Note: the bold italics are my editing for emphasis.
"The June 18, 2009, quote from Transform Your Life is, “Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a bogeyman around, turn on the light.” (Dorothy Thompson)
How easy it is for conditioned humans, believing the conversation in the head is life, to forget, to get talked out of knowing, that each of us can “turn on the light.” As soon as an individual learns it is possible to end suffering in this very lifetime, and begins to sit and to develop the ability to direct the attention, that person is no longer condemned to live in darkness, afraid of the bogeyman. Once you know what the switch looks like, where it’s located, how to use it, you’re free. The gift, the wonder, of being a human being is that we have the power to turn the lights on and live in illumination.
Last month we had a Precept’s retreat. During the week preceding the “commitment ceremony” we look carefully at just what it is we’re choosing for the rest of our lives. The Precepts are:
Not to lead a harmful life nor to assist others to do so.
Not to take that which is not given.
Not to commit or participate in unchaste conduct.
Not to tell lies nor practice believing the fantasies of authority.
Not to use intoxicating drinks or narcotics nor assist others to do so.
Not to publish other people’s faults.
Not to extol oneself and slander others.
Not to be avaricious in bestowal of the teachings.
Not to be angry.
Not to speak ill of this religion or any other.
And, for good measure, we have what are called the Three Pure Precepts:
The Precept of restraint and religious observances.
The Precept to obey all good laws.
The Precept to benefit all sentient beings.
At one point Jen suggested an Eleventh Precept:
Not to believe or participate in the conversation in the head.
Now that is a true “cut to the chase” strategy! Without that conversation in the head would there be any shoulds or blame or comparison or judgment? Isn’t that conversation there only to perpetuate self-hate and misery? Without the endless droning voices blocking out the light and drowning out the wisdom, a person would live in attunement with life, act on what life brings, make course corrections as new information arises, enjoy, feel good, appreciate….
Sounds manageable, eh? So, why don’t more people do it? Why isn’t it more popular? Doesn’t everyone want to slide in that key, unlock those chains, shrug free of the restraints, flip that light switch, and stroll smiling and humming into the sunset? The obvious answer is “no.”
Egocentric karmic conditioning, ego, the illusion of a self that is separate from life most assuredly does not want to live in peace, ease, appreciation and gratitude. Why? Because it cannot. An illusion of a self that is separate from life must have that illusory life in the past or in the future where there is an imaginary “something wrong” to fear, worry about, agonize over, regret, feel guilty about, be confused over, try to figure out—in a word, noodle. Ego has its fictitious life in a conversation in the head. (If that’s hard to follow, compare the imaginary life of ego to a movie. Those characters in the film, with all their joys, sorrows, triumphs and failures, much as they seem to be real, are not. We pretend they’re real, sometimes even get so caught up with them that we forget they’re not real. We identify with them, feel what they’re feeling—which of course they’re not—and for a while believe they are real people living in real situations in a real world. But they’re not! And neither is that voice of ego in the head, pretending to be worried, fearful, upset, hopeful, etc. It’s all an act. Egocentric karmic conditioning does not live in the real world. And neither does the person duped into giving over their attention and awareness to that fiction.)
To quote Shaw again, instead of being duped, we have the opportunity to be, “…a force of nature.” That’s what we can call the person who lives in attunement with life, acts on what life brings to do, makes course corrections as new information arises, enjoys, feels good, appreciates….a force of nature, an expression of Life.
Choice #1: feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. Choice #2: force of nature. The choice is ours and, blessedly, as soon as we decide to go with Choice #2, we know how to use that key and we know how to flip that switch!"
Gassho,
Cheri
I find this teacher's work to be sooooo instrumental in my practice, helping me to really hear on a deeper level the egoic voices, and to not buy into them. The website is www.livingcompassion.org, it will touch your heart. They help African children, have a free weekly internet radio program, support monastic and lay sangha, have an active social peace stewardship, hold retreats around the country, sell Cheri Huber's books, and other dharma materials.
Mariah
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