The essence of each one of us is 1) Love, 2) Peace, 3) Abundance, 4) Well-being and 5) Happiness. But we often experience hatred, anger, lack, struggle and sadness. For the next five days we will gain a deeper understanding of the positive aspects of our Self, the struggles that we experience when we feel separate from those aspects, and the solutions to ending our suffering.
Instructions:
Each morning, upon waking up, read that day’s teaching. Throughout your day watch as your thoughts and feelings shift from one state to the opposite and back again, observing your life through the new understanding within that day’s teaching. At the end of your day reflect upon the change this new understanding has created in your life.
DAY ONE
Ending Our Struggle
The aspect of our Self: Happiness (and Sadness)
HAPPINESS, BLISS & JOY
Happiness, bliss and joy are always Self-generated. The only joy we ever experience is when we are experiencing the nature of our Self. Outer things are simply vehicles to what lies within.
We are very conditioned to think it is the event or the thing outside of us that is producing joy, but this is a false assumption. When we experience resistance ending we are capable of accessing the Self and feeling the joy of our Self. We seek the thing outside hoping for the joy inside. Every time we recognize this we allow ourselves to determine where joy comes from and to access the inner source of joy. Happiness is a state of mind arising from the Self. This understanding allows us to expand joy, with or without the outside event or thing. When we look at the source and the true cause of joy we have the ability to permanently access joy unconditionally, in freedom.
Our Self, which is pure consciousness, contains the un-manifested full power and intelligence of life. When this power and intelligence moves into creation, into manifestation, that movement is experienced as joyful. That expression of creativity is the thrilling of stillness, the thrilling of Presence, the thrilling of Being. When our attention is brought into contact with its Source, that contact thrills Being, and Presence is awakened. That is experienced as bliss and happiness.
If we attach our happiness and peace to an outcome we will live our life in disappointment. Yogananda taught,
“Happiness is not a thing. It is a state of mind.”
If we consciously recognize every time we feel joy, then we can expand it, feel into it and follow it back to its source; the Self. We can immerse ourselves in the joy if we recognize where it is truly coming from. Joy is arising because we have created a circumstance of inner allowing and accepting and shifted attention from without to within. This quiets our mind and ends resistance. Mental releasing, quieting, relaxing and softening allow us to enter stillness and know our Self – our true source of all joy.
SADNESS
When we are living in separation and a limited and confined sense of ourselves we set boundaries around us. To feel safe and protected we build prison walls that limit feeling the joy that is arising from our Self. We are cut off. Then connection and unity are replaced with the misperception that life is only about us. We live in our ‘my’ and ‘mine’ bubble and the ego dominates. Others live outside our walls and so only we are cherished. When happiness is imprisoned we feel sad or depressed. Living with separation and division, our individual survival instinct rises to dominate our mind and fear sets in.
Cut off, self-absorbed and fearful, it looks like there are problems everywhere. Feeling isolated, alone and overwhelmed by problems we begin to feel sad. We feel no one loves us because we are cut off from knowing ourselves as love. This has nothing to do with outside circumstances. It is all internally generated. Because our mind isn’t calm and is in a state of separation and fear we feel attacked and feel there is no place to be safe, calm and free from our suffering. Grief, sorrow and distress overtake our mind. In sadness, the present becomes flooded with the past and future and time and space feel like they are closing in. The timelessness of Presence is nowhere to be found. Spaciousness, unity and freedom are lost. With the Self hidden and forgotten, the Source of joy is lost. As our life experience becomes more and more deeply grounded in this isolated, separate and self-absorbed state, sadness turns to depression. The prison walls become thicker.
When I was with my teacher a woman approached him and begged for his help. She was crying and went on and on about the sadness and depression that were consuming her. He quietly said, “Do something for someone else.” Then he told her to leave. She was upset and became angry that he wouldn’t help her. She had received the complete answer but it didn’t match her expectation, so the answer went unheard.
Venerable Thubten Gyatso, the Australian Buddhist monk (1943- ) replied to a similar question,
“Should you flush your Valium and Prozac down the toilet? No, not yet. Begin with small actions to help others – empty the garbage can without being asked, clean up your own mess in the kitchen, polish the shoes of others. Smile occasionally. Gradually build up the courage and determination to confront your self-cherishing mind and declare yourself a slave and friend of all living beings. Then you will extract more joy from cleaning up somebody else’s mess in the kitchen than you will ever get from watching television. Not only will this lift your depression, it will place you on the path to bliss.”
