"131" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0" ALT="Bulletin Board" NATURALSIZEFLAG="0" ALIGN= "BOTTOM">
| |||
| |
| ||
|
| ||
|
"131" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0" ALT="Bulletin Board" NATURALSIZEFLAG="0" ALIGN= "BOTTOM"> |
|
|
|
|
"But what we realize in spiritual experience, if it is deep enough, is that this life is not ours. Who we are, or what we are, is part and parcel of the Self that is universal" -- Andrew Cohen Since Andrew Cohen’s awakening in 1986, he has spoken for one thing: the potential for total liberation from the bondage of ignorance. Through his books, public teachings, and meetings with spiritual leaders of almost every tradition, he has tirelessly sought to convey that spiritual liberation’s true significance is its potential to completely transform not only the individual, but the entire way that human beings live together. He is the founder and guiding inspiration behind What Is Enlightenment magazine, a groundbreaking forum for penetrating spiritual inquiry about the most important spiritual issues of our time The following is an edited version of Andrew Cohen’s Bodhi Tree Bookstore presentation. Edited by James Culnan. When I started teaching, I believed that spiritual experience, or the enlightenment experience, would be enough to transform most human beings, and they would never return to their ignorant, small-minded, self centered relationship to life. That is what my own teacher had taught me, and that was how I approached my students: The theory was that if you really got it, you would never forget; you would always be free. But what I discovered early on was that very few people sustain the depth of insight and realization that they initially experience. I saw this again and again. Instead, the spiritual path or journey involves an arduous process of preparing ourselves, or cultivating our ability to carry the subtlest of subtle insights. Most people"and I found this out the hard way"are capable of experiencing their potential for extraordinary transformation, but very few are able to make this transformation their own. In addition, I made the common assumption that spiritual experiences would be deeply humbling, since when we discover the sacred, we also feel a sense of awe and reverence towards all of life. I assumed that spiritual experience makes a person inherently soft and genuine. But I discovered that often it makes them more proud and arrogant than they were before; sometimes they develop a not so subtle sense of superiority towards those whom they feel know less than they do. From the beginning, I have felt that if spiritual experience is to mean anything, there has to be a very clear relationship between what one has realized and how one's personality manifests in actual life. So if one doesn't become more humble and selfless, or in other words"more free of the tyrannical ego"then maybe the experience didn't mean that much. A faith in the absolute dimension of reality may have awakened, but that alone doesn't necessarily change the individual. I had thought that spiritual experience is the beginning, middle, and end of the spiritual path, but after fifteen years of teaching, I see that it is only the beginning. Thus it is up to us to bridge the gap between what we have realized, and how we actually are as a human being. I want to discuss what I call the psychology of enlightenment. Usually, when we use the word psychology, we are talking about the separate sense of self, or ego. But in the psychology of enlightenment, the separate sense of self is seen as the crucial obstacle to our complete humanity, or our spiritual realization. So, instead, we are considering how to be a human being who has become whole, because the ego is snuffed out of existence, or given no room to move or breathe. It is a very different picture of the human condition. I am going to speak about five tenets I have come up with during the last ten years or so, which are all you need to manifest the realization of enlightenment within our human condition. The first tenet is called clarity of intention. It tells us that if we aspire to be a liberated human being, and if there is going to be a hope of succeeding (since most people don't), then our desire for liberation in this life has to be more important to us than anything else, now matter what it may be. Most spiritual seekers I have met have realized far more than they are willing to live up to. So most of us willingly compromise our own deepest understanding, and we know it. In fact, we are divided to an extraordinary degree. We need to aspire to be undivided, and that aspiration must be stronger than any other interest or desire, and ultimately, stronger than our fears, as well. We lose our way because at some point, we allow something to become more important than being free. The second tenet is a tough one. Most of us have a lot of compassion for our egos, and those of other people; we feel it is reasonable to have an ego, and we understand all its struggles, concerns, fears, and desires. But when we reach the point in our evolution of wanting to be free more than anything else, every one of the struggles, desires, and fears of the ego become unreasonable. We have to be willing to take responsibility for the consequences of everything that has happened to us in the past. Most of us have been hurt, wounded, and traumatized, or kicked in the stomach, and often by people who claim to love us, whatever that means. Everybody has a story to tell, and usually it includes suffering. We have to become responsible. Why? Because when we act in ways that cause others to suffer, out of ignorance or selfishness, we are acting in conditioned or unconscious ways that express the consequences of the things that happened to us. We have been hurt, wounded, or traumatized, so we hurt, wound, or traumatize others. That's how it works. You have to understand that the ego, or separate sense of self, actually experiences a certain thrill in being able to get back at everyone else. I call this "negative freedom"; it occurs when we deeply identify with the ego's pain or sense of being victimized. After all, the self-righteous sense of "getting what's mine," is what ego is all about. Let's face it: the ego is a self-righteous little monster. Yet, from the point of view of enlightenment, the ego doesn't deserve anything except death. In addition, we have to take responsibility for the consequences of everything that we have done in the past. Most of us have acted out of selfishness and ignorance, and by so doing, we have caused others to suffer. Remember, we are dealing with the entire momentum of karma, which has accumulated over a very long time. When a person becomes truly liberated, that momentum is extinguished. And the accumulated momentum of selfish acts, or karma, is what ego is. So the liberated person no longer creates karma in the present, and can become a mature