Whatâs the main difficulty In endeavouring to live the spiritual life, so that it brings you into harmony within and without?Â
The main problem is the personalising of your life. When you come to your senses and start to live the spiritual life, you endeavour to de-personalise it. But all the personalising of your life that youâve done before - for say, fifteen, thirty or forty years - keeps coming back. What you did in your ignorance as a younger woman or man, itâs all going to keep coming. The karmic repetition of what youâve been, and of what in your ignorance youâve done in the past, is going to keep pushing you. And it will make you think âIâm not spiritual enoughâ or âIâm not doing it rightly enoughâ.
What does it mean to personalise your life? This is where you have to see the difference between looking and thinking. All thinking is about your person, your personal life - the thought that youâre not spiritual enough, your unhappy love-life, the emotion of your mother and father, the fact or assumption that your lover or partner doesnât love you enough ⊠The waking at night, thinking about all that - thatâs personalising your life.Â
Your person is the only problem in your life. When you think, youâre thinking about your own emotional problems and you perpetuate the person. You have to learn to look and see. Look and listen with your whole body. When you look, you start to clear your mind of its assumptions and opinions so that you see as straight as you can in the circumstances, with the information youâve got.
We all have practical things to do in the world; and sometimes itâs not easy. So we have to learn to do one thing at a time, because the mind wants to do or think about ten things at a time, concertina everything and create confusion. We have to be able to look without thinking. Thatâs the only way you can attend to your practical life. If youâve got what appear to be difficult decisions or difficult circumstances, look purely at the fact â not at your assumptions, fears and doubts. You have to look and see as best you can, âWhat can I do in this situation that is practical?â
Never put two things first. The mind will want to present two things to you. The mind is confusion personified. The mind is the person. Â It always wants something to think about. But the idea of the spiritual life is to get into a state of consciousness where you donât think about anything but are always looking to see what the fact is. So it doesnât matter what job difficulty you have. Do not think about it, because then youâll personalise it and huff and puff and get depressed. And youâll have discussions with your friends and say, âI donât know what to doâ. Â Thatâs the person, the talker.
Do you see yourself thinking about your pathetic life, especially your pathetic love-life? Or do you look and see whether youâve learnt anything from the broken hearts, all the disappointments, all that men or women have done to you? Have you learnt anything yet? Thatâs what experience is for - so that we can learn not to repeat the same errors that lead to disharmony and unhappiness. Are you still repeating the same errors? Then youâre personalising your life instead of looking at it straight and true.
Edited extract from a talk on the Gold Coast, Australia, 20 February 2000.
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