The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it’s just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into brief existence. Enlightenment isn’t in the character, it’s in the underlying truth. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a dream character, of course, unless it’s your goal to wake up, in which case the dream character must be ruthlessly annihilated. If your desire is to experience transcendental bliss or supreme love or altered states of consciousness or awakened kundalini, or to quality for heaven, or to liberate all sentient beings, or simply to become the best dang person you can be, then rejoice!, you’re in the right place: the dream state, the dualistic universe. However, if your interest is to cut the crap and figure out what’s true, then you’re in the wrong place and you’ve got a very messy fight ahead and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.
But beauty, real beauty, ends where intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of a face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don’t think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful.
Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not. And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.
Q: Since all is pre-ordained, is our self-realization also pre-ordained? Or are we free there at least?
A: Destiny refers only to name and shape. Since you are neither body nor mind, destiny has no control over you. You are completely free. The cup is conditioned by its shape, material, use and so on. But the space within the cup is free. It happens to be in the cup only when viewed in connection with the cup. Otherwise, it is just space. As long as there is a body, you appear to be embodied. Without the body you are not disembodied — you just are.
So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence.
Buddhism stands unique in the history of human thought in denying the existence of a Soul, Self or Atman. According to the teachings of the Buddha, the idea of self is an imaginary, false belief which has no corresponding reality, and it produces harmful thoughts of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, selfish desire, craving, attachment, hatred, ill-will, conceit, pride, egoism, and other defilements, impurities and problems. It is the source of all troubles in the world from personal conflicts to wars between nations. In short, to this false view can be traced all the evil in the world.
on June 16th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
The mystics also say, inconsistently, that there is no I.
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on June 16th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
You are absolutely responsible for your own happiness.
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on June 16th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
@Evan They do say there is no I, and it is a bit inconsistent. Too bad. Because that’s the real key.
@Jarrod Nice to have your comment. Welcome! You know, in one sense, I tend to agree with you. There is very little “happiness” that has ever come at from the outside world. It would appear that, for the most part, I’m not going to be happy unless I “do” something about it. The real question, though, is what to do? As you can guess, I have some ideas.
on June 16th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Do we really want people who can be happy wherever/whatever?
Is this different to crass insensitivity?
Perhaps for warrior development – cheerfully slicing people’s heads off. Not sure I regard this as desirable though.
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on June 17th, 2008 at 12:40 am
@Evan – why would you not want to be happy? This doesn’t mean dopey or bliss cadet. True happiness arises deep within and is unshaken by events of the world. Even for a warrior. The Bhagavad Gita goes into that.
Its very simple really. The world is vibration, kinetic energy. When we drop the barriers, we can experience that directly. And it is bliss. Without end.
As to the “I”, language sometimes fails. First there is an I who experiences happiness. Then there is no I, only an apparent I. That which experiences happiness is not the “I”. Then the I returns but now as the cosmic I, the I that is all I’s. And ears
@Jarrod – yes responsible. But in a way just to experience what is. Not to oblige ourselves to be happy. More to allow it.
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on June 17th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Great quote, by the way Tom (laughs)
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on June 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Davidya, even I’m finding this hard to believe I am saying this! Because I tend to be in the I don’t know state more often than other feeling/knowing states.
But I really like not obliging oneself to be happy, allowing it instead. It does seem a burden one places on oneself to be responsible for making ‘me’ happy. Or putting the burden elsewhwere. Both things it also seems I’ve attempted over and over without lasting success.
Tom, it sounds very much like those affirmations I struggled over several days ago, doesn’t it? Only this time with at least a settled attitude.
on June 17th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
@Evan Personally, I would love to see people always happy. Just because you are happy doesn’t make you indifferent. Misery is not required to care. Love is all you really need. If you love, you love. The joy springs from the love. The love sends you out into the world to do what your thing is to do.
@Davidya I really like de Mello. Cool dude.
on June 17th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
@Barbara No need to try to be happy. You can’t make yourself happy. instead, you can let go of the mental blocks to the happiness that you already are. That’s all you “need” to do. But happy is a result, not a goal, nor something you need to do. Just let it happen.
on June 17th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
My take on this quote is that de Mello is simply pointing us away from where we are usually looking: outside of us. We look outside to see what is wrong. We look outside to find happiness. But instead, we find what is “wrong” inside of us. It is simply our mistaken thoughts. Our beliefs in what isn’t true. All de Mello is doing is changing your focus. Kind of like Jesus (de Mello was a Jesuit, by the way): why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye when you don’t see the log in your own eye. Same message! Namaste everyone.
on June 17th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
You really think it is good to be happy when confronted by injustice and awful suffering?
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on June 17th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
@Evan Of course! Where is it written that one must be sad to deal with injustice? The best way to deal with injustice to be internally at peace. Undivided. Unconflicted. If you come from a place of Oneness with everything, a place where you see the Truth about the victim and perpetrator of injustice, then you can do more to make a difference. It doesn’t take anger and outrage to heal the world, it takes love.
Many a Jesus scholar has labeled Jesus as a social revolutionary, someone who fought injustice with radical ideas. I cannot see Jesus in anyway but happy, supremely happy, peaceful. And in the face of utter horror, hanging from a cross, he had such peace and love for others that he forgave his tormentors. “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The Buddha the same. In the Buddhist “scriptures” you find statement after statement that the “Enlightened One” (a Buddha) experiences nothing but joy, no matter what.
Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that one will not feel the pain, feel the hurt, feel the suffering. But if you have awakened to the truth, you are a deep, limitless space that can absorb anything. And have it never dent your joy and love. Limitless love. Able to handle the most outrageous suffering. Not in denial. But in acceptance, understanding, peace.
on June 17th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
@Evan – in what way does feeling guilty help injustice or suffering? You cannot solve a problem from the level of the problem. Getting clear and connecting with the inner self brings you greater creativity and energy. It also happens to bring with it increasing happiness.
This is nothing to do with the state of the world. It is happiness within, an inner power that is not overshadowed by the dramas of the world. From that place, one is much more effective and much better able to rise above issues and find solutions.
It’s a win win choice.
Its also worthwhile noting that what you put your attention on grows stronger, so if you dwell on injustice and suffering, you are giving it more energy. You are helping keep it real. If you instead focus on solutions, you are helping solve. It’s the difference between anti-war and pro-peace.
True happiness is not the opposite of suffering. True happiness is a direct experience of what is, beyond duality.
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on June 17th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
@TOm – even better put. For some reason, your post didn’t appear when I was by.
on July 25th, 2008 at 7:39 am
@Evan: If you can be unhappy enough to remove another’s unhappiness more power to you. I have found this not to be the case though. True compassion must be founded in the realization that all suffering is illusion. This does not preclude our desire to end suffering but rather gives us a more realistic starting point for action.
We can help by pointing the way and being there for the sufferer when they want assistance. Think of it as if a friend was sinking in quicksand; do you jump in to save her or do you stand on solid, unshakable ground and throw out a lifeline? It is obvious from your posts that you truly care about people and that fact alone will lead you to your answer of how to best put your compassion to use. Never, never stop caring. It has been my realization of late that our thoughts may be where we live but our hearts are who we are and you my friend seem to have a big heart. Namaste…….
on July 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Hi Eric,
If suffering is an illusion. Then compassion and the desire to end suffering is delusory. I don’t find this to be the case.
In your example there’s no point throwing a rope if the quicksand doesn’t exist.
My feeling is thay you too have a caring heart. I think we need to build on this basis. But that for me means that compassion and suffering are real.
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