LIVING in BALANCE from PURE AWARENESS

LIVING in BALANCE from PURE AWARENESS

I have written before that the mind is not free to be happy. However, there is nothing wrong in seeking happiness as a goal. In fact, this will all allow us to create the situations, pleasant and unpleasant, which will eventually push us towards the real purpose of life. Our efforts for self-improvement or spiritual growth can be a source of anxiety, disappointment, fear of failure and greed for results; or they can be an enjoyable game of hide and seek with our true Self in which at some point we will get tired and stop, and It will appear from Its hiding place within us.

There is the inner work to be done and if we do not make any and/or continuous efforts towards self-improvement or spiritual growth, we will remain stagnant. If we make these efforts we will have many successes such as health, vitality, a more positive and effective mind, greater creativity and many other benefits. But we will still be living in the ignorance of our programmed minds. We are still identified with the ego. The ego might temporarily be having a happier and more positive life, but it is not free and we have not arrived at theosis, ... according to Orthodox Christian thought, man’s life purpose is divinization or theosis … “we are each destined to become a god; to be like God Himself, to be united with Him.” To acquire the likeness is to be deified, it is to become a ‘second god’, a “god by grace’. ‘I said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High’ (Psalm 1xxxi, 6).”

The ego will never actually be enlightened. Enlightenment is simply the realization that we are not the ego, that we are not the body and the mind. There is no personality that will be enlightened, we will simply stop identifying with the personality and become the unlimited observer and essence -witness of all. Of course, the personality can be greatly improved and embody, to a certain extent, all of the divine virtues, but the perfection of those virtues can come only when we are no longer identified with the body and mind, and their fears.

There is duality in everything and here is that pesky duality in this experience. If we make no effort, we have no results, and if we make an effort it may just magnify our ego. Every effort made by the ego to improve its life, strengthens its hold. For example; if I meditate in order to become enlightened, I am meditating from the ego which is waiting to be enlightened. It will never happen. If I am doing selfless service in order to get into heaven, then I am doing it for selfish reasons and am locked in my ego. If I wake early and pray so that God will take care of my material life, I am verifying that I am only this body, and also that God does not know what is best for me. Perhaps our meditation should be like walking in nature or watching an enjoyable theatrical production. We are not thinking about what we will gain or how this will help us. Nor are we looking for results as we walk or watch, we are simply fascinated by and enjoying what we see. The Balance is not to give up the effort; it is to enjoy it and have total faith that the results are perfect. Again, we will need to remind ourselves that we are not the ones who are making the effort, but that we are the witness of the effort.

To live a life in Balance we must realize that our Divinity is dependent on arriving at perfect inner peace. This peace can be achieved only through realizing ultimate truth and unconditional love. We can manifest truth and love only when we are free from fear. We can be free from fear only when we realize that we are not the ego who is seeking in the first place. But that realization must be experiential and not intellectual. We will need to see through the false sense of identification, pass through the physics class of nonduality. From this intellectual place, we will know that we are not an object-observer or experiencer and while the mind might be satisfied, the heart still longs for more, it remains unsatisfied.

Living a life in Balance is living from Pure Awareness; knowing that "The Kingdom of Heaven is Within." We cannot read, hear, watch, or think our way to the experience of it. However powerfully evocative, these will only bring us to the frontiers of our personal process of discovery. We cannot come to the experience by reading a description, however profound and articulate, or looking at photos, however beautiful. Pure Awareness, is only experienced when all that appears ceases, including the experiencer-perceiver. We will need to remember, to reminding one's self, and re-concluding, again and again, the concept, that “All there is, is Consciousness.” It is here that we will know the experience of dissolution and bliss that comes when the mind has been liberated and the heart of the I AM being has been illuminated from within.

May we all live our lives in perfect Balance from Pure Awareness, accepting and loving all aspects of one’s self and of creation. May we become the witness to all that is happening within and without and remember that all is divine. May we be curious and amused by the fantasies and fears of the mind, with no need to act upon them, if we realize that they will bring harm to us or others. May we simply be the watcher, accepting all, loving all and allow all to pass into the nothingness from which it came. ……blessings and love Christina