How to Be Free of Ego

How to be Free of Ego

Thursday, 26 March, 2009 9:32 AM

"If you ever watch

a documentary on wild animals, it will become very clear

that life is all about survival. You are either eating another or doing your best

not to be eaten yourself. In the wild animal kingdom,

it is those that live in extreme separation, which survive the longest.

If you do not live in fear you will be eaten.

If you have any feeling for the one that is your dinner,

you will starve.

It is the biggest and strongest that survive and earn the right to reproduce.

This is the function of the ego, to look out for the survival of the individual.

As human beings,

we have pretty much beat this system and separated ourselves from this natural cycle.

Regardless of judgement

most of us find ourselves in a unique position

where we are safe enough that we can go beyond instinctual separation. Still the ego

is all about survival

through dominating everything outside of yourself.

The ego tendency is to

be bigger, tougher and better looking, richer and more successful,

intellectually superior, to be the one that judges not the one that is judged, to dominate others to be the most popular. To be right.

All of these things

are the egos instinctual tendency to survive.

Yet meditation and spiritual life

means to do the opposite. You still look both ways before you cross the street, but it is when you stop trying to dominate others and submit to life, you grow in awareness

and move closer to experiencing unity with the whole.

It is in accepting all of these things in our lives that we resist

where we actually

have the greatest opportunity to be free of the ego

and attain unconditional peace. When you truly surrender and experience hurt, loneliness, rejection, humility, confusion, weakness, vulnerability, When you accept that you cannot understand life and all of it's mysteries yet you allow it to be as it is that you find freedom from separation and dissolve into unconditional peace. You experience yourself as part of the whole of life rather than an ego separate from it.

You are nourished by the whole as love itself, peace itself and perfect contentment. As long as you try and dominate life,

you will be separate from it. As soon as you submit to life as it is in this moment, you live as life itself and that is bliss.

This is the secret

to being free from the ego. Blessings,

Kip"

Meditation & Samadhi Explained

This one is a bit long & specific,

but should bring clarity to a lot questions that have come in lately.

"Meditation is a combination of both witnessing what is happening in the moment

(as opposed to identifying with what is happening) and surrendering to what is here

(as opposed to trying to control or resist your experience.) So you want

to allow your experience in this moment

to be as it is

but without identifying with it. You want to experience this moment as sensation without trying to define it, describe it, judge it, or say 'this is me.' The main obstacle in meditation is the mind. Thoughts arise

And the tendency is to identify with the thoughts,

to become involved with the thinking. To think you are the thinker

and that the thinking is important. And then one thought leads to another and before you know it,

meditation time is up. Many will spend their entire meditation

simply enjoying a certain relaxation

while being distracted and consumed by the thoughts.

This is normal.

And there is a certain amount of spiritual growth

that comes from just

enjoying the peace that is there. But true meditation

means to let go of this tendency of being distracted by your thinking. To little by little, have moments

where you are not distracted by your thinking

but are present with

what is here beyond thinking. You want to surrender to allow the thoughts & emotions to arise, because if you try and stop them, or control them,

you will increase your stress. You want to surrender so that you can allow yourself

to experience what is here beyond the thinking. Yet at the same time,

you want to witness the thoughts arising, so that you do not become lazy

and habitually

get lost in your thinking.

You want to be completely focused in the moment

to see the thought arising and instantly let it go. So there is this balance that is always the aim:

witnessing and surrender both at once. At first, these two seem to be opposites, but through practice

you realize witnessing and surrender are one & the same. When you reach this point life will become very blissful.

Eventually,

both aspects are transcended into a state of perfect stillness where only pure formless consciousness remains.

This is the beginning of Samadhi, where the personal 'I has vanished and meditation happens effortlessly. Blessings,

Kip"

Bliss

Friday, 13 March, 2009 10:24 AM

"What can be said when you are blissful. You cannot talk about bliss when you are blissful. It is all just a happening. Unserious and unimportant. All of the ideas, opinions and knowledge of spirituality keep you separate from bliss. Because there has to be a you to have the knowledge and opinions. There has to be someone important there, that knows something important

that is going somewhere important. But where are you ever going? Where are you leaving to go? There is only ever here.

If there is something else besides here then it is the resistance to here

the avoidance of here. This illusion

of an important one that is going somewhere in it's own idea

of a future just to try

and escape this moment. But if you give up trying to leave

this moment

and are present in what is, there is no important one. It is all of the present. There is nothing but the present. One life radiating without cause.

You find yourself smiling on the inside

and there is no reason for it. There are no words or opinions

or revelations, there is just bliss. Blessings, Kip"

Getting to The Zero Point

"You cannot do meditation. Meditation happens. That does not mean you grab a beer, put your feet up

and wait for meditation to happen. You have to learn

to be aware

and this requires practice. You can use whatever technique or method that works for you. But it is all to get you

to the zero point, the point of inaction. The point where you have taken your hands off the wheel completely

and allowed meditation to take over. You can recognize

the zero point,

(There is a complete absence of ego and subsequently

a complete absence of stress.) And through recognition and practice,

allow it to become your normal state.

