Pitfalls of Hunting the I

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" Era " <n0ndual@w...> wrote:

 

 

 

There is a mistake which

happens regularly to beginners.

 

Many of them are blessed with various glimpses of

the higher life, which they have entered. These carry

the stamp of a genuine change of consciousness, and

of course the sadhaka is happy, and convinced that he

has made real progress. There is no harm in it, because

he soon has to face the fact that his 'experience' is fading

away, never to return. When this happens again and again,

he learns to understand these sparks as what they are,

glimpses from another dimension which want to teach him

to discriminate between the different dimensions but which

also lure him on in his spiritual endeavour. They only become

a pitfall, when he, by vanity or impatience, gets stuck in one

of them, taking it for final Realisation. Then his further progress

is blocked.

 

The mark by which this pitfall is recognised is 'I' have realised...'

This 'I' can only be a 'wrong I', because it is not the 'I' that

realises.

....

With this idea he gives his 'personal I' a strong chance to

develop into a 'spiritual I',

which is much worse than his

original quite ordinary 'I', strenghtened by all his previous

spiritual effort. The result is a spiritual pride, the worse the

more advanced the sadhaka has become, because his attainments, serve

only to confirm his 'right' to be proud of his success.

 

But even if he perceives the gentle Voice from within, warning him

against his trend going on in him and reminding him/her of the secret

of real 'attainment',

 

**silent humility, and

 

even if s/he is quite prepared

to accept the warning, there is still the risk that the cunning

ego now is concealing itself

behind his pride in his humility!

 

There is only one remedy against these and all other pitfalls on

the Path to Realisation: Alert Awareness, relentlessly focussing

on the treacherous ego-I.

.....

The most cunning pitfall on the path of sadhaka is the last one,

hidden in Realisation Itself.

 

The first Revelation of the Self

is temporary.

 

" Jnana, once revealed, needs time to steady itself. " (Talks, 141)

 

The danger is not in the sliding back; it is natural to most

sadhakas and is met quite naturally by continuing one's practice

faithfully, which in its turn will lead to further Revelations of

the Self until

finally there is no sadhaka left, but the Self only.

 

If, on the other hand, the sadhaka tries to 'hold on' to that first

Revelation, in spite of his Inner Guide warning him, (Who is holding

on?), then the ego-I slinks again in where the Self is veiled again

and

distorts the Revelation of the Self into the cry of victory: 'I have

realised!'

 

Blindfolded by the Bliss of the final 'success' (whose success?) he

never stops to scrutinize his condition and thus never finds out

the`truth; That he became a yoga-bhrashtha, one who has fallen out

of his yoga, his 'union'.

 

The new and definitive disguise of his ego-I is 'the Guru', and this

last and most powerful pitfall never releases him, because he

never recognises that he is its victim.

 

There are nowadays many whose Guru-pitfall caught them even

much earlier on their path.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucy Cornelssen: Hunting the 'I', from pp.48-51