When we are sad, we can also resolve that sadness by immersing that sadness in neutral, non-judgmental illumination and non-judgmental attention. When we are sad we can surrender it to our awareness. Because the primary vibration arising from awareness is love, the energy of sadness literally shifts itself. The power of awareness neutralizes it.
While this can be a sitting practice it can also be an ‘in the moment’ or ‘on the run’ practice. When we feel sad we can shift that sadness by immersing it in awareness. Watch it. Witness it. Observe it. This is different from thinking about it, analyzing it or feeling it. If we just think about it, analyze it or feel it we will most probably resist it because we are still identifying as it. That resistance empowers it. Simply hold and observe it with non-judgmental awareness.
We are most interested in the energy of that which we wish to resolve. Through witnessing we shift identification from the sadness to the awareness. In acceptance, we accept the sadness into the power of awareness. The practice is pure acceptance of it by witnessing it as what exists. That acceptance is immersing the energy of sadness in Presence. It is exchanging our identity as sadness for a true identification as awareness, exchanging a false perception for a true perception.
There is another kind of sadness. When my teacher died, without realizing I was crying, tears rolled down my face. An immense sadness gripped me. That sadness arose from an exquisite love and connection. When my dog died I cried. When my dad died I cried. I was overwhelmed with love and loss. The love was so pure. The sense of their presence was so deeply felt. And I would no longer see their beautiful faces. That is true sadness, a pure sadness. And that is love.
Read today’s teaching upon waking up and recognize this new understanding as you experience your day.
In the evening reflect upon the change this new understanding has created in your life.
DAY TWO
Ending Our Struggle
The Aspect of our Self: Abundance (and Lack)
ABUNDANCE
We are taught that success comes from hard work. There is some truth to this, but hard work is only a minor power of life. Abundance arises from the well-spring of the Self. The Self is pure consciousness and consciousness is the Source of intelligence and power. It is the awareness that illumines everything and the power that is the one energy that is life’s creative force. It is unlimited potential. From this arises inspiration, expansion, creativity, enthusiasm, clarity and manifestation.
Another thing that arises from consciousness is a structure that holds that intelligence and power; the laws of nature. When we are in direct alignment, in resonance with all the laws of nature, our expression unfolds naturally and powerfully, without resistance. Our thoughts, words and actions will be supported by all of nature and everything that we do will create the highest and most profound impact and result. In connection, our life expresses in alignment and resonance with our Self.
Resonance and alignment are vibrational. We can be aligned with the vibration of lack and limitation or we can be aligned with the vibration of abundance. That will determine the power and intelligence flowing through us and determine the results we receive. Alignment and resonance determine the amount of intelligence and power flowing to produce fulfillment.
Connection to the Source of intelligence and power, with intention and attention, unleashes infinite power and intelligence. Abundance doesn’t mean wealth. It means being the unlimited intelligence and power that is fully contained in our Self. Wealth is a symptom.
Life is set up to bring forth abundance. Life force is the nature of life to move into creation and to manifest. This is meant to expand joy. When we live in resistance we choke off the flow of life force, the source of abundance. The choke-hold is resistance which is found in grasping and pushing away, in attachment and aversion, in dissonance and disharmony. This is the value of acceptance, allowing, harmony and surrender. They remove resistance and allow life force to flow, fully supporting all that we do.
There are different levels of power. The atomic level is infinitely more powerful than the physical, surface level of life. An atomic bomb is more powerful than fire. When there is strong emotion behind something it becomes very powerful. When thoughts are clear and the mind focused, there is more power. When the body is strong there is more power.
Life basically has 5 levels of power;
1) the physical level
2) the thinking level
3) the feeling level and
4) intuition, the level of direct knowing.
5) the level of the Self
Thought, feeling and intuition are all levels of the mind. The 5th level is the Self which is the un-manifested Source of power. The deeper we connect, the more power and intelligence we reveal and release. We are always somewhat connected to our Self. If we are fully connected to the power station, the power will flow strongly. Only slightly connected and the power will flow weakly.