human being. The third tenet is what I see as the ultimate form of spiritual practice. It is that we have to be able, ready, and willing to face absolutely everything, and avoid absolutely nothing, in all circumstances, no matter what. However, most of us face very little and avoid almost everything! The reason that we continue, over and over again, to make important mistakes, or to act in small-minded, blind and unconscious ways, is that even though we may have had tremendously inspiring spiritual experiences, we continue to avoid paying attention. The reason is that we don't want to be free badly enough. When we want to be free more than anything else, we are no longer strangers to ourselves; in fact, we know ourselves better than anyone else ever could. The key is to stop acting in unconscious, small-minded, and self-centered ways. You just stop doing it. Many teachers, Buddhists especially, are always telling us to be mindful, or to pay attention. But that encouragement only works if it is inspired by a powerful intention to be free. Otherwise, we are just watching and paying attention . . . to what? And why? Mindfulness has to be connected to our heart, and with the awakened inspiration to succeed in our spiritual endeavor. In other words, it has to be deeply connected with the present moment. Otherwise, paying attention just means furrowing the brow and making an artificial, mechanical, mental effort. And that doesn't work. There are just two more. The fourth tenet, which is called the law of impersonality, makes the bold declaration that every aspect of our so-called personal experience is ultimately completely impersonal. It is not personal at all. It also tells us that the ego is created through this deeply compulsive habit of personalization, since most of us mechanically personalize virtually everything we experience, in each moment. For instance, everyone knows what it is like to experience fear. But when we experience the presence of fear in our bodies and minds, we personalize it. Haven't you noticed that when we are fearful, we no longer feel open and intimate towards other people? There is a relationship between the compulsive habit of personalization, and withdrawing. We stand apart from the whole, which means we also become separate from the whole. This is the habit and mechanism that creates the ego, or false veil. It is the profoundly separate sense of self. In the enlightened state, there is no veil between the self and the whole, and as a result, the enlightened person expresses an extraordinarily vulnerable state of being. If you are in the presence of a deeply enlightened person, often you wake up to a deeper recognition of your own self, since their unprotected state allows us to see past the ego veil. What would it be like if we experienced the presence of fear without personalizing the experience? Or how about the movement of sexual energy, or sexual feelings? Everyone knows what it is like to have sexual feelings, but when we do, we almost instantaneously personalize the experience, so it becomes very special, and takes on some inherent meaning: "I'm experiencing sexual desire? It's very important!" The ego is this compulsive wish to see ourselves as unique, separate, or special. Haven't you noticed how many new age teachings are all about "being special?" This reflects a deep and rampant narcissism in most of us. But in order to be free, that is exactly what we have to go beyond, or transcend. It is the same thing with spiritual experiences. Often, after such an experience, a person will say "Aren't I special?" because their ego is getting pumped up. Ironically, the experience of egolessness tends to make people feel "Wow! Now I am really cool!" However, when we discover the impersonal nature of our experience, the real reward is an intimacy and love that never occurs while we are stuck in the habit of personalizing. And this love is truly spiritual, or even sacred. Furthermore, when we see that this habitual personalizing is the creator of ego, we then have the opportunity to understand that the ego is ultimately empty or lacking in substance. It is just a veil, even though it is where we spend most of our lives. That’s when we appreciate the ultimately universal nature of the human experience, which is our own. Our experience of feeling, or sensation, is universal; there is only one human condition, and that is the one you are experiencing right now. The last tenet is the most demanding of all. Most of us have been brought up in a very materialistic culture, where we are told that "this is YOUR life," and as a result, we have the feeling that "my life is MINE." It is very deeply ingrained, and most of us believe it. And since it is "MY life," it follows that "I deserve this" and "I deserve that," and "I'm trying to get everything out of this experience that I can, for myself." But what we realize in spiritual experience, if it is deep enough, is that this life is not ours. Who we are, or what we are, is part and parcel of the Self that is universal. This particular existence of incarnated consciousness is part and parcel of that self that is one. Many people are seeking liberation, or all these high and extraordinary things, but for themselves alone. But that is not what it's all about. Generally, most thoughtful individuals wonder, "Why am I here? What is the point of all this?" Life is painful, and difficult, and so much of it doesn't make sense. I want to know why." The answer is discovered when it becomes obvious that the point is not to live for ourselves, but to live for the sake of the whole. Not "MY will be done," but "THY will be done." So when we no longer live to accumulate, or to overcome others for our own sake, all the pieces start to fit together, and life begins to make perfect sense. Then we realize that we are in the right place at the right time for the right reasons, doing the right thing; we have our place in the fabric of the universe. The big question of "WHY?" is gone. It is answered with a big "YES". So, the fifth tenet points us to the ultimate purpose of spiritual teachings, and spiritual experience, which is to liberate us from a small-minded and self-centered relationship to life as a whole. As all the greatest masters have told us, the ultimate truth is that we are one with the whole, and when we get to that point in our own evolution, the struggle is over, and the real adventure begins. That's when it really becomes interesting, unlike before, when we were always worried about ourselves: "How am I doing today, and am I more aligned than I was yesterday . . . " up and down, on and on. When we get to this fifth tenet, the way we feel about ourselves is no longer important. The only question is, are we giving everything, or not? Because if we are giving everything, we are free. Nothing else matters, because in that alone, we realize perfect freedom. And the first four tenets make that possible.
|
