So long as we do not die to ourselves, and so long as we identify with someone or something, we shall never be free. The spiritual way is not for those wrapped up in exterior life.
Everyone is overridden by thoughts; that's why they have so much heartache and sorrow. At times I give myself up to thought purposefully; but when I choose, I spring up from those under its sway. I am like a high-flying bird, and thought is a gnat: how should a gnat overpower me?
Four years ago I didn't even know what ego was. If someone asked me to define ego, I would have described it as vanity. Now I know the true meaning of ego. Do you think that when we come to the realization that we are not our thoughts, that that is good enough? Because I know that I am an ego. But I still get wrapped up in emotions.
If everything is God, then thoughts are God. If God is perfect, and everything is God, why do we think that thoughts are so imperfect?
I think that Attar did not mean that we should give up external things externally, he meant that we should give them up internally, to see things(including thoghts) as just things, pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, but seperate from our true selves, and far less important than what we value most.
Yes enlightment implies being able to not identify, and practicing non-identification could be a path to enlightenment.
My new studies are going wonderfully. I can actually see the progress and I really like who I'm working with. He's serious, organized, knowledgeable, and wants to see me progress. This time I really feel as if I'm working with someone who knows what they're doing. I wish I had met him four years ago, as I would have saved a lot of time.
19 comments:
Emotion comes from mind?
Hmmm...
Go "beyond ego" to love God.
Fill the ego's cramped space with the love of God.
Can't lose it since God gave it to us...
~ Alex
I personally don't think that love is an emotion. To me love is what is beyond the emotions. It is a point of stillness.
Here is a poem by Saint Kabir. Kabir is suggesting that if you want to meet God you need to get rid of your ego.
"The path of love is very narrow.
Two cannot be on it at the same time.
When I am there there is no God.
When God is there I cannot be."
Alex,
I know it's the gift that keeps on giving. There are just so many blockages that keep some from experiencing it first hand.
I suppose I get my dose of God's love by the connections I make with others, by loving them and being loved by them.
Bob,
Thank you for the poem, which is very fitting for the circumstance. :)
I like the warm cozy feelings I get from love. I just wonder if the warm cozy feelings are ego, even if the love itself isn't.
Ego is only the sense of "I" , an imaginary picture of oneself. We still exist without it and it can still exist without us pretending to be it.
So, no we do not have to eliminate ego, we have to stop being the ego. We must become conscious observers of the ego.
Some people say that there is nothing but thought. Others say that there is nothing but God. Perhaps, in the end, there is nothing but God's mind.
So long as we do not die to ourselves,
and so long as we identify with someone or something,
we shall never be free.
The spiritual way is not for those wrapped up in exterior life.
Farid ud Din Attar
Everyone is overridden by thoughts;
that's why they have so much heartache and sorrow.
At times I give myself up to thought purposefully;
but when I choose,
I spring up from those under its sway.
I am like a high-flying bird,
and thought is a gnat:
how should a gnat overpower me?
Rumi
Moss,
Four years ago I didn't even know what ego was. If someone asked me to define ego, I would have described it as vanity. Now I know the true meaning of ego. Do you think that when we come to the realization that we are not our thoughts, that that is good enough? Because I know that I am an ego. But I still get wrapped up in emotions.
If everything is God, then thoughts are God. If God is perfect, and everything is God, why do we think that thoughts are so imperfect?
Attar / Rumi,
How can we dispose of our exterior lives, our families, our relationships?
Rumi makes it sound more natural, to choose when to think and when not to think.
Maybe after we become enlightened we can return to living life, but not choose to identify with our thoughts?
Thank you for the mystics' poetry.
Dear Sophia,
I'm very impressed. Two ancient mystic Persian poets commenting on your blog...
My only other comment for now is to carefully consider the veracity of the statement the "Everything is God".
Sophia,
I think that
Attar did not mean that we should give up external things externally, he meant that we should give them up internally, to see things(including thoghts) as just things, pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, but seperate from our true selves, and far less important than what we value most.
Yes enlightment implies being able to not identify, and practicing non-identification could be a path to enlightenment.
Alexander,
You are right. Not everything is God. At least not everything that we see.
We see only illusion. Perhaps everything real is God, but this is does not apply since we do not see anything real.
Alex,
I've been blessed by the gifts of wisdom that people leave on my blog.
About God, I'm open to considering that. :) My ideas about reality are not firm, yet.
Moss,
If everything is of God, wouldn't the illusion be of God, too?
Get clear about God and Reality will snap into focus !
~ Alex
Sophia,
"If everything is of God, wouldn't the illusion be of God, too?"
If something is imagined(illusion) then it is not part of everything, it is nothing.
This begs the question, "Who is imagining all of this?"
Perhaps it is God dreaming of a dream of a dream of a dream of a dream of living in a material world.
How are the new studies going?
My new studies are going wonderfully. I can actually see the progress and I really like who I'm working with. He's serious, organized, knowledgeable, and wants to see me progress. This time I really feel as if I'm working with someone who knows what they're doing. I wish I had met him four years ago, as I would have saved a lot of time.
Sounds great.
Maybe you had to have certain experiences before you could have this one.
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