Not Enough

Ego will tell you that you are not enough; you don't
have enough, you don't do enough. Then the must-have
-more, we call "wanting", feeds the ego.

Sometimes the 'wanting' or 'feeling a need to have more'
becomes physical. The mind-hunger for more turns into
overeating. It does not reflect the true needs of the body. The
desperation of the ego will accept overeating for a while.
Getting in touch with physical needs creates healing.
Changing one's beliefs about having enough also helps.
The ego mind hungers for more...

Tolle says, " You cannot fight against the ego and win, just as you cannot
fight against darkness. The light of consciousnes is all that is necessary."

You are enough, you have enough. There is nothing to want. You are the
light.

Attack = Ego

Whenever and wherever you see or hear attack words or attack
actions, you can count on it being Ego. Ego likes to attack
because it causes separation, and helps Ego to feel in
control. This can be attacking self or attacking
others.

And we know groups are famous for attacking and
for much the same reason. It keeps the group
separate from others and controls the members.

When a person feels they are losing control, they
will readily attack. themselves or others and
isn't that a plea for help without showing vulnerability?

Ego's Way of Life

Ego will tell you that you are entitled to have WHAT you Want,
WHEN you Want it.

And when you get it, you will still be WANTING .

Sin

"If ever, my God, it should happen through ignorance and

passion that I persist in desires contrary to thine, may I

be disappointed and punished, not by thy justice, but by

pity and great mercy."

                                   Pere de Caussade

To Forgive

To forgive is to understand that nothing was done to you,

that it is in the nature of life and the nature of people to move,

speak and take action according to their nature.

And when there is action, you may receive the light or

the dark, or shades of gray.. Laura Huxley wrote

 a book called, You Are

Not the Target...a good reorientation.

To feel the perspective, I love the following expression:

 

The wild geese fly across the long sky above.

Their image is reflected upon the chilly water below.

The geese do not mean to cast their image on the water;

Nor does the water mean to hold the image of the geese.

     

From Tagore

No: it is not yours to open buds into blossoms.

  Shake the bud, strike it; it is beyond your power to

make it blossom.

  Your touch soils it, you tear its petals to pieces and

strew them in the dust.

  But no colors appear, and no perfume.

  Ah! it is not for you to open the bud into a blossom.

 

 

He who can open the bud does it so simply.

He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs through its

  veins.

At his breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters

  in the wind.

Colors flush out like heart-longings, the perfume betrays

  a sweet secret.

He who can open the bud does it so simply.  

                                                                R.Tagore

Illegal Immigrants

Seems that now the millions of illegal immigrants

have a new agenda....getting Lou Dobbs fired (newsman)

because they don't like what he says, which are just

the facts, and listeners opinions.

I suppose the next stop is physical violence, the way

the collective ego escalates. The Trojan Horse is here.

Of course, we send Trojan Horses all over the world.

Why doesn't Fox and the Mexican leadership do

something about taking care of their own people 

in Mexico?      

Enlightenment

"Enlightenment is the ego's ultimate disappointment."

                               Ram Dass

         

Appreciation

What you appreciate appreciates.

I don't know who I am

It's been suggested that we give up all identifications..
with family,school,work,city,nation,sex, culture, everything
until we reach the point of saying, "I don't know who I am".
Then who's going to hire you? or, Who's going to work for
you?

Both Ram Dass and Eckhart Tolle switched from being
University teachers to Spiritual teachers and they kept
their identity as teacher-writers. That's how they
made their living. Haven't we been fortunate with their
switch to spiritual teaching!

A Knot from Laing

"They are playing a game. They are playing at not

playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall

break the rules and they will punish me. I must play

their game, of not seeing I see the game."

             from  Knots by R.D. Laing  

Ego clarity

We need to be clear about our meaning of 'ego'. The only
person I know who uses the word 'egoic' is Eckart Tolle and
he does not explain his usage.
Spiritual & religious writers and speakers use the term
'ego' to mean that negative aspect to be surrendered, but one
can't write and prepare a book, get it published, or lecture
without ego or without a personal sense of identity. One has
to be able to be separate in order to function in most life
situations, or to be a piece of a group that has a head.
Religious groups are mostly authoritarian. You function by
being obedient to the head. I have seen an excessive number
of inflated egos in religious groups.
A spiritual perspective is about giving up ego
and becoming one with all; AND, for living in the world, we
surrender the 'inflated-ego' or as some say,
'the over-inflated-ego'.

