Freedom and the Ego

Relatively few people can actually liberate themselves from suffering by directly confronting and seeing the unreality of their own ego, their “I” or “me” thoughts. For most it is a gradual process, a gradual realization of: “Oh, I am not this thought that I believed I was all these years… and I am not this one, either…”

As you realize that you are not the story you have believed about yourself all these years—that you were telling yourself—you experience more freedom. After all, no matter how true the story once might have been, it’s now just a collection of ever-shifting and changing thoughts and concepts between your ears.

That freedom translates into a feeling of being more at peace, happier without any apparent cause. You are less troubled, less inward-looking. Your heart is more open, and you tend to look outwards, and focus your attention on the suffering of others.

Many are moved of us to want to help ease that suffering—which, as all spiritual traditions teach, is one of our true purposes for being here.

Your Thoughts Are Not Real

‘Christ died for our sins’ is an example of a belief that probably is not true (we have no way of actually proving it), but if you are a Christian, then you take it on faith. The statement that ‘You are not your thoughts,’ however, is a belief that is true.

After all, you can observe your thoughts, even the ‘I’ and ‘me’ thoughts, and watch them come and go, yet you as an aware, conscious being—the watcher or observer of your ever-changing thoughts—are always here.

So, your thoughts may be true, like telling a story about what you did during the past hour, or they may be false, imagined, or unverifiable (like ‘Christ died for our sins’), but they are not real. After all, they come and go, arise and disappear, and what is real is always here.

You are real, in other words: you as an aware, conscious being. That, in a nutshell, is the very essence of ‘self’-realization.

You Are 'It'

Feeling upset or conflicted right now? Someone has said something, or something has happened to cause as emotional reaction in you? In other words, you’ve taken something personally? You think what the other person has said or what you’ve imagined to be all about ‘you,’ this psychological/emotional ‘person’ you think you are?

If you really want to shift the upset and experience more freedom, the first thing you’re going to have to do is be really present with whatever is happening with you. So, breathe deeply and slowly, feel yourself in your body, feel your feet on the ground, listen to the sounds around you… Really be here now, in other words.

Then step back with your awareness and notice what’s happening in your mind. See if you can separate yourself—your true ‘self,’ the observer, or witness of your experience—from the ever-changing contents of your mind. Observe how your thoughts come and go—even the thoughts, “My God, this feels terrible,’ or ‘This shouldn’t be happening!’ come and go.

So, guess what? Obviously, you cannot be your thoughts! You are whatever is watching, observing, experiencing the thoughts. And what is that? Hah! Nothing you can think or say is ‘it.’ Why? Because you are ‘It!’

Why is it So Difficult to be Present?

The present moment is all we have. Everything happens in the present. It’s the place of true creative power, and it is where our wisdom and love is shared. Those who embody presence honor the past, keep an eye on the future—including setting goals and making plans—yet live right here, right now.

Why, then, do so many people have difficulty being present? Simply put, they are distracted, preoccupied with the thoughts and stories between their ears—their anxieties, fears, obsessions, hopes, dreams, and wishes. In a word, their story. Their story about who they think they are, what they want to become, and what they’re seeking to avoid, what they’re running from.
But when people stand back and observe themselves, and realize that their thoughts, their story comes and goes, yet they—as this aware, conscious being—are always present, a shift may happen.

They in a real sense find themselves truly present. They are right here, now. The thought may arise: “So, this is what it means to be awake, present.” Then they just breathe, and relax it being, and smile at the simplicity of it all!

The Art of Being Supremely Present

There is a mantra I used to repeat to myself over a period of a year or two before I finally realized the freedom that is our true nature: Supremely present, mind still, I breathe in the beauty of this moment.

This mantra always had a profound effect on me. Whenever I would say it, I’d become very present in my body. Whether sitting or standing, I’d be extremely alert, watchful of everything happening in and around me: sensations, feelings, thoughts, circumstances, the fullness of the moment itself.

I remember something Erich Schiffmann told me about J. Krishnamurti: “He was like an animal in his awareness.” It is like that whenever you are supremely present. You are like an animal—a jackal, a lion, a gazelle—perfectly still, all your senses alert, eyes and ears attuned to the unknown.

