Living inside the bubble

Pikeville, Tennessee.

How to escape from your own ego

When we identify solely with our thoughts and feelings, we reduce the area of our sensory awareness to a very small space directly in front of our field of vision, and that's about it. We can't perceive the outside world very well because all of our energy is going into speculation. We make do with a very small sample size of incoming data, and then our overactive imaginations try valiantly to extrapolate the rest of our world from what we think may be happening. The ego likes this arrangement because it tries to keep us safe and to convince us that it IS us, and without it, we shall surely perish.

But are we the ego? The Vedic world view says no, that we are actually part of the one thing, nature itself, the entirety of the universe. How can we access the vastness of this cosmic identity?

The ego needs to be shown its rightful place as the servant and not the master. The ego's role as historian and not as fortune teller needs to be gently reinforced. We don't use force on the ego; we acknowledge its limited but useful role in our makeup, and expand our awareness to the outside world again. A surrender of this ego-identity needs to take place.

Some among us are blessed with almost instantaneous enlightenment, some have a "burning bush" spiritual experience, some take potentially dangerous psychotropic substances and never regain a semblance of sanity.

Or we can meditate. Slowly, safely, one twenty-minute period at a time, we can dip into the infinite field of pure consciousness, and a gradual transformation of bliss awareness can replace our once fearful and exhausting ego-centric outlook upon life.

No longer do we need to be concerned with managing well in a seemingly hostile universe. Our overworked ego can take a break, and we can live in our blissful nature at last.

Every step we take toward awareness expansion is rewarded by nature. We can become much more in harmony with people, plants, animals and other aspects of this all-encompassing One Thing that the Veda speaks of. It is certainly a journey worth taking.

Recharging

Falls Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee.

Plugging into the infinite Ocean

Interaction with the world can be draining. As we move through our day, environmental and personal stresses occur. These experiences can leave us feeling overwhelmed.

If, as the Veda posits, there is only one thing, and we are a part of that thing, then we cannot truly be apart from our source. We can, however, through ignorance, become oblivious to our oneness. The cloud that temporarily occludes the bright sunshine does not in any way diminish the power of the sun. We can aspire to be ever more mindful of this fact and be assured that the sun is always there, though it may be hard to see at times. The source of energy from which we came is always present, always accessible to us to plug in to.

How do we do this? One way is to meditate. We sit quietly and allow nature to have her way with us, not judging the experience, just patiently observing. Twenty minutes, twice a day. Our practitioners unfailingly report quantum rewards as a result of a diligent routine.

Thoughts, feelings, opinions, moods, all signposts of the ego's personality, are in fact transitory states that will inevitably change. The Self, that which is eternal, cannot be touched or affected by these temporary states, no matter how furious or noisy they become.