When the self falls by the Way-side

 By flowing with life I mean acceptance -- letting come what comes and go what goes. Desire not, fear not, observe the actual, as and when it happens, for you are not what happens, you are to whom it happens. Ultimately even the observer you are not.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

How do you fear not? Well, you face what is meaningful to you and do it even though you are shaking in your boots. That’s straightforward enough, but how do you desire not? Will you not just repress what is meaningful in the name of spirituality? Suppression doesn’t work. Your desire will come back with a splash, just the same as if you try pushing a basket ball under water.

 

Nisargadatta’s stoic advice is a waste of your time. Live your life just like everyone else. Go after what is meaningful to you but let life’s obstacles and interferences teach you what inner conflicts you are carrying around, and what storms are brewing inside. ‘As within, so without’ is the most useful spiritual paradigm there is. Find that place of serenity and equanimity within when desires and fears dissolve. That’s the Way.

 

The self is born with desires and aversions. The self is also embedded in a network of friends and foes that our soul carries around. It’s magnetism, we can’t fight it. Yet, the self comes with a mission, a life story, that is tailored to us, allowing us to awake to Love and Oneness moment by moment. Fall in love with life. Find the magic of the moment that dissolves the self moment by moment. The self will naturally fall by the Way-side.