It is good to practice being supremely present. Whenever you do, you are one with the now.

Being a Spiritual Warrior

My New Year's insight:

The main barrier to awakening, to complete freedom, is complacency, the lack of drive, desire to be free. You've got to be really vigilant, and the moment you feel slightly off-center, caught up in the 'me,' self-judgment, resentment, an expectation, you've got to jump on it.You've got to stop and realize you're lost in a thought, you're telling yourself a story.

And you are not that, you are not the thought or story. Why? Because they come and go, but you are always here as this supremely aware, conscious being. Being very alert and present in this way is what it means to be a spiritual warrior, regardless of whether you happen to be a man or a woman.

From my new book, END YOUR STORY, BEGIN YOUR LIFE

Our true nature cannot be expressed in words. However, consciousness, awareness, beingness, and presence are some words that come closest to defining what we are, here, right now. We always start from this moment now, from the present.

So, what can be said to be real right now is you are alive, present, and reading this book. What is real now is your existence. You are conscious of existing, of being alive. Your true nature is consciousness itself. It is the one thing always present, whether you are asleep or awake, and whether you are aware of it or not.

What you are in your essence is the lucid, unchanging consciousness giving birth to everything in the world of the senses, including all your thoughts, stories, memories, and to your body, mind, and this unique personality called “you.” To understand this is to grasp the literal meaning of the words attributed to St. Francis: “What we are looking for is what is looking.” You become aware of yourself, your true nature, as consciousness, awareness, or presence itself....

The goal of spiritual or transformational work is to wake up from the dream. It is to break free of the internal dialogue. It is to see through the mind-created illusion of “me, myself, and my story,” the imaginary world you have created between your ears, making you feel separate and apart from others.

These stories, memories, and experiences have shaped your personality but they are still only your stories. They may have been real once, but are definitely not real now. They are an imaginary world existing inside your head, in the form of fleeting thoughts, beliefs, pictures, and ideas of “self,” with corresponding feelings and emotions in your body. And they are always changing, always coming and going, yet you, as the awareness which sees them, experiences them, are always here.

Every time you see the truth of this, your head clears, your body relaxes, your heart opens, and you experience a release from inner conflict, stress, and suffering. You become, in a word, present...

Awakening itself is realizing you are not your stories, not your thoughts, but you are the consciousness in which stories and thoughts—in which all existence—arises. You are not an object, a human being in space and time who has only intermittent glimpses of consciousness, the source of creation. You are not a wave, occasionally remembering your connection to the ocean. Rather, you are consciousness itself, viewing all of creation through the eyes of this human being called “you.” You are the ocean itself, manifesting in this individual human wave form.

As this realization occurs, you find yourself connected to an inexhaustible source of wisdom, love, and inner joy. Instead of living out of some myth or story about who you are and what life means, you live in awareness in the present. Meaning and identity no longer depend on beliefs, stories, or circumstances, but flow directly out of the beauty and dynamism of the life force itself. They arise from the sense of oneness, of the intimacy you feel with life—from the fullness and fragrance of being itself. You live in a state of openness, of welcoming everything that comes into your awareness.

With this awakening to the truth of being, the incessant chatter of the mind no longer dominates your consciousness. Your inner state becomes one of clarity and ease—at times, radiantly so. You become aware of a deep, vast silence, a universal spaciousness without center and without borders. You feel yourself to be one with that silence....

Awakening, as will become clear, means freedom from conflict and suffering. This is the promise of the inner quest. It doesn’t matter what your circumstances are, or where in this world you live—inner freedom can be yours, simply because it is your true nature.

The feeling-tone associated with being established in pure consciousness is one of relaxed ease, harmony, and presence, of openness and welcoming, of gratitude and appreciation. It is one of feeling the energy of aliveness in your body. Thoughts may or may not be present, but you are not identified with them. There is no “you” in the way. There is just the flow of beingness, what in Zen is called the “suchness” of life, and you are one with the suchness. Everything then happens out of oneness.

Truly, to know yourself as consciousness, and then to embody the knowing, is the greatest blessing.

(from Chapter One, End Your Story, Begin Your Life)