Tag Archives: spirituality

Ego

The Thoughts In My Head Care A Lot About The Thoughts In Your Head

enterWhat can we learn through the comments on Facebook posts?  Or rather, what is the lesson behind all internet comment threads?  I have to guess there are many; have you read that stuff lately?  If in millions of years these internet comments are found by aliens what would they glean about humanity?  When you take out the content of comments, and are left with merely the structure of the comment itself, I find the biggest take away is this: the thoughts in my head care a lot about the thoughts in your head.  They would see us humans engaged in a constant back and forth, a never-ending cycle of opinions.  Alas, this too is just a display of thought.

What causes my thoughts to react so strongly to yours?  As can be observed in many a YouTube comment section, the content of discussion can be anything, and the reaction will be present and passionate.  Have you ever read something in your News Feed that just bothered you?  Did you end up replying to the initial statement?  I know I have, many times.  And it feels important.  But in reality, the thoughts in my head are just reacting to the thoughts in your head.  When thoughts do this they give themselves renewed life.  A thought in reaction can keep gaining until it completely absorbs your attention to the point where you don’t even notice you’re thinking anymore.

At this point, instead of referring to the thought reaction as merely thoughts, we call it ego.  Ego is attachment to thoughts.  This displays itself quite clearly through internet comments.  Since the people are not present, the thoughts themselves are left bare, living their own life until you see them for what they really are.  The internet leaves ego right out in the open, precariously perched in the perfect position for you to become aware of it.  The moment you notice the comments you are reading and writing are not who you are, the ego is no longer in control, and you can begin to experience you true self beyond thought.  Our ego, our mind; it is all one.  Our thoughts egg each other on, because they are truly one flow of energy, gaining life momentum through our interactions.

Sometimes I scroll through Facebook and don’t notice what I’m doing, don’t realize the reaction switch is in the on position.  Sometimes I scroll through and feel my ego rising up with each reaction.  It is in those moments that I can most clearly see the separation, see what I am not, and start to experience what I am.  Becoming aware of the ego is the beginning of its end.  Where do you notice the ego playing itself out in your world?

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consciousness

Who are you, really?

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If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn’t even know you are thinking. You would be like a dreamer who doesn’t know he is dreaming. When you know you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream. (Present Moment Reminder, Eckhart Tolle)

You are not thoughts.  After that seemingly simple realization you have “woken up.”  You have the power to experience your true being, and to see life as it really is from the vantage point of the watcher.  You have the power to change the situation, to be an active participant in creating your own reality. There can be no diminishment of even the smallest glimpse of awakening.  Once you know, experience, that you are not your thoughts but the one who perceives, you have initiated the flowering of your own existence.
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Ego

“Scarcity Culture”

airplaneWhat decisions does fear make for you?  How do you react when you feel like you’re not enough?  The ego lives life through you by making you believe you are the ego.  That you are not safe, that your existence is precarious.  It makes you believe others’ perceptions of you, along with objects and thoughts, validate your being.

Of course, this is all true of the ego!  The ego is the mind when it attaches itself to objects, and thought forms.  It needs that attachment for its existence.  Without it, you would take back your life, and the ego would cease.  What would a life free of fear, judgment, and attachment look like?

The “Scarcity Culture” that Dr. Brené Brown discusses with Oprah, on this episode of Super Soul Sunday, is an example of a world created by the ego.  A world created by attachment, fear, and separation.

 

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consciousness

Need a break from the voice in your head?

The world comes alive the moment the voice in your head ceases.  Can you remember any moments in your life when you weren’t thinking?  They are usually very memorable, because your awareness of the situation increases astronomically.

What is life like when your attention is not dominated by your thoughts?  While it is miraculous, the only way to truly know what will happen, is to try.  This video provides the all important “how” for silencing your thoughts:

Thank you Eckhart and Oprah for that wonderful Super Soul Sunday discussion! This next video I’m including as an example of how the direction of your attention drastically changes any situation.  In this simple video of a father asking his child questions when she is crying, the principle of anchoring your awareness can be easily identified.  

