“There is no separate entity ‘you’”
What a simple sentence, but until you actually SEE it, you
do not realize what that seeing through this illusion, this belief in this
separate ‘you’, means for, well, your entire world.
We are conditioned from an early age to believe in
ourselves. Society, family, religion, the mind, it all works together to create
layers and layers of beliefs and conditioning. So much so that the very idea of
questioning this core belief that we might not actually be an entity is unthinkable.
We strive, trying to make ourselves more successful, better, richer, more
knowledgeable, happier than others, sure in our knowledge that once we achieve
whatever our goals are set on at that moment, we will be happy.
And yet, even after all that striving, most of us are not
happy or at peace, going from place to place and from distraction to
distraction in search of that ‘something’ that will bring that elusive
contentment to us, not realizing that all it does is bring us a very temporary
joy. When we achieve the goals we set out for ourselves, we are happy for a
short time, and then the yearning for more starts again. Some of us become ‘seekers’,
ending up with religious or spiritual teachers who are either in it for the
money or fame, or with those who think they have ‘got it’ but in actuality they
have only achieved levels of knowledge or amassed spiritual experiences. Many take their students or followers on wild
goose chases, knowingly and many-a-times, unknowingly. After all, they think
they’ve reached the highest levels of enlightenment, and so lead their students
down the same paths of reading, praying, hours of meditation, chanting,
self-deprivation and the like, having them believe that ‘it’ can only be
achieved through long striving and, unfortunately, creating layers of further
conditioning. Long and arduous paths are created along with high expectations
of ecstasy, bliss and miracles, amongst others.
Reality is far, far simpler. It is the simplest thing, the
only thing. And it cannot be achieved or received through knowledge, it can only be realized.
Once we actually start to question if ‘we’ actually exist as
separate entities, honestly, bravely and with focus, the entire structure
starts to crumble like a house of cards. We realize how everything, everything
that we believed to be true, actually isn’t. We have literally created
ourselves, and hence, our worlds.
Simply put, life is simply happening. Not to anyone, by
anyone or for anyone. It simply is - whole, undivided and all-encompassing.
When this is realized, actually SEEN, life takes on a
completely different flavor. Nothing changes: problems remain, the ups and
downs of life come and go - and yet, everything changes forever.
