Tag: perspective

“Knowing”, an obstacle to Being

Ignorance goes hand in hand with arrogance, both sprouting out of immaturity. Bookish knowledge brings about arrogance, and the misconception of the acquisition of wisdom, which is far from what’s true. Actually, bookish knowledge cements and enhances ignorance under the misleading disguise of the opposite. So the most ignorant people in this world are not those who are unaware of things, but those who assume they’re wise and knowledgeable.

I have been there myself. What saved me? My humility and having the courage to question myself and my understanding of things. The more we discover about life and its experience, the more we realize how small and ignorant we are. Paradoxically, the more we truly know, the more humble we should become.

Once that happens, an invisible door is opened, a door to our inner, self-born knowledge. That inner knowledge has been there all along, but we just disregarded it, or were unaware of it, ignorantly empowering external forces, bookish knowledge, and “believing” instead of feeling and experiencing. Once we start recognizing inner knowledge, we start observing how  confirmation of what’s within in the form of knowledge, is all around us, attested by nature, people, things, and energies…

The realization that everything is indeed reversed downs onto us: the one who believes he knows much is in reality, ignorant and a fool… And the one who dares listen to life, nature and even others is continuously learning and expanding, whereas the self-assumed wise and knowledgeable is just falling for programming, propaganda, narrative and his own hubris

The child learns very fast because he is always ready to reassess and change what he believes in, when better experience and knowledge is available. He’s also humble enough in his flexibility, and it’s the very reason why children rapidly absorb knowledge. The academic people are almost lost, rigid in their beliefs, so crystallized, that they are incapable of starting with a blanc canvas, rewiring their own imagined and pre-programmed “reality.” They’re the bucket which is already full of stale old water, and they don’t dare emptying it as they’ve invested their entire life, time and energy to a fantastic, far-from-truth, predigested and ultimately illusory understanding of life.

Like the great Siddha Master Tilopa said: “… How pitiable the foolish, their struggles never end…” Why? Because they can’t let go! They can’t let go of their “knowledge” stained with ignorance, unable to renounce their concepts and theories that haven’t brought them any true benefit. Unknowingly, they are stuck on the path that takes one nowhere.

Same with mental illness: no one can cure and experience sanity unless they’re ready to redraw the whole understanding of the very Existence. So they continue to believe in the same fallacy over and over again, unaware of the immediate healing being just in the palm of their hands, by choice of revisiting and reviewing everything that they assumed was correct. It’s so simple and apparently easy, but so hard to do, as I can attest from my own experience.

Once you do it, you will be able to apply in all the situations you stumble across. Everything is slowly being revealed, nothing remains a secret. Life has no secrets, no mysteries for the one who is flexible and ready to adjust.  For the one who is humble, all doors are open.  Knowledge is always revealed from within where it was at all times.

For the one who believes that he’s the king of his own little box and assumes that there’s nothing other than his kingdom, his theory is proven right inside his own mind, in its very limited confines, yet he is depriving himself of truly experiencing the vastness of the Infinite, which is ever expanding therefore whatever knowledge exists is also expanding, adapting, and the true wisdom is allowing oneself to flow with this eternal expansion, aware of the fact that while limited to the human body, one can never grasp the full-fledged truth, but can get higher and higher versions of it while it’s capacity to carry that higher levels of truth is opened within by the power of humility and gratitude.

Your first Superpower

I have noticed throughout my life how my perception of things is constantly changing and somewhat ebbing and flowing along with life events, going up and down along with the moods, feelings, emotions and thoughts.

