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I hear from many people who tell me how they are doing this or that practice and that their teachers point to some ideal as to what it means to be Enlightened, or they have come up with their own ideals of what they should be doing or expressing. Ideals seem like a good thing to most people but they are not seeing the basic problem they point to, namely, the ego.
There are so many ideas going around about what an Enlightened person should or should not do. People trying to make their minds so focused on the moment as to end thought, is one major ideal for many. Or doing what they perceive as being what god would want them to do, trying to let go and let god guide them. Or they feel they should be more loving and compassionate. Many are always looking for sign posts that show how they are progressing. Escape can be another ideal. Escape from the mundane life on this planet and reach some imagined higher state where there is no suffering. Escape from what they do that they have been told or imagined is a sin. There are many ways this need to escape can express itself.
Then there are the ideals of some teachers and teachings that we are supposed to follow if we want to find happiness. Some say we should be celibate. That sex is at least a distraction from our search for Holiness and at worst a sin. Which of course ties in with religions and all the demands and ideals they push on us. We are always being told some ideal of what we should do or not do.
When we start our spiritual search to find a way out of our suffering, or to reach some self projected ideal of how we should live, we too often turn to teachers that can add more problems to your life. So often, the teachers themselves have their own set of ideals they expect their students to follow, as they have been handed down from their teachers. Religions and spiritual teachers have been doing this for thousands of years. Yet, we are still in a mess on this planet. We are no closer to living those ideals than we were when they first came out of the minds of equally disturbed people in the distant past. There is no peace within religion, so how is religion going to bring about peace? It is just another ideal. Religious leaders of all flavors tell us how we should act and what we should do to find salvation. It is just all ideals with no real understanding behind them. It is another ego game, a dream.
Following some ideal and thinking it is somehow holy will end in blinding those who follow such beliefs. All ideals keep us from really looking at the real problem that is causing so much suffering. Who is it that tries to follow some ideal? What is the process of mind that feels it has to have ideals to live by? Do having ideals really end suffering for you? Is it insecurity that drives one to follow some ideal? If your ideal is based in mind, which of course it is, can one truly live up to any ideal without first understanding just what that mind is? Who is it that feels ideals are real and helpful? There are many such questions one should answer for themselves before they accept any ideal; there own or one imposed upon them.
It always comes back to the ego and how it works. Or seems to work. If one totally awakens to the way the ego came into being then ideals will no longer be of importance to them. The ego is just a dream that came into being by evolution. It is the only thing that makes one feel they are separate from the rest of life. It is the core of insecurity and it causes all the insanity we see in the way things are done on this planet. It is never free and it does its best to keep everything within its control. Ideals are part of that control process. Ideals not only make one feel some sense of control but they can make one feel a bit more secure because it reinforces the belief there is a you who is doing this. The ego identifies with anything that will make it feel it is real.
The ego has brought about far more complexity than is needed to live a full and happy life. Those who have gone beyond the ego, seen through the dream by direct awakening, life is so very simple. You are an animal, a highly intelligent and creative one. As such, you find food, shelter, and the other needs all animals have. You have sex drive and you respond to that natural drive. You do not hide from it and call it a sin. You care for other beings because you can see no separation between you. When you see a tree, or any other thing, you see its reality and it is wonderful. Not because of some ideal, it is just what it is. It does not have to be useful to you to be worthy of your deep respect and care. Any child is as loved as your own offspring. Your environment is seen as holy and not at all separate from you, so you protect it and love it. You have no sense of greed or hatred; they are expressions of ego. You have no need for beliefs or ideals at all. Beliefs are seen for the mind created nonsense they are. Ideals never come to mind for they are not needed at all. One lives as best they can without any control from any outside source. When one is out of balance with reality they feel it and do not hide from it in shame. There is nothing there to feel shame. We do fall into mind traps from time to time but we see where the problem is and in that seeing go beyond them and return to balance, poise. We do not need to sit in meditation or practice anything at all. Just being awake is an on going meditation. One does not fear death. The ego idea dies but in reality there was nothing to die. Life is seen as awareness itself and awareness is all-inclusive. The body will die but awareness cannot die. Life is life, death is life, and awareness is life. What more could anyone want?
Melvyn Wartella |
