Don’t Be Fooled
We are not alone. We have never been apart from the One although we take many forms. Whatever we do, we offer that action to the One. Whatever we give, we give to the One. When we make our bed in the morning, go for a walk or make a cup of tea we contribute the action to the One. The One is never any other Way.
You are never alone right where you are. If you think you are, you have been fooled by the psychology of the constructed ego. It is an idea inside of you, built from the ground up in the family and culture you were raised in. The work is not psychological, the work is transcendent.
Maya, mara, demons, the devil…whatever name you label it, is the covering over the Truth. It appears to be substantial, appealing, alluring, inviting us to get entangled in a way that always ends in suffering. It uses all the resources of accusation, fear, greed, need and an endless array of tactics to trap us and blind us from the Truth.
The Truth is at hand, right there where you are. Don’t get confused by the mumbo-jumbo of psychological inquiry, by your social standing in the world, by the mounds of worry threatening your stability to face the day.
Modernity, this post neo-modern world of maddening attainment and progress foils our spiritual life again and again. We are harnessed to a team of horses called greed and hate that pulls us into every sort of ditch again and again. Like and dislike are flowery tops rising up from the roots of greed and hate. They look good and right…which is part of the cover-up. We tell ourselves we have a right to like and dislike, forgetting that likes and dislikes are non-essential in terms of spiritual transcendence. Really. No joke here. No latitude.
Likes and dislikes are non-essential and are especially devious because they seem so harmless. But, let us remember, picking and choosing makes the Supreme Way difficult. Even a hairsbreadth difference sets us worlds apart from awakening.
Think about it in your life, right where you are. The mind goes around in a circle of delusion when it wants something, anything whether it be a thing to get or a thing to remove. It comes in small ways and big ways. Small ways like wanting the house tidy, or the dog to stop barking or wanting to remove the ban on social isolation or head for the hills.
Psychology offers minimal help to our human condition, leaving us to reduce ourselves and others to critical labeling. It focuses on the body and mind. Even positive psychology of today reduces our mind into wanting what makes us happy and removing what does not.
I once was at a big gathering where a spiritual adept was giving a talk on how to be happy. At the end of the talk, he opened to taking questions. I asked a question about going after happiness. His first response was: “Don’t you want to be happy?” Actually, my answer is no. I want to be free. To be awake. Happiness is as fleeting a state as sadness. It is a feeling that comes and goes.
In order to be free, we must be stable in our practice, never letting it be a thing done sometimes and not done at other times. We must devote ourselves in such a way our mind is saturated with what is real, true and transcendent. Now I hear the cry of…that’s not easy… only to suggest that those who want easy versus hard have divided the world according to personal likes and dislikes. And although oh so very human, and oh so very understandable, dividing the world along those lines is not essential along the Way. Discard them and see what happens. The lines between easy and hard disappear and you begin to see life as it is. And when we see life as it is, we respond to what shows up from our spirit and not from our psychological self-invested ego.
The drumbeat changes. When the self drops away, we see that everything comes to awaken us. We devote our attention fully. Taking care of what we meet in the shrine of our daily lives.
Don’t be fooled.
Proceed from the One and return to the One.
IT is you, you are not IT.
I was once dubious about working with a teacher,
but after a lifetime of practice, and working with Ming Zhen
I see the need and recommend to you
that you find a teacher.
Author: Reverend Master Yue
Image credits: Fly, 2020
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