Some day, what your life will be about, every single second of it, is to welcome everything that could ever happen so you can practice not touching it? So you just sit back there, deep inside, and get out of the way.
Michael A. Singer
A Vessel of Peace? That is what I want my Life to be...a vessel for peace to just pour through. In order for that to happen I need to get out of the freakin way! Who has to get out of the way? The part of "I" I call "me" has to move over so that part of "I" I call "I am..." can shine forth.
Let's recap on the difference between these two parts of "I"...
The "me" is the surface layer of "I" that the world sees. This "me" has a name, a body with a particular physical appearance, several social roles like mother, sister, partner, coworker, member, writer etc etc etc. A lot of "me"s roles are based on what "me" does. "Me" is very much about the doing. Me is the personality component of "I" and that personality has been formed based upon several events that have transpired throughout the life span of this body me is in...around it, in front of it and inside of it. Let me rephrase that...it was formed based on how those events were "expereinced"...in other words what the mind did with them and whether or not it "stored" them inside or let them go. This storing of information and the emotional energy surrounding that info has led the "me" to like and dislike certain things out there. It likes pleasure and comfort so it actively judges and determines what is desirable and what isn't...what is "good or bad, right or wrong, should be or shouldn't be". It desires and seeks things from the world that leave it feeling "good" ( a judgement term the "me" uses). What makes it feel "good" are those things that activate or remind it of the positive experiences it has stored inside. It doesn't like pain...in fact "me" is actually more about "not experiencing pain" than it is about "experiencing pleasure". It really, really doesn't like pain. It sees potential pain all around it and it is constantly defending itself from in. It attempts to push away, deny, avoid, distract and repress and suppress. When it does this, it is only pushing all the pain down inside itself, creating big tangled knots called samskaras. The more painful experiences or samskaras it has stored inside the more pain potential it will see. "Me" sees itself as separate and vulnerable in a dangerous world full of potential pain triggers...those things that can trigger the painful experiences stored inside...so it spends most of its energy warding off , manipulating, fixing and controlling that stuff "out there" ( i.e. those 'events' of Life that it believes will bring pain or activate painful stuff stored inside) and pushing down those stored inner experiences so it doesn't feel pain in here. "Me" is a busy little creature...working 24/7 through its entire life: thinking and believing, judging and doing. If we listen we can hear "me" chattering non stop inside us...telling us what is wrong...what to look out for and what to do. It never, never seems to stop. Most of us only hear and heed this part of the "I". We think that is all we are so we obey its ceaseless commands. That does not make us vessels of peace, let me tell ya.
Who is this "I am"?
Ram Dass, in a Tweet he posted on February 18, 2013, put it this way:
I am without form, without limit. I am beyond space, beyond time. I am in everything; everything is in me. I am the bliss of the universe.
"I am", on the other hand, is the part of I in the background, in the deeper parts of "I" and is invisible. In fact, there is often a veil between "me" and "I am", a veil of ignorance "me" created out of fear. So unless we are looking for it..."I am " stays in the shadows. Whereas "me" is about the doing, "I am" is about the being. It doesn't have to do anything. It just is. While the "me" is so busy, the "I am" is quiet and still. Whereas the "me" is impermanent, ever changing and unstable, the "I am" is permanent, stable and never changing/, While the "me" judges and reacts to the unfolding of Life circumstance and does in according to what it feels, "I am" simply observes all of the Life that surrounds it and pours through it without judgement or a need to "do" anything about it. It honors it and appreciates it....opening up to all of it. It is indeed that which can allow us to be the vessel of peace we are designed to be. Yet "me" is in the way!
Let's look a little deeper inside, We will see the "me" and hear it rattling on when we do, hear what is being said, recognize the judging, the thinking, the desire to do something. See the tendencies it has and just recognize it as the "me". Stop believing it, stop going where it tells you to go, doing what it tells you to do. Don't close when it tells you to close. Then look deeper for the veil which is made up of obstacles between you and what lay beneath them . Often those obstacles are our samskaras. Recognize them and just allow them to come up. We don't have to do anything else but get out of the way. The "I Am"...will just shine its peace through us.
Hmmm! Sounds so easy doesn't it?
All is well in my world.
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