Hard work arises from the physical and thought levels but these two levels are not the true power levels. When we function in connection with our Self, the deepest, most profound and essential level of life, we become the intelligence and power that is the essence of the Self. In this essential ground of life all nourishment flows and the laws of nature support our expression.
In stillness lies the field of all possibilities. In every moment, life is presenting us with possibilities. When we live in separation from the field of infinite possibilities then lack and limitation dominate and we live in a narrow and confined state of consciousness. That state prevents us from even seeing the possibilities let alone seizing upon the possibilities and creating something greater. When we live in resonance, peace and stillness, our awareness is expanded and we are able to recognize and take advantage of all possibilities. We hold the intelligence and power that is required to turn possibilities into reality.
LACK
Looking at the situation of lack and limitation there is a strong tendency to see the effect, the symptom. We see it as the event; we are poor, we are in need, we are without the thing. These are symptoms and situations. Seldom is the source or cause of the symptom investigated.
The first response to lack is always symptom oriented. Need something and the solution is to try and get the thing. But if we don’t change the connection to the intelligence and power we end up back where we started. Even if we get a few things, the flow of power and intelligence from the Source remains unaffected – and the thing doesn’t permanently resolve the situation.
Abundance is all about intelligence and power because these are the two aspects of our Self that are the creative awareness and power of life. Lack isn’t the absence of the thing. It is insufficient connection to intelligence and power which shows up as limited focus, limited intuition and lack of energy, vision and creativity. Intelligence and power are what emerge from our Self when we are in connection.
Possibilities and potential are the vision that emerges when intuition and creativity awaken. Focus is that flow undisturbed by the monkey mind. Lack is in direct inverse correlation to this. Lack is the symptom of the limitation of connection and flow.
There are so many expectations and conditions tied up in how people see abundance. Many people see abundance as having this thing and this relationship and this money. But abundance can be fully present in the monk living in a small hut. My teacher was a monk with few possessions. He had the full intelligence and power of the universe within him. Miracles happened spontaneously around him and he transformed thousands of people’s lives. He possessed all power and intelligence and he thrived.
Read today’s teaching upon waking up and recognize this new understanding as you experience your day.
In the evening reflect upon the change this new understanding has created in your life.
DAY THREE
Ending Our Struggle
The Aspect of our Self: Well-being (and Struggle)
WELL-BEING
Well-being means that all that issues forth from life as and through us is supported fully, expands fully and thrives fully. Fully means that we, on every level, are the vehicle for the greatest intelligence and power to flow through us producing the highest that is possible; the most joy, abundance, well-being, peace and love. That is fulfillment. Fulfillment can only be complete when all beings are included.
Thriving and well-being are directly tied to being abundance, love, peace and happiness because thriving is about the flow of these in our life. Abundance is ‘being’ the intelligence and power, and well-being is the ‘expression’ of that intelligence and power through us.
Well-being is about flow and momentum
Well-being is active. When life is static it deteriorates. Entropy takes over. An abandoned house deteriorates quickly. When life is in motion there is new energy constantly being added. This means there is expansion and constant renewal. When we are feeling uninspired, lethargic or unmotivated our well-being suffers. We feel low energy and are unproductive. Lethargy is not the essential nature of life. Our essential nature is dynamic creativity. Creative intelligence is who we essentially are and well-being is that flowing into manifestation. In that flow we experience well-being. When we are out of that flow there is stagnation and deterioration. Experiencing well-being means being the aligned, clear channel for the intelligence and power of life to flow through us.
Momentum and resistance are inversely related.
To the degree that resistance, attachment and aversion are present, momentum and vibrational frequency are decreased. To the degree connection, acceptance, allowing and surrender are present, momentum, resonance, creativity and flow are increased. Well-being is like a river. It is dynamic, balanced, and it takes us to the ocean. Expansion happens as a creative pulsation arising from our essential Self. This pulsation is the momentum and flow that powers life forward into more. That ‘more’ is the optimal state of functioning, joy and creativity.
Our essential nature of well-being is springing forth in every moment when we are in the flow of life, when we are in the energy of dynamic expansion. Then our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being thrive. We are supported by the powerful pulsation of Self expansion into its highest and best expression.
Well-being happens naturally because it is the nature of life to thrive.