Eckhart taught us ways to shift our awareness from the voice in the head to our inner body.  For this child, when her attention shifts from crying to answering a question, she is no longer in the grip of reaction. An adult mind usually has too much momentum to cease when interrupted by a question, which is why anchoring your attention first within the body helps to slow thought.

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Inspiration

“Every setback means you’re one step closer to seeing the dream come to pass.” – Joel Osteen

Have you ever experienced an obstacle in your life?  Maybe things didn’t go according to plan?  I’m sure for the majority of humans the answer might sound something like, “duh,” or, “why are you even asking?” While accepting that challenges are a part of life is healthy, the old tried and true negative reaction can cause further difficulty.

This video has the power to make you shout for joy each time a setback presents itself.  Instead of feeling discouraged when situations don’t flow with ease, this simple wisdom can allow you to experience those instances from a completely different perspective.  I love this clip of Joel Osteen on Oprah’s Lifeclass.  It transcends religion, and mental constructs, reaching right to the heart of personhood.  Thanks Joel and Oprah!

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Inspiration

“I’ve Got A Golden Ticket!”

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My parking spot was stolen. Admittedly, that is not the most accurate sentence. I don’t actually own a parking spot, so strictly speaking nothing was stolen. But another driver did prevent me from parking in the spot I was attempting to back into. It was at that point, when I decided to give it up and drive away, that I allowed myself to cry hysterically for about a minute and a half.

Was this an overreaction? It was clearly a very strong response. But the parking spot was just a small nudge over the cliff I had been teetering on since I left work. I had received some information about pay and hours for the coming year that was not in alignment with my thoughts about how it should be. Usually that is where frustration starts. There is a disconnect between reality, and the mind’s ideas about reality.

Intellectually I am aware that the events that took place today were all working for my good. My brain still trusts the universe. But that wasn’t how I was feeling. I felt frustrated, and unnerved. So when “my” parking spot was “stolen” I decided it was time to let out the negative energy that had awoken within me. If I hadn’t allowed that energy to express itself, it would have lived on within my body, leaving me more susceptible to illness and further negative energy.

I then proceeded to find a parking spot, and walk home in the gloriously clear blue sky. I find that after a less-than-desirable experience, it is necessary to rev myself up again. Instead of letting the space created from purging my negative energy fill up with a reaction to another event, I feel it is more helpful to choose what I let in.

For a few minutes I danced and sang about how grateful and abundant my life was. Then I decided to watch an inspiring sermon on YouTube, but instead found myself watching clips from Willy Wonka. Wouldn’t you know it, it was just what I needed! The first video featured the song, “Golden Ticket,” which displayed exactly the level of energy I was attempting to reach. What was more, I heard the lyrics spoken straight from the universe itself:

I never had a chance to shine
Never a happy song to sing
But suddenly half the world is mine
What an amazing thing
‘Cause I’ve got a golden ticket (Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley)

When I let go of thought, observe the world around me, and sense my own beingness in connection with all that is, that is what it feels like! I’ve got a golden ticket and the world is mine, or rather, I am the world. Consciousness is the real golden ticket. God can speak to you with exactly the right words, through any vessel in the universe. All that is required, in the words of Willy Wonka, is to “simply look around and view it.”

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Inspiration

“This is how you manifest!” – Michael Beckwith

Flowers in WinterI am ridiculously excited to share this video with you tonight.  Many thanks to the brilliant author Pam Grout, who posted this video on her blog http://www.pamgrout.com.  I know her from reading E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality, which I have previously written about, and her travel blog http://www.georgeclooneyslepthere.com.  I asked if I could pass this video along, because it is so poignant, funny, ringing with truth, and inspiring!  Michael Beckwith will lift you up, and leave you laughing:

What is your “what?!?!?”  As I watched this video I was brought right back to the day I received a voicemail saying I had won a raffle.  The raffle prize happened to include a month of free Yoga on the same street as the new apartment I’m moving into.  I had been in the midst of Pam Grout’s first experiment from E-Squared.  Per the experiment, I asked the universe for a sign or gift, within forty-eight hours, as a clear message of its presence.  It showed up in a big way!  I will never forget that leaping feeling, the inability to contain my laughter and excitement.  That is my “what!?!?!” moment.

