewhere untouched by this discord.

How and where can we repair this erroneous mindset in which we see others as others, making them enemies instead of friends? How can we see the Muslims across the ocean as  fellow humans equally worthy of love and respect as we are ourselves? How can we not laugh at and judge Hindus because they treat the cow as a sacred object? We can begin by stopping this practice of othering?

We can stop seeing our differences and recognize that we are all intrinsically interconnected. We all need each other to exist in this world. We need to recognize our inherent humanity, we need to recognize that we are all desiring of freedom from hurt, pain, and fear. We are all human. We all breathe. We all bleed. And we all have the capacity for love and greatness. We are all doing the best we can in the situations we are in with the mental, spiritual, and material capcities we have available to us at the time. Let’s bring this propensity of ours to see the differences between one anothter to the light of consciousness so that we can examine its falseness and see the damage it causes to our societies and planet. Let’s replace this ugly tendency with our inherent gifts of adoration and trust so that we may see the beauty and power within ourselves and the rest of the world. 

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Pain and Awakening

Consciousness of the physical body is a powerful gateway to awakening. One of the triggers that all of us as human beings have is running towards that which causes us joy and running away from that which will cause us pain. Everyone wants to avoid illness and suffering at all costs. However, suffering is unavoidable. The nature of the body and that of things in the physical realm are to feel pain, to suffer, and eventually to pass away. We will lose this human body of ours. That is an unavoidable truth. Yet we tend to move about our existence as if it were permanent. 

How can we use such seemingly negative aspects of reality as positive, beneficial tools? We can adopt the view that feeling physical pain, fear, or to suffer can be the most beautiful opportunities of the human life. Suffering can be a doorway to waking up. Instead of forcing us away from the present moment, away from the body, suffering can also be a hearkening to what is here now, as it is. Not dreaming of something else, not wishing for things to be different from how they are, but embracing and being with that which is here now, as it is. Seeing that which is here as sacred. Experience the holiness of this physical body, complete with its pains, illnesses, and sadness. Allow the mind to relax and soften so that it stops grasping for things to be different than from how they are. Mentally envision yourself taking on the suffering of others as you suffer. The Buddhist meditation practice of Tonglen can be a very powerful tool here. 

Instead of saying things to yourself such as “Why me?” Try saying “Yes, me,” “Thank you,” “I will be here with this as it is, in its full, sacred splendor.” Begin with small pains like paper cuts. Then slowly open yourself up more and more to the pain of being a being in the physical world. No longer denying that which is already here. Then, you begin to crack your whole being open more and more, allowing more room for space, for love, and awakening to the realization that there truly is no self to cling to.

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Inquiry into Being

To discover your limitations is the same as to discover your limitlessness. To discover your shadow is the same as to discover your light. To discover your humaness is to discover your Buddhaness. To discover you’re finite is to discover you’re infinite. -Anam Thubten

When we honestly ask ourselves the question, “Who am I?” We will be met with a litany of egoic false beliefs based on the stories we as individuals and as a society perpetuate. Many of these stories are limiting and defeatist. They perpetuate victimization, oppression, and the lie of separation. If we see that the true nature of everything, including ourselves, is, and always has been, pristine, luminous, and immeasurable, we begin to loosen the grip of the false beliefs. All we can ever really know is beingness because it is within this that everything arises.

One purpose of meditation is that of letting the mind be still so that it may calm itself. There are two primary types of meditation in Buddhist teachings. One is called shamatha, or calm abiding meditation. Here, we pay attention to the breath and allow the breath to calm the body and the mind. The second is called vipasyana, which gives us insight into the true nature of reality. This form of meditation is about inquiry. Inquiry into the nature of our thoughts, our beliefs, and the structures we believe to be ourselves and the outer world. We ask ourselves what is real, what is true and in doing such we come to the recognition that our guiding assumptions about ourselves and the world must be investigated. What is it that guides your life? What have you formed around your self that you see as so permanent and whole, but is essentially ephemeral? We cling to these beliefs about ourselves and the world, not disregarding their validity and assuming, because of our teachings and cultural indoctrination, that they are the abiding, ultimate truth of reality. Usually they are not. Usually they are lies. 

Unexamined, these thoughts drag us around from one point of suffering and discontentment, towards some illusion of happiness that then dissolves and itself becomes another source of pain. We are frightened to ask the deeper questions of “Who am I? What are my beliefs? Are they true?” We are afraid to face our beingness in its luminous, naked state because we have falsely been led to believe that we must build fences and walls around us in order to be protected from thoughts and beliefs that themselves do not actually exist.

We want only to stick to these things that we think will cause happiness and we run from that which causes discomfort. But both of these are intrinsic parts of being. In essence, on the ultimate level, the distinction of happiness and discomfort do not exist. These are constructions of the mind. And if we open ourselves up fully, completely, to both experiences, we open ourselves up to the fullness of being. We stop becoming so deluded by egoic misrepresentations of value and wholeness and can come to the realization that it all always has been whole. And so are “we” whole and complete.