In order to thrive we must be in the flow and momentum of our nature. That is supported when we are being authentic to who we are and in resonance with our Self. A person who is naturally inclined to be a spiritual healer will not find ease and flow being a mechanical engineer. A person who lives in an inauthentic created role and image will feel separate and stuck. To be in flow we must be in resonance and be expressing in a way that is authentic to who we are.
We can understand our nature and purpose when we identify what excites us, what makes us enthusiastic, what resonates with us and what interests us. If something excites us and we want to give it our attention that is pointing us toward our purpose and nature. The best rule is to follow what harmoniously draws our persistent attention. Follow the harmony. That identifies the least resistance and why we were created the way we were so life can flow uniquely through us.
That applies to all areas of our life. Some people are naturally reclusive. Others have a strong desire to be in a relationship. Some want to be successful and famous and powerful. Others feel in harmony and are content with a simple, easy life. Each person expresses uniquely. There are infinite ways to express love and compassion. Through us, love, peace, joy, creativity and expansion will express most powerfully if it is in resonance with us – authentic. It will feel harmonious. If our understanding of our uniqueness is driven by need, fear or insufficiency it will not be authentic. If is it driven by our true purpose and true understanding it will be authentic.
Well-being is supported when we connect to and engage with all levels of ourselves; physical, mental, emotional, intuitional and spiritual. On a spiritual basis well-being is achieved through connection to our Self, to intuition and to possibilities. On an emotional level well-being is achieved when we find emotional resolution and enthusiasm. On a mental level well-being is achieved when we are at peace, create and innovate. On a physical level well-being is achieved when we put the previous levels into action.
Well-being is supported when we know our Self and our life becomes about creating the conditions that will end suffering and produce happiness for all beings. That is the highest harmony. It is supported when we recognize the practices or teachers that we resonate with and follow a path of connection and transformation. Well-being will expand when momentum and flow are maximum. Removing resistance allows flow.
STRUGGLE
In life there is always something dominating and something receding. Life is always in motion, either thriving or regressing. Something is arising and something is declining. That is the nature of change and creativity. It is a basis of the relative world. The old makes way for the new. The new becomes strong and important and the old becomes weak and irrelevant. 99.9 percent of all species that ever existed are now extinct.
When life feels in decline and we appear to not be flourishing there is always this flux, this change happening. It’s natural. But when we are holding onto what is in decline – what was – and not fully aware and supporting what is rising – what is – then life stagnates, change slows and intelligence, creativity and energy become dull. In that dullness and loss of momentum, vision narrows and possibilities are missed.
Interest and attention follow the same path of change. We become interested and have a good idea and then it fades, seldom reaching actualization. But to thrive and flourish that flow has to reach actualization. That holds for our bodies, our ideas, our emotions and our Self. That is making possibility a reality. The foundation of thriving remains Self-actualization.
Read today’s teaching upon waking up and recognize this new understanding as you experience your day.
In the evening reflect upon the change this new understanding has created in your life.
DAY FOUR
Ending Our Struggle
The Aspect of our Self: Peace (and Anger)
PEACE
We live much of our life at war with life. Are we stressed? That is resistance. Are we negative? That is expressed resistance. Are we controlling? That is evolution resisted. Resistance is our war with ‘what is’. The opposite of war is peace. On the most profound level peace is Being. Peace is the experience of stillness and complete connection. It is Existence; Consciousness, Being, Presence. It is true understanding; perception, illumination. When the mind is at war and the monkeys are chattering, peace is covered up.
Attachment to outcomes is one of the main opponents to peace and one side of resistance. Attachment to outcomes limits what life has in store for us. We think we want life to look a certain way. We become attached to the outcomes thinking that is the road to our happiness. We set the conditions for our happiness. But life is creative intelligence flowing through us. It is supremely intelligent about what is necessary for our highest good. When we become attached to outcomes we struggle against life and disturb our peace. Control is an aspect of attachment. When we try to control life and not surrender, we limit possibilities and create resistance to peace. When we surrender to the flow of life, we move into alignment with life and rest in the peace that is the essential fabric of life.
Aversion is the other side of resistance and another opponent to peace. We push away everything that doesn’t fit into our beliefs about what life should be giving us for our happiness. Aversion disallows receiving. When resistance dissolves, knowing peace as an aspect of our Self becomes possible.