That’s why I started seeing value in maintenance of a neutral perspective of life as much as possible, experiencing everything but not getting bound by the experiences themselves. Once we are repeating something that we are aware has no benefit for us, there can be no blame on any external actors or stimuli. It’s like a saying I love to repeat over and over again: “If you are in a hole, stop digging! “

I have been trying, struggling, limiting, and sticking to a rigorous discipline, yet, at least for me, it didn’t fully work. Why? I assume that we are somewhat compelled to have a certain experience. Let’s say we try to solve or eliminate a certain problem or addiction from our lives without addressing the root cause of it, it’s like trying to push away a weight that’s tied to us with a strong elastic band. The more we ignorantly push it away from us, the harder the pain of the impact on the rebound. First, we should get rid of the “elastic band”, which is the hidden/unconscious root problem that keeps us bound to the issue we’re struggling to eliminate.

When the “elastic band” is dissolved, “the weight” will drift away by itself no need to push or apply any pressure for it to go. So in reality, all our issues, regardless if it’s inability to attract a proper lover or maintain a relationship with them, or be it financial issues, health issues and so on, they’re all just a symptom of something deeper, and addressing the hidden undercurrents, will automatically calm the surface waters too.

According to my own experience, one of the core issues which manifested a lot of trouble, lack and dissatisfaction is the feeling of not being enough, of being incomplete, of still lacking time or training to be better. In reality, we are always enough. We are already a unique and special manifestation of the Source. Sure, compared to other manifestations, it may have too much, too little, it may look flawed or not enough, yet that’s the very perfection of a unique manifestation, and we should definitely learn to not only accept this manifestation but fully own it and love it unconditionally. If we are alone, and we are unaware of anything else existing but us, we are perfect, no matter what, right? So all the issues come from comparison. That is why the wise identifies himself/herself with Shiva, the Divine, God, the Source, because they realized their unique expression of That. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to be perfect from the human perspective. But they have realized their perfection in their apparent imperfection.

All the apparent flaws of the character are fulfilling a role, they define a certain path that the being will take and have to experience. Some things are given. In reality, there’s little to choose really, the freewill is very limited. When hearing or realizing this idea, some will decide that there’s nothing to do to escape fate and will become cynical and lazy, sabotaging the already bumpy path; whereas others, will see the beauty of the experience, the perfection of the imperfection, good and bad being alike, trying to flow with life rather than controlling it compulsively.

I feel that there’s a changing potential of life and destiny, but only to a certain degree, and there’s also an imposed, unchanging aspect. That’s why balance is the key, as in any other aspects of the system we experience.  So improve what you can, but also easily let go and adapt when you feel that you can’t change something. Exactly like a river, it penetrates soft obstacles but bends, adjusts and modulates around hard ones.

There’s no escape from the duality of things while immersed in this so-called reality we came to experience. But you can use this knowledge to your own advantage: knowing that there’s no joy without sorrow, there’s no hot without cold, there’s no good without evil… You can choose to embrace both currents at your own volition, and hence avoid forced/compulsory actions and events.

I stated in a previous article that I realized that my life became a bit smoother and less traumatic just by taking cold showers and embracing unpleasant and  uncomfortable situations that I used to try to escape. This is not only enhancing resilience and patience, but is training us to embrace challenges, adversity and adventures rather than trying to maintain comfort, which is neither teaching nor even beneficial.

Let comfort and pleasant experiences come on their own accord and fully embrace what you used to run away from, and see how it goes. Drop me a message a month later, letting me and others know if it works or not, or why not, give it 3 months for the benefits to become obvious. Track the way life treats you when you stop antagonizing it. Observe, as I did, that even if anything is far from perfect, you are doing well, there’s less stress, no depression, no lamenting, or blaming. A certain level of peace will be reached within, and that is better than any material gain. It is something that will stay with you forever, like an achieved superpower that you can’t lose anymore, and will open you up for your next level in the Game. A wiser version of you is emerging. I promise you!

It’s a matter of perspective

Each time we complain about our experience, it’s because our expectations are set on “high”. If there’s no expectation or hope neither addiction to a certain outcome, then whatever is given by life is fully received and embraced, and the true lesson of each experience is fully grasped and transcended.