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Perception is the World

Yesterday I was listening to a talk given by the teacher James Baraz, author of Awakening Joy. In this talk, James recounted his meeting of a 13 year old girl who claimed to have conceived of an idea for an invention that would eliminate war. She called this invention the “Perspective Helmet” and it would enable the wearer to see things from the perspective of whomever it was they wished, thus enabling the wearer to understand the other person’s point of view from a deeper level.

I am sure we all remember when the internet was abuzz about “The Dress” and whether it was blue and black or whether it was white and gold. It seems that these colors are so different from each other that the “right” way of seeing it would be obvious. However, because of differences that various individuals have in their ocular landscape, some individuals saw this dress as being one way, others had a different perception, which appeared equally as real to them. People in both of these camps believed that they had the correct way. Apparently there were quite a few heated debates over this photograph of a dress, which, as it turned out, was actually blue and black (although I saw it as gold and white).

We can be quite attached to the way in which we perceive the world around us and it is easy for us to forget that each of us has our own way of perceiving “reality”. It is important for us to understand that our ways of perceiving are based on thoughts and ideas. These thoughts and ideas were placed into our minds by our parents, our cultures, our religions, and our various experiences in life. But these thoughts and ideas that construct our paradigms are simply that, thoughts and ideas. We erroneously begin to believe that these are “our” thoughts and ideas, that these thoughts and ideas are “us”. We falsely identify with these amorphous, fleeting, non-physical, and largely arbitrary thoughts and thereby take it personally, sometimes even feel it viscerally, when someone disagrees with or attacks these simple ideas and perceptions.

In essence, these perceptions and thoughts are neither good nor bad. Further thoughts, attachments, emotions, and our self-identification with these non-entities makes us apprehend them, in our minds, as “good” or “bad”. But there is, at the ultimate ground of consciousness, no substantiality, realness, or existence to these views.

An important part of awakening is realizing this and knowing that whenever we become disturbed, whenever our equanimity is lost, it is simply because of a thought. It isn’t because of some action, but because of the thoughts we have surrounding the action. Our thoughts make our world. As such, the invitation exists as to which kind of world will we create for ourselves with our thoughts? We can’t really control which thoughts will appear in our mindstream and when, but we can control which ones we will continue to cultivate and which ones we will cut off. How will we use our powerful tools of perception? Will we create with them consciously or will will be ruled, unconsciously, by the self-cherishing, grasping mind, that believes itself to be these amorphous, insubstantial entities? 

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Suffering, Joy, and RAIN

In the Buddha’s first Noble Truth he taught that everything in the world is or can lead to suffering. The spiritual path and enlightenment are often misconstrued as making everything okay. That suffering will end. That all of the sudden, a ray of sunlight will come into our lives and ameliorate all that we ever considered wrong or negative. However, this is not the case, and neither do we actually want all the suffering in our lives to be dissolved. Suffering gives us the capacity for wisdom and compassion. It allows us to move deeper into ourselves and our consciousness. Instead of dispelling all suffering, the spiritual path gives as a means to move through the suffering with acceptance, consciousness, and a greater level of grace, wherein we can be impelled to deeper personal evolution.

The Taoist sage Chuang Tzu spoke of the 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows. Our level of reality, this realm of name and form, the namarupa, is full of the things which we interpret as causing us joy and things which we see as causing us sorrow. A conscious, awakened life means to open up to not just our joys, but to these sorrows. What are they here to teach and to show us? What can we learn about ourselves? Our inner world? How we interact with our reality? The more we open ourselves up to not just that which we view as joyful, but accept and move through that which we see as painful or sorrowful, we open up to more and more life. We are imbued with more vibrance and vitality. The more we can understand our own suffering and our own pain, ultimately the happier we can be.

Buddhism sometimes asks practitioners to focus on the mortality of this human body. There are meditations involving the imagining of old age, sickness, death, and the ultimate dissolution of the body. These practices are not taught out of a sense of morbidity but are invitations to use the suffering of facing our mortality to instill a greater sense of preciousness to this current life. It harkens the we be here, we experience every facet of our life. The 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows. When the heart breaks, allow it to break, as the more our hearts break open, the more we can appreciate all of what stands before and within us. Denial of suffering will get us nothing but more suffering.

I am not proposing that we sit and dwell on all the negativity in our lives, identify with all our suffering, and seek it out as a spiritual practice. But simply that, when it comes, which it inevitably will, be with it. It has already presented itself to you in this moment and there is no other way to deal with that which is happening then moving through it now with consciousness and lucidity.

One powerful and effective way in facing the adversity in our lives was developed by Michelle McDonald and brought to my attention by the wonderful teacher Tara Brach. It the practice of using the acronym RAIN.

R – Recognize. Bring to consciousness what is occurring. Ask yourself, “What am I feeling right now?”

A – Allow. This is not denying what is occurring, but allowing it to be here and not push them away.

I – Investigate. We look at what is here, how are we experiencing this? Where is your body? What is happening in your body? What about you consciousness? Where is your mind?

N – Non-identify. We don’t take that which is occurring as something personal. We don’t identify with it and make it us. We see it with the greatest amount of equanimity and detachment we muster in the moment.

So the next time something painful occurs in your life, face it and investigate it. Ask yourself why you are seeing it as something painful and negative and what can it reveal to you on a deeper level. 

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