Psychoanalysis has its usefulness. Where do our motivations come from? What drives our fears? Why do we have a hidden agenda, and where does it point to? Modern wo(man) does generally a fine job keeping the bundle of “me, myself and I” that we all identify with pretty straight. Mostly professional and somewhat ethical at work, mostly loving with family and friends, with a healthy dose of projections and aspirations of how these connections should work out out. Deep down inside though, s(he) suffers keeping it all straight. Inner conflicts never really go away for their purpose is to show us that this bundle of hopes, aspirations, fears and drives is not real. Our suffering is self-imposed to show us that now is as good as any time to start looking for another way. That’s when the Way appears, a world and a mode of living that transcends the self.
Step 1 in the Awakening process is awe. How come that I have never experienced this Force before? How can I make “being, consciousness, bliss” a permanent feature of my life? Step 2 is realizing that we are only part-time lovers of God. We alternate between spiritual experience and wishful thinking and that’s when the real work starts. How can we be fully committed to this higher plane of consciousness? How can we get our self out of the Way? The most important part in this home-coming stretch is to spot the projection and escape in our desire to be free. There is a pain-body embedded in our motivations and aversions, and the way out of the problem is through it. We stop the bipolar nature of our quest if we enjoy Grace when the higher energies flow through us yet face the self when our old conditionings get activated. God gave us two eyes to be Awareness and to be self-aware.
There are three faculties at work, we think, we sense, and we perceive. The problem that modern wo(man) faces is that psychological thinking is always crooked. It’s a contradiction in itself as this self-identification that we think about and channel our desires and aspirations with, is illusionary. Now how to stop it? How to step out of it? The ‘I’ that is part of “me, myself and I” cannot. Yet this “I” is part of an infinitely larger energy and the trick is to connect with That. We are part of humanity, the mental tracks that have been forming for eons in the desire to survive and to thrive. We see ourselves as separate when in fact we are a unity. Look up! Spot the Oneness of life even in supposedly miserable situations. Look within and notice these conditioning everyone carries around. The split “I” can grasp its own conditioning, and that’s when the mind becomes still and the higher energies kick in.
Spiritual teachers tell you to be mindful of your thoughts and not to engage. “You are the Awareness that perceives these thoughts”, they say, and everyone nods as if this was the most helpful advice possible. Well, mindfulness of our “thought-feeling-energy” is as useful as psychoanalysis. This mindfulness study tells us a lot about aspirations and aversions and is especially useful in uncovering our hidden agenda. Why did I just say this? Why do I raise my posture when I meet him? How come the same thought runs through my head over and over again? Yet, just as in psychoanalysis, the observer of the egoistic thought is still self. In Awareness there are no thoughts, and thought can’t think itself into heaven. Losing oneself is an entirely different exercise. As J. Krishnamurti used to say, the perceiver needs to see he is the perceived, the thinker needs to realize he is the thought.
How to make the jump from conditioning to alignment with the higher energies? There is a path for each of us. Life is a precision course to leading us Home. By running after what is meaningful to us, we awaken to the illusion. By trying to avoid what we fear, the law of attraction makes us face it. The second step in the Awakening quest is to make conscious what was previously hidden in the depth of our subconscious. Face life here now and the higher energies will become visible. Face every “thought-feeling-energy” and let it tell you what part of the imagined self is standing in the Way. In my last book, “Breaking Free”, I used the acronym SELF to provide four gateways we can connect with, Serenity—the stillness of our being; Energy—the internal energy flow into the crown chakra; Love—our heart-centered energy; Flow—the externally perceived higher energies.
What we have identified with is illusionary, yet, by embarking on this spiritual journey we become lighter. More and more the heavy energies of the past are lifting. More and more the Light peers through the curtains that we either put up by ourselves, or that others have put up for us. The key insight here is energy. Notice when the heavy energies of conditioning act like chains around your legs. Hear the story that you are telling yourself, be it of scarcity or exuberance. Step out of the mind and open up to the prevailing heart energy. An open heart, open eyes open mind connects us with That.
“You” need to put effort into the breaking free quest until you realize that you don’t need it. “You” as an identifier, as a thinker, seeker and practitioner increasingly disappears. The Light speaks always for itself, but it appears by Grace. But then, on the dark days, look within and without and realize That.
Get your self out of the Way—be the Way!
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