Drop the ego

Unitarian Universalists tend to be an intellectual group. They covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Great principle, but where does truth and meaning lie? Not where you'd expect.

Are you ready to drop your ego? The thought even scares us. Who would I be without me? You would be nothing. You would melt into the all.

Allowing your ego to melt can be a sign of psychosis or it can be a sign of transformation. Psychosis is just more ego albeit disorganized. Transformation occurs with intention and takes discipline and great courage.

A new bumper sticker might read, "Transformation is not for sissies."

Finding peace

Unitarian Universalists don't seem to value inner peace like Roman Catholics do. Catholics are always talking about it, "Peace be with you," "and with you as well." At every mass there is a part of the worship service where after the recitation of the Our Father the congregation is asked to exchange a "sign of peace." To bad this isn't a part of our UU worship services. UUs seem more focused on rectifying social justice issues than they are helping people come to inner peace.

When one turns off the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit, the person begins seeking. The person is looking for something, something which the person cannot even name. It is a yearning which comes from deep within. People often complain, at this stage, of depression and anxiety. If they seek help, it is often first with a medical doctor who will prescribe medication. The doctor will tell the person that they are suffering from depression or an anxiety disorder. They are experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety, but from where does the depression and anxiety come? It is often what is called "existential anxiety." The person has lost their way. If the person is fortunate, it may be suggested that psychotherapy can help.

When the person goes for psychotherapy whether it is to a mental health professional, or a cleric, or a friend, the person becomes a student. The person is browsing, looking for someone or something that can answer their question, "what is wrong with me?" Assessments will be done, diagnoses will be given, suggestions will be made. If any of this makes sense, the person becomes a participant. They are no longer browsing, now they have become engaged in the process. As the process unfolds the person becomes a client, a member of the congregation, a best friend.

There is a trust between the seeker and the therapist, the mentor, the best friend. Jesus said that where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be. Jesus was referring to the Divine. Jesus is a manifestation of the Divine. We all are manifestations of the Divine whether we are consciously aware of it or not. Jesus is saying that where two or more people are gathered together aware of seeking the Divine, the Divine will be there.

I was taught that my body is the "temple of the Holy Spirit." This isn't correct. My relationships are the temple of the holy spirit if I am aware and call upon them to be. Are your relationships  the temple of the Ego or the temple of the Holy Spirit? Your choice. Your decision.

The search will take one to various experiences, and these various experiences may lead to choosing one for deeper development, and then we make a commitment to further engagement and involvement. This commitment leads to an experience of coming home which is fulfilling. This fulfillment is known by the peace that comes to us.

Pax vobiscum.

Use the mind; don't be used by it.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Many people think this is an intellectual pursuit. It isn't. Truth and meaning does not reside in the mind. The mind, often, can lead us astray and blocks our awareness of truth and meaning.

It is easy to become an educated idiot. Some people overthink things. UUs, more than most, have this tendency because they have been injured and wounded by their previous religious involvements. It is easy to identify what they don't believe any more, and much more difficult to articulate what they do believe in now. But belief is not where truth and meaning lie. The truth and meaning they are seeking is an experience of the Divine. That experience does not reside in one's head. It is more in the heart, and not there alone either. The experience of the Divine is in the witness, that part of us which is mindful and meditative.

Do you use your mind or does your mind use you? As the bumper sticker reads, "Don't believe everything you think."

Osho says, "So I am not saying that you are not to use your mind, but don't be used by the mind. Right now the mind is the master and you are only a slave." p.38, "Ah, This!"

Be mindful. Use your witness to observe your mind. The witness is the part of existence which facilitates our walk with Love on the path of the spirit.

"What am I?"

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent dignity and worth of every person. But suppose personhood is an illusion. It doesn't really exist?

The basic question we struggle with throughout  our lives is "Who am I?" or perhaps, "What am I?" These are questions of the ego, and the ego suggests plenty of answers and modern day psychology and self help books egg the ego on and add fuel to the fire.

On the path of the spirit we become aware that we are not anybody. We are a part of the whole. Osho says, "Knowledge is beating round the bush: knowing is a direct penetration. But the moment you directly penetrate into existence, you disappear as a separate entity. You are no more. When the knower is no more then the knowing is. And the knowing is not about something - you are the knowing yourself." p.30 "Ah, This!"

A little further Osho says, "Lao Tzu says: 'Tao, once described, is not more the real Tao.' The moment you say something about it you have already falsified it, you have betrayed it. It is such an intimate knowing, incommunicable." p. 31 "Ah, This!"

"When all faces have been rejected and emptiness is left, you have found the original face. Emptiness is the original face. Zero is the ultimate experience. Nothingness - or more accurately no-thingness- is your original face." p. 31 "Ah, This!"

The best answer to the questions, "Who am I?" and "What am I?" is a drop in the ocean. Actually not even a drop. You are the ocean along with everyone else.

Empty your cup - get rid of the crap

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This does not mean that we should be filling our minds with more crap. There is already enough in them. We need to be emptying our minds and communing with our heart with the universe.

This search for truth and meaning takes us inward and not outward.

Famous and popular Zen story - Empty your cup

A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor's cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's full! No more will go in!" the professor blurted. "This is you," the master replied, "How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup."

Simon and Garfunkle sang their great song, Kodachrome, with the lyric, "When I think of all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can still think at all."

Our minds have been filled with all kinds of crap. We are conditioned through schooling to memorize and learn crap. Our religions have filled our minds with crap. The media, now days called "fake news", has filled our minds with crap. Gossip runs rampant in our families, our social circles, our work groups and this gossip fills our mind with crap.

The septic tank is full. It comes to a point where it won't take any more. We have to call the septic tank guy and get it pumped out.

Osho says to his sannyasins, "...because what I am doing every day is destroying your knowledge, destroying and destroying all your clingings and strategies of the mind. Any day when your mind collapses, when you cannot hold it together any more, there is bound to be sudden enlightenment. It is not attainment, hence it can happen in a single moment, instantly. Society has forced you to forget it; my work here is to help you remember it." p.27 "Ah, This!"

When we turn from the path of the ego and embark on the path of the spirit we must forgive ourselves and others for our ridiculousness. We have been wallowing in crap. We have forgotten who we are and in the turning, we begin to search for that which our conditioning has buried in crap.

 

The source of enlightenment is already within you.+

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This means to most people the freedom from creeds and orthodoxies which is a first step on the path of the spirit. Having achieved this freedom, then what? Where does the search take the seeker?

I love Osho. He says the most startling things that make perfect sense to me and so when I am startled by what he says, I pause a second, and then usually wind up saying to myself, "Why, or course. That makes perfect sense."

In the book "Ah, This!" Osho says on page 27, "Enlightenment is always sudden because it is not an achievement; it is already the case. It is only a remembering, it is only a reminding, it is only a recognition. You are already enlightened; you are just not aware of it. It is awareness of that which is already the case."

A similar idea is expressed in A Course In Miracles in the introduction where it is written, "The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance."

The way to enlightenment is to drop the ego. Give it up. Get rid of it. Purify your consciousness. Eliminate the blocks to your awareness of the Divine.

This is an experience not a thought. This experience of the Divine does not come from more knowledge but from looking within and becoming aware of the All.