With a lover you are a drink, a delightful drink.
With a lover you are a happy song.
You want to be with a lover not to talk about anything, but to disappear. – A.H. Almaas
Tag: almaas
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Lover
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Ultimate Mystery
We can know it, but to know it is to know it as mystery, the ultimate mystery from which all being and knowledge arise. – A.H. Almaas
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Self-Centeredness vs. Selfishness
Many spiritual teachings pick on the instincts equating them with temptation and “the Devil’s work.” The instincts are seen as antithetical to spiritual development and enlightenment.In non-dual awareness, one sees how everything is part of presence, a unity.
Self-centeredness, inherent in the ego, is oriented around me first and what’s in it for me. At more subtle levels all experience is centered in the reference to a self. We are mostly unconsciousness.
According to A.H. Almaas when self-centeredness is insecure, it appears as selfishness.
Self-centeredness is an objective fact of the ego, everything is referenced to the self, one’s subjective experience.
Selfishness is an obstacle to spiritual growth. Selfishness indicates an insecurity which means we are not being our true self because he true self is selfless in its nature. There is not a self that is separate from True Nature.
Why does the self keep coming back? A huge factor in the resiliency of the ego self is the survival instinct. This instinct is tied to the body and the ego equates its own disolution with physical death. Mystics throughout the ages attest to the fact that life goes on when the ego disolves.
Synthesizing the survival instinct brings toether the first and seventh chakras, the transcendent and the physical.
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The End of Ambition
Yesterday, A.H. Almaas began his lecture with:
We are all engaged in an interesting endeavor – to actualize something invisible in our lives, something not seen by the ordinary senses. This something transcends the biological imperatives of life. Our purpose transcends the simply biological.
The lecture went on to explore the phenomena of sexual desire and its relevance to one’s spiritual search and the maturation of the soul. Instinctual desire is a topic addressed by most spiritual teachings. Most see it as an impulse or motivation to be suppressed or gotten rid of.
Almaas looks at desire like any other phenomena – something to understand. His experience and teaching, the Diamond Approach, recognizes the value of understanding as a means of dissolving barriers and obstacles on the spiritual journey. This understanding is not an intellectual or theoretical process, but rather, a deep experiential experience.
To understand instinctual desire so that primordial energy can be used in the service of the maturing soul, one must first free it from all of the social, mental, emotional, and personal baggage that distorts it. When the instictual drive is returned to its pure state, it can then be synthisized into soul in a way that supports her movement toward the mystery of her deeper nature.
Image from Deric Bownds’ Mindblog
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Mind
The nature of the mind is emptiness, and the subtle consciousness that perceives that emptiness is the heart of the mind. – A.H. Almaas