Peace is our nature. We become un-peaceful when we add disturbances. Insufficiency ranks right up there with attachment and aversion in the ‘major disturbance’ category. We know our sufficiency when we know our Self. Peace is true connection, true authenticity, and true perception of our true worth.
There is a choice, in every moment of life, to create war or peace. A peaceful mind can be created but true peace is actually not created. Peace is the absence of war – the absence of resistance, worthlessness and dissonance. It exists within the fabric of the essential nature of life. It is an aspect of the essential Self. The Self is full. The Self is still. It is Being.
ANGER
The main results of our inner war are dissatisfaction and anger that arise from attachment to outcomes. These are conjoined brothers. In today’s world anger has become a daily part of people’s experience. It is in direct opposition to peace and understanding. Resolving anger can allow peace to dominate.
When a desire with attachment is thwarted or denied, it turns to anger. Anger arises from dissatisfaction, from not getting what we want or getting what we don’t want – from the expectation unfulfilled.
When we have a desire and become more and more attached to our expected outcome we get angry when that outcome doesn’t arrive. We get angry when our conditions are not met. Maybe we get angry when our partner doesn’t meet our expectations, maybe it’s when the washing machine overflows, or maybe it’s when we get mad at ourselves for what we consider a mistake. Attachment to an unfulfilled outcome creates anger.
We mistakenly seek wholeness, completion, and happiness in the fulfillment of desires. But desires are almost always attached to an outcome, an expectation and a condition. Because outcomes disappoint, we are constantly in dissatisfaction.
Anger can be triggered by many sources. Dissatisfaction and anger can arise from feeling limited, betrayed, from not speaking up, from being pushed around, by not being seen or heard, by being passive and feeling futility. It can start as resentment. Resentment turns into frustration. Frustration turns into anger and becomes rage when not resolved.
Anger can take on many faces
Some we see as anger, like getting mad, and some are more subtle. We say, “That person rubs me the wrong way. He’s a thorn in my side.” We roll our eyes, make a sharp remark, have a tantrum, feel bitterness, suspicion, hatred, envy, resentment, criticism, annoyance, animosity, sullenness, gruffness, rage, grudges, and we have arguments.
However often we think we are being provoked, our anger is always our own creation.
Anger can have a positive side when it becomes a tool for awakening or the energy is channeled into a positive result. If it is let out reactively, suppressed or ignored, it harms. But if it results in the light of awareness shining on the unconscious or creates positive change then it serves a positive purpose. Anger holds great energy. Desire, anger and expectation can be a source of energy, strength and motivation if that energy is purely channeled and purely motivated.
But what is our honest motivation, our real intention? From what source is this energy arising and in what form is it expressing itself? This energy can hold personal glory, personal gain, judgment, a tangle of pure and impure impulses, a commotion of motives and reactions. Anger’s motivation is generally dissonant and confused. Generally, anger destroys discrimination. It can catch us and we can get lost in it. This energy can become perverted when filled with judgment and selfish motives. It can be a powerful dissonant energy of dissatisfaction. When suppressed, resisted or expressed in negative ways, it can be extremely damaging.
When we get angry we have 4 choices;
1) let it out
2) suppress it
3) ignore it
4) mindfully and compassionately address it
If we let it out, it adds to the dissonance of the world. It creates negative consequences. If we suppress it, it’ll become dense and fester. We’ll get a stomach ache. If we ignore it, we live in negative unconscious reactivity. If we resolve it with understanding and awareness, we move into a space that brings discrimination and Self-compassion.
It is beneficial when we first feel anger arising to stop; don’t act or react. The sooner we can be conscious of anger’s point of arising, of recognizing this type of energy inside ourselves, the easier it is to watch it and to shine awareness on it. Resolution of anger begins when we train ourselves to notice initial arising with neutrality. Then we can look at it and gain insight. We can watch it with awareness and allow the energy to be immersed in awareness. We can witness it and not get lost in it.
The dissonance expands because we identify as the anger when it arises. When we identify as it, we become lost in it and the reactivity takes over. When we are not identified as it, we can watch and witness anger. This way there is space and the dissonant energy, immersed in awareness, becomes transformed into neutral energy. No one is harmed, including us. The more we see and experience anger as an energy and gain insight into its initial arising, the more we can stop letting it out, ignoring it or suppressing it, which all create suffering.
