Struggle, Status, Competition, Violence

It is this struggle for status, to be somebody, to be somebody compared to others, that brings about coercion, competition, bullying, violence, abuse.

We are taught to struggle; in the struggle we dominate others and subjugate others. In the family, on the schoolyard, at the workplace, between nations, in the economic sphere; we are committing atrocities against each other daily.

Original

What is true, what is life, what is creative, comes from inside. The tendency to wait for others to do it before you do it, to follow others, to put on a show, are ways of imitating and not being true, not being original, and it comes from fear.

Being hopeful and positive reveals the fact that you are in despair and have no depth or truth to your heart.

The superficial pretense is a way of avoiding, a way of masking what is actually there.

Depth and truth come from actually looking, actually seeing, not escaping.

Creativity springs up inwardly.

The individual only exists when there is no conformity of heart, no comparison, no pretense, no following, no fear.

What You Want Controls You

You want security, you want money, you want approval from people; these things control you. Without the desire for these things, they would never affect you.

Your desire distorts your mind. What you want destroys you.

Psychological Time is Illusion

Any movement in psychological time, what will be, what should be, ideals, hopes, fear, is illusory. All of what has been being projected into what will be, is illusory. It creates struggle, tension, conflict, disorder. It will revert to its opposite; hope reverts to despair, and comes from despair.

You must understand your despair, not hope.

Nowhere to Go

The reason why you can't look at yourself is because you're already there. There is no you to look at you. If so, you are divided, and there's where you'll find the source of conflict. What you try to be is illusion. You can't go anywhere that does not exist. And you venture farther away from truth with your pretense and hope. Therein lies the whole reason why there is war, poverty, and hate. Your ideals, your identifications, your hope, your trust, your beliefs: These are all ways to escape and to create division. And when they fail you, and they will, you are bitter and disoriented.

There is nowhere to go. You are right there. There's no path to truth. The many paths are sources of division and confusion. There's no method, methods are hypnotism and distraction. Just look and see. Just pay attention. If you can't see, then find out why. Inquire, investigate, but don't put on the pretense. The pretense is the whole reason you can't see in the first place.

I Am a Projection of Thought

It's not a matter of pretending that the past does not exist. It's a matter of realizing it's illusory, a concoction, and that we're caught in the concoction. It's a matter of realizing that psychological time is memory, a recording, and various projections. It's a matter of seeing all that in a whole way and, therefore, seeing that it takes multiple forms, though it's all the same thing. Whether it is hero-worship, ideology and doctrine, identity, politics, or self-projection as self-importance and status, it's all the same process: Me and mine.

"I" am made up of the past and projections into the future; all products, fabrications, of thought. And the tragedy is that something so completely fake can cause brutality, murder, isolation, and sorrow.

Freedom from Influence is to be Nothing

There is great freedom is not being influenced; in not trying to be other people, in not doing what others want.

But we find security in belonging to the group and having an identity tied to the group; and that's where we get controlled and directed, setting up constant conflict and the need to defend identity, the group and ideology.

When you are just living, not being something, not holding to identity and ideology and group association, then the mind is free and perception is direct, clear, whole, sane and healthy.

And that is comprehensive living, with true insight and undivided awareness.

Psychological Austerity

The identifications, the barriers, the divisions, the group belonging; these are the things which cause prejudice, conflict and violence. True austerity is not material austerity but psychological austerity; to give up identity, to give up nationalism, religious identity, group affiliation, political ideology, your self-importance and status and belief in money and power. This is true austerity and renunciation, self-abnegation.

When there is no "you" then there is awareness and truth. Truth destroys illusion, this is the action of awareness.

"I" Do Not Want to End

We thrive on continuity. We want everything to continue, the good and bad, anything to feel like "something". And we want it to continue with "me" being associated with it. It is "I" which we want to continue. "I" is the ego, the conglomeration of ideology, identity, experience, feeling, and thought. When the thought that "I" will not continue with "you" comes, we panic; the thing we cling to for security is threatened and we feel dread and fear.

The thing is the "I" does not exist.

Nothing New

We follow old patterns, think old thought, respond from what is already established; we do not think spontaneously or have an original thought. Nothing springs up on it's own, it's all borrowed from conditioning and operating mechanically.

