Even taking Mondays and Tuesdays off, the number of stories there are to get out make me want to use those two days to post. The two – days off and posting articles – now seem unrelated and not mutually exclusive. So I’ll resume reporting on Mondays and Tuesdays.
We’re in a process of having our deepest issues raised by news of disasters, bombings, etc.
Our fears come to the surface, are experienced, and, in this rarified atmosphere, are let go of rather than being energized and pushed back down again.
At the same time the same energies that are making it easier to release our issues are also elevating every cell in our bodies, with other consequent changes.
The net effect of it all is to deconstruct the constructed self that we worked so many lifetimes building.
Our image, our look, our gestures, our tone, everything about us and the way we dress, what we own, who we marry, etc., etc., is part of our constructed self and here we are, tearing the whole edifice down. Into the dumpster probably goes the work of many lifetimes.
Into it goes “original sin” as well. What we’re left with is “original innocence.”
We’re returned to our naturally-innocent Self. “Sahaja” as in Sahaja Samadhi – which is Ascension – means “natural.”
Lao Tzu invites us to “touch ultimate emptiness.” (1) No constructed self there. And we do it by letting go.
Ajahn Sumedho once memorably made Buddhism easy for us all by boiling what we needed to do down to two words:
“I’m making it very simple for you, to save you from getting caught in incredible amounts of suffering. There’s nothing more sorrowful than having to attend International Buddhist Conferences!
“Some of you might have the desire to become the Buddha of the age, Maitreya, radiating love throughout the world. Just be an earthworm who knows only two words – ‘let go, let go, let go.'” (2)
We are doing that – letting go of the constructed self – the image of ourselves that we have and project for the approval and acceptance of others.
We’re declaring ourselves ready and willing to stand here without our act, our racket, and our numbers. Just us, organic and raw. It’s scarey but it’s also immensely freeing.
Footnotes
(1) Lao Tzu, The Way of Life. The Tao Te Ching. trans. R.B. Blakney. New York, etc.: Avon, 1975, verse 16, 68.
(2) Ajahn Sumedho, Cittaviveka. Teachings from the Silent Mind. (Hemel Hempstead: Amaravati Publications, 1992; c1984, 44.