We are creating our anger
We are not the victim of what’s happening. We are being presented with an opportunity to free ourselves from a dissonant state of angry reactivity by becoming aware of what triggers us. It allows us to shine awareness upon an unconscious reaction and resolve it.
Understanding is important. It is not ‘us’ that needs to be analyzed and fixed. We are simply reacting to our attachment and disappointment. It is most helpful to immerse the anger in awareness. Thinking about it and feeling it keeps us on the level of that energy and fails to introduce a more powerful, resonant and transformative power; awareness. When we become available to recognize and accept our anger, it will come more into balance.
Anger is an active, emotional energy. When we create space between us and the energy through Self-recognition we are able to immerse the anger in awareness. We can watch it and not let it out onto others or into situations. We can allow the eruption to happen inside so we can look at it and hold it neutrally in awareness. That neutralizes the dissonance of the energy. If we can do this we will be left with strength and empowerment without negative consequences.
Accept Anger Without Judgement
When we accept the anger without judgment we can watch it and create a space of non-identification. We can keep in mind that accepting is not judging as good or bad. It is seeing ‘what is’. Then we are not accumulating it or creating negativity. Watching it, immersing it in the resonance of awareness and transforming the energy is freedom and resolution
When we resist something, that resistance creates suffering. Resistance empowers that which is resisted. Resistance is focusing attention with judgment, and that kind of attention adds power. Resistance holds energy in place and stops its flow. In awareness, acceptance and non-judgment we can move our awareness from being the anger to watching the anger and holding compassion for ourselves and others.
The awareness that is created through this process of stopping, looking at initial arising, immersing the energy in awareness and accepting, helps to neutralize the anger and resolve it. We neither suppress the energy nor let it out onto someone or something. We simply witness the process and allow the angry energy to become neutralized through contact with the harmonious power of awareness. Then peace is possible.
Even when there is anger arising, it is only in the mind. It is not our Self. It is not who we are. It is an energy showing up in a specific way that is trying to show us something.
Read today’s teaching upon waking up and recognize this new understanding as you experience your day.
In the evening reflect upon the change this new understanding has created in your life.
DAY FIVE
Ending Our Struggle
The Aspect of our Self: Love (and Hate)
LOVE
When pure awareness moves into creation it assumes the role of creative intelligence. That movement of creative intelligence is a pulsation of love. Love is the essential movement of the unified principle of life.
When we find love in another, it is always an internal experience of inner connection to our Self. The other becomes a vehicle or focus. Any time we experience love we are touching the essential nature of our Self or recognizing our Self in another. Resonating with another allows us to go within and touch Presence. We may say ‘I am in love’, but the reality is that the other person allows us to feel ease, stillness and Self-connection and this, for a moment, ends the suffering of separation. When separation ends, love vibrates.
A healthy, loving relationship is almost impossible when we are in the cascade of suffering. In a state of separation and personalization it becomes difficult to accept another as they are or end judgment. Relationships based on the need to have another relieve our suffering or insufficiency always disappoint. Relationships that focus universal love onto another, that become cherishing another because our self-love is overflowing, become a practice of unification.
This unification is experienced in differing degrees in our life. We love our pet, we love our partner, we love nature, and if we are so inclined, we love God. What these experiences are pointing to is that our pet, our partner, nature and God are providing the vehicle and focus that allows us to internally move from separation to unity. This is one of the reasons why we seek someone to love, why we could be so devoted to God or why we feel unconditional love for our dog or cat. They provide the catalyst to allow us to end separation momentarily within ourselves.
Many people yearn desperately for someone to love them. This is simply a way to alleviate the sense of Self non-acceptance and insufficiency. It is need-based. We think, “When someone loves me I am worthy.” If they reject us, we think, “I am unworthy.” For many, finding love is a compulsive search for relief because worthlessness is filled with suffering and need. Worth can never be bestowed by another. Worth is innate as the nature of Presence. Only in knowing our Self will we feel true worth and sufficiency. When we know our Self, we become love.
Sometimes we think, “I want to share my life with someone. That would make life richer.” Laughing, playing, creating, sharing and physical pleasure with another can expand pleasure and joy if it is not need or attachment based. But most relationships have strong elements of need and attachment.
