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learn a very useful lesson: to give up the whole thing, to be nothing. You might even experience a yearning to be nothing. There seem to be two solutions: either to simply unmask, or else to build and build, strive and strive, until you reach a crescendo and then drop the whole
thing.
the whole idea is to let “this” not be there, and then “I” will not be there.
It is not a matter of telling it to yourself, but of feeling it, a real experience.
take away the watcher, the observer of th...
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Space contains the tremendous precision of being able to work with the situations in it.
the watcher is only paranoia.
the path we are discussing is called the “hard way.”
The attitude of “heroism” is based upon the assumption that we are bad, impure, that we are not worthy, are not ready for spiritual understanding.
We must reform ourselves, be different from what we are.
There are so many things to become.
We think our path is spiritual because it is literally against the flow of what we used to be, but it is merely the way of false heroism, and the only one who is heroic in this way is ego.
We might attempt to imitate certain spiritual paths, such as the American Indian path or the Hindu path or the Japanese Zen Buddhist path.
We might abandon our suits and collars and ties, our belts and trousers and shoes in an attempt to follow their example. Or we may decide to go to northern India in order to join the Tibetans. We might wear Tibetan clothing and adopt Tibetan customs. This will seem to be the “hard way,” because there will always be obstacles and temptations to distract us from our purpose.
still we think we have found the path of discipline. We have struggled through the difficulties of this path and have become quite competent, masters of discipline of some sort.
Sometimes we think we have achieved our goal.
Later our ecstasy disappears. And so it goes, on and on, on and off.
we have the notion that there must be some kind of medicine or magic potion to help us attain the right state of mind.
We hope that by manipulating matter, the physical world, we can achieve wisdom and understanding.
some kind of real gift or sacrifice is needed if we
are to open ourselves completely.
in order for it to be meaningful, it must entail giving up our hope of getti...
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We must give up our ambition to get something in return for our gift.
We merely want to savor our beautiful memories. We do not want to question our experiences too closely.
The process of dismantling, undoing, opening, giving up, is the real learning process. How
the prospect of the hard way is very threatening.
Once we commit ourselves to the spiritual path, it is very painful and we are in for it.
We have committed ourselves to the pain of exposing ourselves, of taking off our clothes, our skin, nerves, heart, brains, until we are exposed to the universe. Nothing will be left. It will be terrible, excruciating, but that is the way it is.
It is an extremely narrow path with no escape, a painful path.
committed to the process of exposing yourself, then the less you try to open the more the process of opening becomes obvious.
Must we have a spiritual friend before we can expose ourselves, or can we just open ourselves to the situations of life?
think you need someone to watch you do it, because then it will seem more real to you.
It is easy to undress in a room with no one else around, but we find it difficult to undress oursel...
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You can deceive yourself, thinking you are going through the hard way, when actually you are not. It is like being in a heroic play.
If you involve yourself with the heroic way, you add layers or skins to your personality because you think you have achieved something.
The philosophical or intellectual understanding of pain is not enough. You must actually feel something properly.
You might explode completely.
If you expose yourself completely, then you are already on the path. If you give yourself halfway, then you are only partway on the path. It is going to bounce back on you.
To open we have to cut through our desire to preserve our own existence.
struggle is irrelevant to opening.
Once you have stepped on the path, if you give up the struggle itself, that takes care of the whole problem.
Struggle is ego. Once you give up struggle, then there is no one left to conquer struggle; it just disappears. So you see, it is not a matter of achieving a victory over struggle.
in order to find the open way we must first experience self-deception as it is, exposing ourselves completely.
We may even be hesitant to consider such a hopeful subject as the open way, because we are so wary of our ambition. But our caution is a sign that we are ready to think about it.
The approach to the open way lies in the experience of exposing oneself—
The problem lies in the fact that we are always trying to secure ourselves, reassure ourselves that we are all right. We are constantly looking for something solid to hang on to.
So the next step on the path of self-deception is the desire to see miracles.
You would like to prove to yourself that such miracles do exist, because you would like to be sure that you are on the side of the guru, the side of the doctrine, the side of the miracles,
sure that what you are doing is safe and powerful, sensational in fact, sure that you are on the side of the “goodies.” You would like to be one of those few people who have done something fantastic, extraordinary, super-extraordinary, one of the people who turned the world upside down:
certainly such a miracle must mean that we are on to something, that we have found the true way at last.