It's strange when we see that we're doing this, when we silently observe and begin to understand what we are doing, it falls away naturally. Then we have direct perception, wholeness, action comes from silence.

A Quiet Mind

What it takes to hear the chatter of the mind, it must need to be very quiet to hear the chatter.

We are accustomed to being busy, inside and out. Our survival seems to be dependent on our willingness to be busy all the time; the stress, totally unnatural, comes to seem natural. And when it stops, we are lost.

And the chatter continues.

We need that quiet. We need things to stop.

You don't need to try. Anything that can hear all that chatter must be quiet.

Freedom, Energy, and Space

Generally how we live is in limited space. We think in specific patterns, follow certain doctrines, and have ideas about ourselves. These are limited space. They create barriers, division, violence. And they limit energy. Energy is only allowed within a certain space.

To take on a task, to see clearly, to take action, there must be energy. When energy is confined, it is limited. Like the prisoner confined to a cell, then allowed another limited freedom on the yard, we are unable to bring energy sufficiently into our lives because our lives are limited by thought.

When we consider freedom, we are considering space. When there is less freedom, space has been limited. When space is limited, energy is corrupted, broken up and broken down, and not available. It might be available in a limited way, but not in a complete way. And complete energy is what brings action.

And action is what changes lives.

Mental Projections

The mind is accustomed to projections. These projections are done in time: What has happened and what will happen. These are illusions. Time and thought create fear and distortion.

When the mind is caught in habit, it becomes mechanical and can't stop it's wheels from turning. It becomes a worn-out machine, deteriorating.

In old-age, the mind accustomed to projecting, does it on its own and this is dementia. The hallucinations seem real and can even create terror, and always confuse.

Unfortunately, people are encouraged to project; whether it is the technique of modern psychology of visualization or the tradition of religion, people are taught to make things up and to follow preconceptions.

Unwittingly, we destroy ourselves.

Vulnerability

It happens when there's no barrier, when you see someone as they are, when you see yourself; when there is no you and them.

You feel open and you feel like anything could come in, like a flood. For this reason, some do not want to be vulnerable. I guess that's why there are so many barriers, so many divisions, walls thrown up for protection: And this is why no one can see and no one relates to one another.

It feels like you could be wounded. It feels like you could fall endlessly. It feels like there's no floor, no wall, nothing to catch you. There is no safety. There is no security.

And that's where you're finally safe.

Image and Identity

It should go without saying, or should be obvious, and seen as a fact, that identity, ideology, and group belonging leads to division. Who I am, my ideology, and my group is opposed to your group. It is part and parcel of identity, ideology and group belonging for it to have, inherently, division. These things create division, feed division, and so create conflict and violence. It is the very basis of war and starvation.

Status and self-importance are part of this phenomenon. Putting some people up higher leaves others down lower; and then you have the countless justifications for this arrangement, all, get this, rooted in ideology. Religious, economic, political ideology all lead to coercion, division, conflict, war, violence.

And no one wants to accept these facts. We are secure in living this way, we think: In spite of the fact that it leads to insecurity, really; it leads to antagonism, deprivation, crisis. It is the crisis.

Thought interferes with clarity; thought is the image, the identity, the ideology, the countless years of things hammered into the psyche until they are repeated over and over again, mechanically, and become unconscious; we do it without knowing we're doing it; we are divided without knowing why, we are ruthless and don't know why.

Like robots programmed to behave a certain way, we continue to go to war, exploit, and become more and more self-important.

We respond with venom and hate, violence. Or we escape in ever more intricate fantasies, which are, ironically, the source of the problem in the first place.

We make up who we are, we fabricate it through thought, through these identities and collections of ideas and propaganda. And we do it willingly, without a second thought. We willingly breeze into our cages and remain there. And anyone trying to free us is attacked. We venture out of the cage but stay close to it to retreat back into it at the slightest sign of trouble.

We are doing it. We create the whole mess and we can end it.

We end it when we wake up and see it.

Sleep is what causes us to continue the crisis, the chaos, the misery.

The illusion of separateness, the illusion of labels and identities, the image which acts as a barrier stands between us and truth.

Seeing it, it dissolves, the lies crumble, time crumbles, the image is obliterated, and we see.