The experience of pure love, as an aspect of the Self, is beyond what most people realize is even possible.
Pure love is the unity of existence. In pure love, there is no possibility of separation. It is beyond what most have access to because pure love is independent and relies on no other thing. It is the subtlest impulse of consciousness at the finest relative level of existence. It is the initial vibrational movement of life and it is the essential aspect of our Self.
There are only 2 basic emotions in life; love and fear. Love is unity and fear is survival moving into separation. We spend our entire life trying to move from fear to love. It is the basis of our path to wholeness, to wellness, to abundance, to well-being, to peace and to joy. It is the heart of the spiritual path. Love is Self-recognition, Self-realization, illumination and enlightenment.
Love is the essence of awakening.
This is because love is the essence of Self. If it is hidden, that disconnection generates our core sense of incompleteness and insufficiency. The pain of unworthiness arises when Self-love is hidden. A deep sadness sets in. Depression and meekness, or pride and arrogance follow. Self-love is what we seek in our desire for a relationship and our desire for acceptance. It is all simply a desire to return to Self-awareness and wholeness. For most of us our relationship, our desires, our expectations, our actions and our goals are all tied up in living life in need. We are always seeking to move from separation to unity, from resistance to acceptance, from unworthiness to sufficiency, from neediness to freedom, and from fear to love.
HATE
Hate is a strong word but it does reflect, to some degree, how most of us feel about ourselves. Whatever we feel about ourselves is reflected onto others and the world.
We are conditioned that when we are bad we should suffer. The conditioning that if we do something bad we should be spanked, sent to detention, divorced, incarcerated, sent to hell or executed is deeply rooted. Because we are suffering we believe we are bad.
Many attribute to Jared Diamond the story of the African tribe that praises a person if they commit a transgression. Through remembrance of their good qualities, the law-breaker is reminded of their innate goodness. There is no punishment, only remembrance of their essential value. But almost all societies practice punishment as the response to transgression and so that becomes the belief and conditioning. That approach, when layered over separation, creates a response that says we are unworthy and insufficient.
This happens because of our identification to the wave and not the ocean. The wave pounds the boulders into fine sand while the ocean remains in stillness. If we identify as only the wave and don’t even know the ocean exists, all we can do is make a very limited judgement colored by our conditioning – and that judgment will be a misperception of reality. The separate wave that judges itself small, separate and unworthy, to some extent, hates itself. It is because we are the still ocean and the essential intelligence and power of life that we are worthy and sufficient.
When I was 14 my face broke out with a couple of large and ugly pimples. I didn’t want to go to school. My mind fell into a panic that I would become an unwanted pariah. My father sat me down and told me the true story that when he was young he stuttered. I never knew this because I had never heard him stutter. He said he was made fun of and mimicked almost every day. He never allowed that bullying to affect him. He read books about stuttering and ended it. He never reacted to the mimicking and taught me that if I knew my greatness then no one could change my understanding of that reality. That conversation was the start of my recognition of who my father really was. I put a couple Band-Aids over my pimples and went to school.
The importance of understanding the aspects of our Self is that in realizing them we can become them consciously and expand our Self-realization. The way to do that is surrendering to them. This can be a sitting practice where we release our identification with our body, mind and role and dissolve our identification as them. Then we turn our awareness upon itself and experience our Self as Presence, as Consciousness. Then we arise as joy. We change our identification from a misperception of reality to a true perception of reality. We can arise as love. Or we arise as the intelligence and power of life; as abundance. It is recreating ourselves as happiness and the intelligence and power. It is not feeling abundant or saying I am abundant. It is mentally and emotionally surrendering the body, mind and role to our Self and arising as the joy, intelligence and power of life. This is the true perception of reality.
The power of this practice is awareness. We are never taught the power of awareness. It is the most powerful force there is. In fact, it is the only power there is. Whatever is immersed in awareness, begins to resonate with the harmony arising from pure awareness, our Self. That light ends darkness. That which is perfect alignment aligns the misaligned. That consciousness makes the unconscious conscious.
Read today’s teaching upon waking up and recognize this new understanding as you experience your day.
In the evening reflect upon the change this new understanding has created in your life.