From the perspective of the person who hopes that life should be “good “, each small stumble, each unexpected turn is perceived as very painful and becomes a vicious circle of trying to escape pain and change the outcome and even a intent to manipulate life to flow our way is initiated, and even if with great struggles, we manage to push the outcomes to fit our hopes, we will just postpone and pile up the events that we are so eagerly running away from.

I have been there myself, wondering why life was so difficult and painful. When I started accepting whatever comes my way with the least opposition, Life started flowing like a gentle river, bringing about debris of past rejected elements that I avoided and experiences of all kinds, but although unexpected events still take place, they’re just boulders in the river over which the water flows with ease.

Sometimes it feels like a miraculous way, the manner in which everything unfolds; how if I take time to accept whatever happens; whatever is offered, even if it feels unpleasant, as soon as I accept and embrace that event, it’s like it gets canceled by the very Existence, or one way or another the whole thing gets adjusted, sometimes to an even better situation than previously.

This reminds me of a quote from Tao Te Ching: “Do you have the patience to wait ’till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving’ till the right action arises by itself?”

Let’s say, if we are aware that this is a very low-vibration material existence, although not the lowest, and each emotion has to be experienced fully, (as this is the only purpose that we came to fulfill: to have a low experience without losing oneself), then it all start to make sense, and in the worst situations, remembering the nature of this existence, you will find the possibility to relax and even smile.

When we fall into sorrow, guilt, shame, comparison, jealousy, vengeance and other very low feelings, then we feed the very system that we are trying  to  escape.

As soon as an emotion is ignited, we should feel it deeply, so as not to try to escape the feeling that we came here to have, but we shouldn’t employ any escapist or coping mechanism, or allow thoughts and actions to drag us deeper into the depths of victimization.

Let’s say we are rejected: at first every one of us will have a painful reaction as we are programmed to look for good experiences and run for those who are taking us out of our comfort zone. I feel it, it first comes like a huge overwhelming wave that tries to create an immediate response, trying to drag me under the water, blinded by emotions and reacting in an inappropriate way. But I have learned to stay there with the feeling, accepting it, and trying not to react or think about it, just be with the feeling. And whenever I am aware, and I do not react to it, the whole tempest is showing itself for what it truly is: just a storm in a glass of water.

If we knew we were in hell whilst having this exact experience, we would be dancing and rejoicing every single day, remembering to see the blessings that we have in our lives and how this version of hell is quite OK, especially compared to other people’s experience, as soon as we stop antagonizing it. But if we project some sort of idea of a place of pleasure, hope and joy, we are bound for a rough awakening. So you see, it’s all about the perspective. Depends on the angle from which we see everything, and the expectations or lack thereof.

Don’t you see how our own expectations and projections are binding us even more? Transforming a neutral experience that a godlike being came to have, into a belief of being trapped, doomed, tricked, punished, and eventually bringing us back to the same place, less and less aware of the nature of this paradigm, when in reality nothing can bind us and everything is just a projected experience based on mistaken beliefs and assumptions.

I am not able to do it all the time, as many times I am caught off-guard by the waves of life, acting from past distortions and programming, but each time I take my time and allow life to flow at its own accord, I am so happy I managed to do it. The more we do it, we become free from projections, and the world will fail to look neither good nor bad, but it will just flow like the ocean’s waves: one day roughly, one day calm and joyful, another day it may look like they want to destroy and annihilate and other days they’re still as a  lake in a painting.

If you watch the ocean through the window or the TV screen, no storm will scare you, but you will enjoy its dynamism and continuous change and unpredictability. Similarly, if you grasp the nature of this existence, you’ll feel like watching it through a screen, and the tremendous show that it puts into scene will inspire and put you in awe, but it will no longer scare you or catch you off guard.

This is how we are gradually spiritually maturing, slowly growing, enhanced by our trust in life and by the Grace that flows from within us, not separate from the Life that flows equally from within, as everything that we experience outside of us.

How can then be someone to punish or reward us if everything is just us? But because we believe in that predicament, we create a life that will fit our idea of it. Change your perspective and life will feel easier, the power is always in our hands.