Evoking that feeling aligns you with its energy and everything that comes with it.  It’s like you and that feeling are on the same page, the same wavelength.  Then all you have to do is “ride the wave,” as Oprah puts it.  Get aligned with that feeling and watch all beauty it contains come to you.  Although none of us know what the consequences of evoking that blissful, “anything can happen” feeling, will look like, it will be quite a ride finding out.

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consciousness

The Stranger Who Killed My Ego

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One night a few summers back I went to the gym, and feeling quite proud of myself decided to walk home to keep the momentum going.  As I was briskly walking along, with my rainbow New Balances and a big grin on my face, a young artist who could’ve been my age asked me to look at his photographs.  I admired them, complimented his artistic eye, and was about to continue on my way home.  But before I could, he started asking me if I was going to buy them.  I told him I had no money on me but that I wished him good luck with his work.

Instead of the usual disappointed face and goodbye, I received a totally unexpected barrage of questions.  Did I really have no money at all?  Couldn’t I go to the ATM? Don’t I just live off my parents’ money anyway?  I admitted I was blessed and did in fact have some money to my name, but that I too was an artist, working part time.  He wouldn’t stop asking questions.  I could have made the choice to walk away.  In my mind it was important to just watch him and see him as a human being.  But when someone is completely taken over by the voice in their head, as he clearly was, the most helpful thing can be to choose a new situation, and exit.

Saying things like “I am blessed” and telling him how, as a poet, I understand how difficult it is to make money, set me up for a barrage of attacks on my religion, and my art.  “Oh yeah right, we’re all poets aren’t we?” he sarcastically remarked.  Along with, “If you really were religious you would go and get money right now but you’re not, so I guess you aren’t really what you say you are.”  On and on he went.  And I just stood there in awe, listening.

Eventually I gave it up as a bad job and walked away, tears streaming down my face.  He had attacked every identification I held dear.  He tore down all of the things I associated with to give me an identity.  He acted as if he could not see me at all, as if I were not a real person standing in front of him.  He may have appeared like many of my acquaintances from art school, with his hipster clothing and shaggy hair, but he didn’t seem to relate to me on any level.

I was in shambles the rest of my walk home; you would have thought something truly terrible had happened.  But I knew in the deep recesses of my consciousness that something terrible had not happened to me, it happened to my ego.  The part of me that attached itself to things and ideas had been belittled.  The voice in my head that demanded others take it seriously, and believe in what is says, had been attacked with no chance of retribution.  Not my true self, but the mind which seeks outside things to feel secure and to attain an identity, that ego self, had been greatly diminished.  He had claimed to know me better than myself.  He took everything I thought I was, and laughed at it, claimed it was all one big hoax.

Now I can say, thank God for this stranger.  Everything he said, all of the parts of me he attacked, were much too specific to be meaningless.  The universe is a beautiful being, who used this man, a person completely taken over by his ego, to show me the vestiges of my own ego.  The universe teaches lessons through joy, but it can also use negative people and situations for your good.

Since I couldn’t defend myself after parting ways with this stranger, my ego could not repair itself.  It couldn’t build itself back up, dig its heals in, and explain why it was what it said it was.  Whenever the ego is diminished without being repaired, space is created for your true self to emerge, that which is beyond thoughts and emotions.  Instead of defending my beliefs about who I was, I allowed myself to let go of what others thought of me, along with letting go of what I thought about of myself.  No thoughts, no labels, are who I am.  Nothing I can ever think about myself will ever come close to the reality of my being.  That stranger was a small flame of refining fire, burning up the egoic mind-made self, leaving room for my eternal being to live more fully through me.  It did not feel good.  I was amazed by how truly terrible it felt.  But through acceptance, the pain dissolved, along with the resilient attachments that are the ego, and I was still there.  Completely whole, undiminished, and open to life as it really was.  We don’t need others to define who we are.  We don’t need ourselves to define who we are.  Beyond definitions, we just are.

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