Many people often wonder why they live in such a hell; usually, it is because we are so unaware we cannot tie the cause and effect together. Sometimes the seed was planted years ago by a particular thought and the fruit has only recently ripened, but because we forgot that somehow or other we are responsible for our thoughts, our actions and our lives, we go on throwing the responsibility onto others or onto life itself.
We all have egos and we all have thoughts and we need to acquaint ourselves more intimately with our inner world; we are constantly sleeping with the enemy and think stupidly that the enemy is outside us. Sometimes the ego clothes itself in memory through our thoughts and takes us into the future land of dreaming and imagination and we forget to simply drop out of it or say “STOP” to the mind.
Sometimes the memory, through our thoughts, takes us back into the past and makes us feel guilty and regret the many things we have done in our unawareness and somnambulistic (read: sleepwalking) state.
Other times we get angry and are unaware that the clouds of anger are on the horizon and we fail to take heed of the telltale signs in time and before we know it, we are in the full grip of anger, jealousy, comparison. competition or ambition.
As long as we’re constantly thinking of the future, we are still in the grip of the mind; not that we don’t need to do practical things but the way the mind weaves its incessant garbage of a Utopian future the more in illusion we are and the less practical and insightful our vision for the future will be.
People make a big deal about humility and try to cultivate it and this is one of the greatest traps, to think you are humble as if it can be practised.
The simple fact that we are all interdependent and cannot exist in isolation should be proof enough that arrogance and self-pride is just plain ignorance. I often notice my own tendency to imitate and as much as I am aware of the tendency, it is still a constant act of vigilance to stay true to myself. Imitation is, of course, another cloak for the ego although less obvious.
Thinking we are superior in any way is another garment for the ego and whether it is spiritual superiority, intellectual superiority, humility, religiousness or any other cloak, it is all the same. The only person we are fooling is ourselves because everybody else can see it in us.
Acceptance of this reality may one day lead to the realisation that in fact, the ego exists nowhere; it is just a false centre and one we have developed over time from our earliest steps when as a baby we realised we were separate because of our bodies.
The sooner we touch our real centre, the sooner we can come home. How to do that? Well, that’s the beginning of the journey.
Chris Borrett