This is where meditation happens. It is where Shakti takes over and does what it needs to do. There is nothing for you to do beyond this point,

it is all taken care of. But as long as you think you are doing meditation,

Shakti has to sit in the back seat, until you are tired enough or willing enough

to get out of the way

and allow meditation to happen. So it is not that you do meditation, but you are doing so much already you have to practice to get to inaction. You have to practice

until you get to the point

where awareness and surrender are one and the same.

It is too subtle to comprehend with the mind,

only by experience do you learn inaction,

do you learn how to get the heck out of the way

and allow unconditional peace to take over.

Blessings,

Kip"

Freedom From Anticipation

"The mind maintains

through anticipation.

It's program is to always entice you

with some future fulfillment. That once you reach a certain understanding, attain a certain goal, quench a certain desire, then you will be happy. The problem is that there is no end to understanding, no end to desire,

no end to attainment. It is not like the movies where the conflict comes to a climax and everyone lives happily ever after. Anticipation itself exists

for it's own survival.

Conflict, desire, understanding, exists for it's own survival. But if you can take a step back and see this tendency

and acknowledge that

there is no end to anticipation, then suddenly

this whole reality based on some future happening collapses,

and you are left in this moment.

You are alive for the first time, instead of resisting life for some future fantasy.

You are alive

in the full acceptance of life as it is in this moment. This addiction

to seeking ceases

and there is unconditional peace. You see everything is taken care of. That you are held and nurtured by life itself.

Blessings, Kip"

How to Awaken to True Living

"Life, existence is happening

all by itself in this moment. It is a flow of energy. Stress arises

because you try and control this moment.

You resist this moment. And the greatest way you resist this moment is through the identification with thinking.

Thinking is always about the past or the future.

By being involved with the thoughts, you avoid

the present moment all together. You avoid life itself.

You live in a mental world that only exists in thought. It is a dream world

And it is a completely different reality to life in this moment. If you let go of control

through the acceptance and awareness of what is

in this moment,

suddenly the mental world and all of it's conflicts and desires stops being real,

and you experience life itself. There might be

a brief moment of fear because the 'you' as the controller does not exist

outside of this mental world. But when you realize this 'you' as the controller is the source of all stress,

you become willing to give it up. Then you truly feel alive, as life itself,

nourished in the eternal radiance of unconditional peace. Nothing dies in this process. Rather it is an awakening to true living. You discover what you truly are. Blessings,

Kip"

Freedom from Your Past

"If you look

at your problems logically, you will see that the past is not your problem.

Whatever hurtful things happened to you a minute ago,

a year ago, a decade ago, are no longer here. But what happens is the mind replays the situation over and over.

And you end up chewing on it, being totally involved

and identified with it without ever even being conscious of it.

All of these incidents build up & get replayed over and over and it becomes your identity, the program that determines your experience.

By witnessing your thoughts, and letting them go as they arise, the thoughts still may come, but they no longer

determine your experience. They no longer

If you are not

identifying with the thoughts, then the whole thought process loses it's power over you. Everything slows down, conflict dissipates,

and your identity as your past falls away.

The memories can still be accessed, but they no longer define who you are in this moment.

Blessings,

Kip"

Perseverance

Friday, 6 February, 2009 10:13 AM

"I often get emails from people saying 'My mind is too busy, my ego is too strong to meditate and find peace' But such a statement is only an idea, it has no validity

beyond what you choose to give it. The mind will always tell you why you cannot meditate,

why you cannot be free of it. The mind will always choose to stay in control, to stay in power,

it does not want you to be aware because awareness is it's undoing. The mind will either play the trick of stating that

you are unworthy or that you know it all and attained it all

and you do not need to be present. There really is no difference between arrogance

and insecurity.

They both are means

for the ego to maintain it's power. It is through perseverance in awareness

that you break through this trap. Because the mind is not going to be of help to you.

It is those

that are humble enough and courageous enough to persevere day after day in meditation

practicing awareness

that break through mind identification and find freedom.

For them it is not about attaining some title or pleasure.

Eventually it is the practice itself that becomes the reward. The delight in being free

of the identification with the mind. The delight in enjoying

that which cannot be comprehended in words or definitions,

in philosophical teachings, understanding

or attainments. It all comes down to be present here and now.

Because thinking about exercising is not going to make you fit. Blessings,

Kip"

Freedom from I Concept

"Beyond thinking, beyond body, you exist.

This is easy to see: Simply close your eyes and notice your experience beyond thought.

Stop thinking for a second or two and notice what is here. You will realize you still exist, without definition, without description, without limitation, separation or conflict. It is the identification with the thinking 'I'

that causes all of the trouble. All of your problems

worries and desires are about this thinking 'I.' But what is this 'I' with problems to solve? Does this 'I' exist beyond the idea of it?

Is there really a you that you define by a memory of a past and an anticipation of a future? Beyond thought, does this 'I' exist?

You assume it does, because you choose to identify with thinking.

But if you look to validate it's authenticity

beyond thinking, it is not here. The moment

you bring your attention to the experience of existing in this very moment,

you are free of this thought of 'I'. You rest as awareness itself. Meditation is the means to break this habit of constantly identifying

with this thinking 'I.' Because once

you wake up from a dream that you were being chased by a monster,

you don't have to run anymore. Blessings,