A Sane Religion

If you cross examine the word religion, you will find that it has been derived from Latin, which means “to bind”. You may ask to bind to what? Obviously to bind with God and that which binds man to God is religion. As you look around at the state of  religions existing in the world today, would you honestly say that they have succeeded in binding man to God. If you are honest, you might have to admit that they have failed to do that.

The Face In The Mirror – By Gangaji

This is a  good video of an exchange between the Spiritual Teacher Gangaji with a satsang attendee entitled, The face in the mirror. Where he describes his perspective on headlessness – on having no head.

What Is The Ego?

Ego is defined by Merriam Webster's dictionary as an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others. Hence in the society we live in egoists are considered to have a lack of respect for other individuals and their beliefs. As most egoists believe that they are better than the society that exists around them. The word “ego” has an unpleasant connotation and in this post we will examining the ego.

Within esoteric and spiritual schools the world “ego” is thrown around a lot. What  is the ego? The ego is your individual sense of identity; a mask that you wear that wants approval and power from others. In essence it is the belief that you are a separate individual and that you are in control of your world. It is the “I” that identifies with thoughts, feelings and desires.

In Tibetan, ego is called dakdzin, which means “grasping to a self".” Ego is then defined as incessant movements of grasping at a delusory notion of “I” and “mine”, self and other, and all the concepts, ideas, desires and activities that will sustain that false image.

If we place the ego under scrutiny, we will find that it is a collection of past thoughts and memories which have been retained from our personal existence. It is a mass of uninvestigated beliefs and values that drive our life though we may not be aware of it.  The “ego” is our default operating system which we use to navigate life.  Descartes’ reference in his statement, “I think therefore I am” is simple to himself as a person, a self limited to the body, emotions, thoughts, desires and nothing higher or deeper than that, a being whose consciousness was unexamined and unexplored.

The average man thinks that he is body and mind, with an emphasis on the body. But with self-questioning and reflection it shows that although he is these things and is associated with them, that he is in fact neither of them. Everyone possesses throughout their life this “I” but you have to sincerely ask yourself who is this “I”? The body although inseparable from it, is something used and lived in, as a house is lived in and used. Think! What does the “"I” stand for?

The “ego” is all that you know as yourself. Hence enlightenment is striping away all that you will know as yourself, it is like a death. The “ego” is the centre of human individuality and that which separates a man from others, which makes him a person, an individual being, is his “ego”.

The Ultimate Discovery

When you understand that everything that passes through your mind is a thought or an idea, which is therefore an illusion, you are ready for the ultimate discovery.

The ultimate discovery is that life, the universe, human life is nothing but a dream, a phantom, an illusion, It is like the motion picture – it has no reality in itself. It is just a mental picture passing  through your consciousness. The whole world that exists around you has the same value as the dream you dreamt of last night – nothing more. When you awoke you knew it was a dream, but until you awoke, to you it was reality.

It seems so absurd to say that this world which seems so solid, so real, is really dream stuff, and yet that sense of the dream-character of the Universe and of human life is easily proven. Take the whole of your life up until this afternoon. Where is it? Where has it gone? It has gone into memory. It has become a memory.

Those years when you live so intensely and passionately; where are they now? They are just a memory. But what is memory? A memory is a simple thought – an idea in your mind; it is no more than that, a mental picture.

If all your past years have been a passing show of transient thoughts, what of your future years, and the present in which you are living now? Will that not be the same, because the present will become the past and the future the past; so, since the past, present and future constitute the whole of your existence, what is left of your life? It is nothing more than a series of thoughts which come and go; from the highest standpoint, they are illusory.

What Is Spiritual Awakening?

What, after all, is Awakening, Enlightenment, Realization? Awakening from what?  Enlightenment as to what? Realization of what?

It is waking up from all your dreams and imaginings and preconceptions, becoming enlightened as to the given facts, realising what you clearly are in your first-hand experience right now. It is being perfectly honest to yourself about yourself, at last. It is having the courage and effrontery, even the idiocy - to go by what you see, instead of by what you are told.

It is questioning all mental habits and conventional assumptions, however common-sensible or sanctified. It is total open-mindedness, transparency, simplicity, and taking nothing for granted. In one word, it is discovery.

What is to be discovered is your own nature. Who are you? Only you are in a position to find out, because everyone else is elsewhere, off-centre. Only you can investigate what it is to be you.

Douglas Harding
from the article, “Thirty Questions.”

What Karma Is?

It is crazy to treat the idea of Karma as if it were some far out eastern fancy. In essence, it is simple the law which makes us responsible for our own action and which puts us into the position of having to accept the results which naturally flows  from it. It may be called the law of self-responsibility – what I do unto others I do to myself.

The meaning of Karma is “doing” and it is simply that a person’s karma is his or her own doing. We have made ourselves the way we are  by our own actions, which includes mental actions. Karma is simply a law of the universe to effect adjustment, to restore equilibrium, and to bring about compensatory balance. So whatever we do is ultimately reflected back to us. No deed is exhausted in the doing of it and eventually it will bear fruit which will be returned to the doer. Karma is a self moving force. Nobody, human or superhuman, has to operate it.

None of use can escape personal responsibility in the matter or shaping our own internal outlook and external environment by laying blame on something or someone else. Anyone who is struggling with should drink inspiration from Beethoven – master music maker. He sought to hear music when he himself was deaf. He whose life was dedicated to melody composition for others one day  became unable to hear his own compositions. It was disappointing but it did not discourage him. Facing this problem with determination he went on with his work and gave greater and grander things to the world, for what he learned in suffering he taught in song.

Anyone with an eye to see can understand that the universe operates in an intelligent and intelligible order.