Manifest Revolution Live Truth.

Spiritual practice, as with all human endeavors, presents constant challenges to the aspirant. In particular, it is common for spiritual seekers to struggle with the consistency of their practice. It is not unusual to experience an epiphany -- a brief glimpse into our true nature -- and feel compelled to act upon it, to try to maintain that sense of deep inner awareness as long as possible. This can inspire an intense period of spiritual practice, whether in the form of worship, meditation, or other practices like Patanjali's eight-limbed yoga.

Meditation is a sublime experience when practiced simply for the sweetness of the now with no thought for attainment. When you are able to observe awareness, you notice a sense of wonder at being a visitor to your own identity. You feel the restlessness and confusion of your ego at the stillness around you. Why aren't we moving? It jostles for your attention. Everything that arises subsides, emphasizing the ephemeral nature of all things. And enveloping all of that is silence, dark and deep. Then stand, and as the Zen saying goes, chop wood and carry water.

I was reminded in a recent conversation of the very interesting book, The Disappearance of the Universe. I haven't read the entirety of A Course In Miracles, but this presents an interesting overview of it. The premise that most interests me is the idea that the universe of individuation of matter and identity is a glitch and the goal of collective enlightenment is to undo the glitch.

I had an interesting conversation with a good friend and business associate today. After briefly reviewing some business matters, we started discussing where his is in his life and how that's been affected by recent events. Over the past few months he has been going through one of those "refiner's fire" stages of life that we all experience at one time or another. You could say it was the result of bad decisions--after all, it was his own choices that created the situation.

In my last post on ego, The Nature of Ego, I discussed a framework for understanding ego based on the Katha Upanishad. In this post I'm going to extend this framework into the realm of the practical by looking at how we can reconcile the conflicts that arise from ego. We do this by first understanding that ego is the first manifestation of spirit in the physical. Meaning, ego is the first place intentions manifest and where they begin to be filtered or redirected. It's the first place things go wrong, so it's the first place we should look to make them right. We live in an age of behavioral obsession. That is, when things aren't working out the way we want, we look at the behavior that caused it and work like hell to change that behavior. This is where philosophies and religions begin the doctrinization of behavior.