EGO'S TRIAD - DESIROUS ATTACHMENT
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill, keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt, chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench, care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back, the only way to serenity.” Tao Te Ching
Impermanence
We are all climbing toward the summit of our hearts’ desires. Should the other climber steal your sack and your purse and wax fat on the one and heavy on the other, you should pity him. The climbing will be harder for his flesh and the burden will make his way longer. And should you in your leanness see his flesh puffing upward, help him in a step, it will add to your swiftness.” Unknown
Nothing lasts, everything we have is in the process of decay and we cannot take it with us. The more attachments to stuff that we have the harder will be our transition to the other side of the veil. When the Grim Reaper comes to tell us that our shelf life has expired and we move out of this plane to the "elsewhere" we leave with nothing but our experiences and our karma. We are here to enjoy this impermanence and the moment responsibly.
“One day the people came to the master and asked: “How can you be so happy in a world of such impermanence where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness and death.” The master held up a glass and said. Someone gave me this glass and I really like this glass. It holds my water admirably and glistens in the sunlight. One day the wind may blow it off the shelf or my elbow may knock it off the table. I know this glass is already broken so I enjoy it incredibly.” Achaan Chah Subato
“By attributing worth to tangible objects humans becomes attracted to them; attraction brings desire for them; desire leads to competition and dispute. These create anger and the result is delusion. Delusion completely overcomes a human’s sense of right and wrong.” Srimad Bhagavatam
Happiness is a legacy of perception rather than an accumulation of the material. We need to attend to our needs not our wants.
“…Abundance is not an achievement of the acquisitive but rather a legacy of the perceptive, a realization of plenty - not an acquiring of more.” Hillel.
The more we have - the more the ego desires. The marketing media play on this weakness. Steve Jobs of Apple said to his employees that their job at Apple was not to give folks what they needed but to tell them what they wanted.
"Greed is not stilled with money anymore than thirst is with salt water." Ksemendra
Keep to the source of living waters. Do not think to store in cisterns for they will break and crumble and the water will be lost. Cup your hands and drink deeply and often.
“Give up owning things and being somebody. Quit existing.”Rumi
Before we can subordinate ego to the Higher Self and open the heart chakra we will need to confront our Shadow, Monkey Mind and the Dark Forces or Tricksters - all trying to hold us down in the lower chakras. These three are always in flux sabotaging Spacious Mind and our Guides. Spiritual practice is essential to maintain equanimity.
The challenges and their remedies are summarized in the figure below.
Click, play and meditate
07_Tilling_the_Soil_of_the Soul.mp3
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