It's an important distinction that we can get lost in
easily. For example, I will speak of the ego as an entity
that forces separateness and violence and destructiveness,
but I mean the inflated ego, not the ego that helps us
to healthfully make a living, teach our children,
make good decisions about money, etc. A modest
ego is essential.

When we are ready to leave this world, then giving up
ego entirely merges us with the One.When we are merged
with the One in the world, we need to have someone take
care of our physical needs, and the physical needs of
those we care for.

I have seen university psychology doctors try to talk to
spiritual teachers
about ego and there's no dialogue because they use the
terms so differently. They part without intelligent contact

Too bad we don't have different words, or can we think of
ego on a continuum?

Ego...not so subtle

Those who know children's temper tantrums and those

who know addictions understand there is nothing subtle

about the ego.  The ego says, I want what I want when I

want it and nothing is going to stop me even if it kills

me. You know the old saying, " Give him enough rope

and he'll hang himself"....That's what ego does.

Drug addicts will get their drugs til it kills them, alcoholics

will drink til it destroys every organ in their bodies, power

addicts will exploit and manipulate people until they rule,

etc, etc. for money, sex, food, superiority, exercise,spiritual

blessings, etc. One can be addicted to meditation too.

 

In fact, one good recommendation for the most harmful

addictions is to upgrade the addiction to something a

bit healthier.   One can always detect Ego by lack

of humility, and lack of gratitude.

 

Arrogance is ego covering up vulnerability. 

 

From my experience and observations Ego is not subtle

until the road narrows considerably unless one considers

self-deceit a subtlety.

Ego makes hay

The ego makes hay on special days (like birthdays,
anniversaries, and holidays);
and when we feel sorry for ourselves;
and when we cannot accept
our life as is right now.

Elephant Talk

Elephants live in a complex social order. They talk long

distance when the  winds calm and the air near the ground

becomes cooler than the warm air above it..mostly an hour before

sundown and 2 hour after . And a couple hours before sunrise.

They talk over 110 square miles (that's 6 miles in all directions)

 relying on ultralow tones classified as infrasound

 frequencies below what us humans can hear.

They have a broad range of voice...from the highs on a 

clarinet to deep lows...some of the lowest in the animal

kingdom.  

 

Michael Garstang studies the link between weather and sound

and his fondness for elephants took him to Africa.

From an article in the National Geographic.March 1004

 

I notice when the evening quiet begins, and birds sing their

last songs for the day ,and I think about the elephants calling

to each other.   

Death of a neighbor

So there it is.   The big 'D'.  She lived alone and

loved her privacy and her rights including the right

to die as she chose. She had that dread disease

called Scholederma, and went quite crazy before she

died buying stuff on the internet. She disliked doctors,

drugs, hospitals, most people, and loved cigarettes,

alcohol and not

eating for fear of being fat. We discovered after her

death that her home was stuffed from floor to ceiling

with stuff, some new, some old,most very nice.

What killed her? Without the alcohol and cigarettes

she might have had a few more years. What I think

really killed her was Scientology from years back.

From what I have read, they appear to

 nourish fear instead of

love. 

Consciousness limited

I call it a luxury...to
have the time to live in the present. Isn't that an odd
statement when in fact, we get to the present by giving
up time?

"Consciousness comes in late, it is potentially powerful
but it is usually a weak force in most of our minds, easily
overridden by circumstances, by eloquent people,
by lower
forces of the mind, and by automatic routines."
Robert Ornstein The Psychology of Consciousness

Grace Happens

 

Choosing......

"My morals have been chosen

Your morals have been chosen.

How did we choose our morals?

Did we not choose chosen morals?

Chosen by those who chose chosen morals?

Consider choosing not choosing chosen."

                         Harry Walker         

Senility Prayer

a parody on the serenity prayer . . . .

 

"God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never

liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do,

and the eyesight to tell the difference."

 

      from Healthy Aging by A.Weil  

Ego, Time and Presence

Eckhart Tolle makes such interesting statements. Here are a few:

Your decision to make the present moment into your friend is the
end of the ego. Time is what the ego lives on. The ego will treat the
present moment as...a means to an end....an obstacle...or an enemy.
The stronger the ego, the stronger the sense of separateness
between people.