Continuing from a previous (forgotten) post:
. . . . But with courage we begin to see through the Natural Man. We soon realize he has a sturdy sense of identity with his natural self—with his history, his physical and emotional characteristics, his successes, failures, desires, limitations, sins, image, opinions, judgments, even dedication to disturbance—which he protects and defends. It seems to give him a sense of security , given his imperfect thought processes and his impure heart. He is projecting solidity on something that is really more fluid and will give way in the light of persistent awareness..It will help him to realize that that this self-idea is largely a telestial-world fabrication that limits him spiritually. He must relax his grip on “me”;as Paul says, he must “put off . . . the old man . . . and be renewed in the spirit or [his] mind: (Ephesians 4:22-23).
But this divesting of an old identity is more than just giving up the man of sin. An even greater freedom can come as he gives up the parts of his “story” that are holding him back. One man said, “One day, I finally replied that I no longer needed a personal history, just like drinking, I gave it up, and that, and only that, has made all the difference.”5 As we loosen the net of beliefs and concepts that keeps our Natural Man intact, our soul begins to swell and our mind begins to expand.
While we consider changing Energies, we do not think that we will force ourselves to feel love or to think happy thoughts; we do not pretend to love. Rather we find that quiet, neutral place in out mind, our state of simple being, and there we set up our gentle intentions to be compassionate to all—even when our expectations are not met; to be helpful, to be patient, to be generous; to not hurt ourselves or others; to befriend our present moments; to feel inner Presence. This is a very high exercise as we connect with who we really are. We do not have to make ourselves feel anything—since that doesn’t work anyway. Rather, we take up residence in that part of us whose still waters and quiet goodness are always available and in which our fears melt away. It seems that the feelings take care of themselves as the hardness of the Natural Man’s heart gently gives way to a different sort of energy, as he relaxes his grip. Nor do we become doormats; rather, uncluttered by the distortions of “me,” we see clearly how to resolve each situation in the most skillful way.
Sakyong Mipham, the Tibetan monk and close student of the ways of the Natural Man, acknowledges that the road out of self-absorption may at first look boring, fearful compensation. He writes the experience of softening a heart accustomed to self-absorption and unlove. Opening our heart, he says, is like tilling a new garden: “At first it’s rough, because the soil needs working and there are plenty of rocks to remove. We feel discouraged. We’re so accustomed to putting ourselves first that thinking may seem arduous. Gut over time the soil softens up , an our heart naturally begins to sprout kindness, compassion and joy. The more we help others, the softer and more fertile our heart becomes. With the vision of how illusory org Natural Man is how deep and sacred eternal in us is, we biting to see how flexible we are, how fluid, and how capable of taking new directions.
So at first, we may not like the looks of the path to happiness. After all, even though there be some things that about our Natural Man that we don’t like, it does represent familiar ground for us. Nevertheless, “if we’re using non-virtue as a fuel for living, we’re going to feel all the bumps in the road.” The Natural Man is an enemy, because when the law of restoration responds to non-virtue, more negativity shows up. After a while it seems as if there is nothing left to live for. We feel deserted. But the real problem is our mind that has deserted virtue.
But freeing the mind from “me,” letting go of the relentless worry about knowing what will happen to “me,” ceasing to “seek our own,” letting the “me” become soft, open, pliable, inquisitive, accepting what is, receiving others as they are, nothing to defend, nothing to protect—this is peace and freedom from the contracted Natural Mind with all its stresses. And what this letting go leads to is that faith Providence will supply our needs to a much greater degree than we might have thought.
But the concept of filling up with love which we focus outside ourself does not imply that we do not care well for ourselves, seeing to our own needs, eating well, looking good. We do these things. But our mind is primarily directed toward a sense of ministry, of life purpose, of looking about to see how to help, how to make a difficult situation better, how to encourage another. Our joy arises not form a list of good deeds we do, but in deep awareness of God and of our being and its desire to find expression. In fact, we notice that the changes happen more easily when our attention is diverted out of ourself to something larger.
Since the new perception is that time is God’s and our life is unfolding in His hands, we might see what he would have us do next, what direction our personal ministry might take. The happiness therefore is not just a psychological phenomenon but a deep relaxation in a gift of the Spirit always carries with it the fragrance of eternal life.
Sakyong writes about the importance of practicing to bring about he changes we desire: True love is the natural energy of our settled mind, an inexhaustible resources that we must cultivate. . . . We are meant not to wait for moments of love to randomly arise but to be always cultivating love like a garden, tilling the soil so that the seed of our love can open, sprout, and break through…. When we practice being in love, we are digging deeper into our jar of virtue, freeing our minds from “me” and plumbing the depths of our being; contemplating love gives us the biggest of minds; the farther our love extends, the bigger our heart grows. 8 ~~`Caherine Thomas, Light in the Wilderness
