The only way to realise the light above you is to strike the spiritual light within you, and the darkness of sin and impurity will flee away. Think of your higher self, not of your lower.
Vivekananda Location 6580.
Why does life feel so dark and heavy?
You are having a problem with your mind. (Singer) It is focusing on the lower self...the personal mind and this entity we call "me."
Say what, Crazy Lady?
We are allowing our mind to run the show and the mind is just not capable of doing that. It is in the way of us experiencing the Light of the Higher Self.
The personal mind is a closet full of stored junk ( all the sensory impressions we cling to, most of them very painful, emotional experiences we are doing whatever we can to not experience again. And some of this junk is also made up of very pleasant experiences or impressions we crave experiencing again). This chaos of stored junk forms the personality, the sense of "me" that the mind is intent on protecting, the lower self, and it is a mess! We, as awareness, or the Higher Self, jump behind this closet of junk. We identify as the "me" and say, "Okay protect me, be my shield! Only allow what I want in. Life has to go through you before it gets to "me" ".
We attempt to experience Life from there. For the average, "normal" person...this mind they allow to run the show is a completely disturbed mess, leading to great suffering.
Besides being a complete mess, with a habit tendency of picking up more and more junk and stuffing it inside this mental closet, the mind is suffering from "delusions of grandeur." It believes it can control, manipulate, grasp from and push away life events as they pass before us. It actually thinks it has that ability to control Life so we can feel comfortable inside. We fail to realize that Life has been doing what it has been doing for billions of years before our puny little personal minds have come into existence. We fail to realize that we cannot control Life!
The Buddha taught that we all suffer ( all of us) because we desire. We desire how the world should be and the messy, and disturbed mind we have given the reins to, tries to give us what we want. So it constantly tells us, besides the stern instructions not to open the closet door more than a crack to stuff new things in, we have to go out and fix, manipulate, cling to the pleasant that soothes the junk in this closet, and push away the unpleasant that rattles the junk in this closet. We are instructed to open the door only a crack for the pleasant, and bar it shut for the unpleasant. The mind's instructions creates a never ending and never successful mission for us. We suffer, suffer, suffer.
If the door is closed most of the time and we are hiding behind it...how is Life and Light going to get through to our awareness. How are we going to experience it? All we are going to see is the mess in this dark and heavy closet. We will become obsessed focusing on the "me" and the drama the mind creates by attempting to manipulate Life based on the junk in this closet. We will become so focused on what is in front of us...we will not see the Light that shines behind us. We will live in darkness. We will suffer.
Yoga teaches we do not need to live this way. Without the junk filled closet in the way we can experience an amazing life. All we have to do is open the door, "strike the light" and clean up the mess in this mind. We cannot, of course, keep stuffing more in if we want a clean closet. We need to put away our preferences, our meager and fruitless attempts to fix it out there, so it suits us in here, and accept and allow Life as it is. We need to stop stuffing and clinging to the good, the bad, or the ugly. Let it all just pass by. If we stop stuffing more in, the stuff inside will keep rolling out until someday the entire closet is clean and purified. Until there is no junk between Life and who we are.
Without the mess, all there is is light.
Our desiring and expecting the world and Life to be the way that soothes the disturbed mind is not the way to go . To end suffering...let it go. We don't want to get what we want...we need to get rid of the reason we want so we are healthy and okay no matter what. (Singer)
Explore the essence of your being. This is the spiritual path. Spend your life purifying and freeing yourself from this messy closet mind. You are not the disturbed and messy mind. You are not the events it is trying to control. You are the One behind, observing it all. Stop focusing on the dark and heavy in front of you. Light the match that will allow you to focus on the part of you that is okay no matter what...the higher Self, not the lower. Clean out the mess inside...purify...and be free!
Heaviness and darkness belong to the messy mind, not the Light of who you really are.
If the room is dark, do you go about beating your chest and crying, "It is dark, dark, dark!" No, the only way to get the light is to strike a light, and then the darkness goes.
Vivekananda, location 6580
Michael A. Singer/ Sounds True ( January, 2024) Everyday Gets Lighter When You Let Go of Yourself./ Michael Singer Podcast: New Year's Special Season 3: Episode 6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qd_oz0krVI
Vivekananda (n.d.) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Kindle Edition.
No comments:
Post a Comment