Imagine you are sitting there with a tooth infection and your jaw has been hurting for days, and a wise man comes by and says, “Your body doesn’t exist!” You probably would thank him for his wisdom and them ask him to go his merry way. Now imagine you are sitting there with a good book in your hand, completely getting lost in its plot, and when you look up that same man sits there opposite to you. This time you would probably respond, “Wow! You are absolutely right. I experienced this state too. What I perceive as me vanished in that one hour of intense reading.”
Leaving the “me, myself and I” identity behind is just like that. Good luck doing it though when that position you have been preparing for at work for the last six years has been given to an outside applicant, or when your son has broken his arm. It may take the man a change of job to get to that state of equanimity, or the mother or a night of good sleep and the realization that her son will also do just fine in a cast for a few weeks.
“Me, myself and I” energy can be disposed of immediately, but we can’t will ourselves into that state either, otherwise it would just be a trick of projection and repression that will come back later to bite us. I observed that for people who walk the spiritual path psychological time shrinks. Disruptive energy, whether it is depression, anger or exuberance, leaves the system faster and faster after the initial trigger. The overlooked employee may in fact start laughing and say to himself, “At least I now know what the CEO truly thinks of me!” and gives the competitor that always wanted to hire him a call. The mother may take one look at the injury and say to herself, “been there, done that and will probably have to do it one day again.”
How can we step out of the “me, myself and I” energy here and now? Do you have an example to share?
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