Sunday with ET: What really matters is not what function you fulfill in the world, but whether you identify with your function such an extent that it takes you over and becomes a role that you play. When you play roles, you are unconscious. When you catch yourself playing a role, that recognition creates a space between you and the role. E. Tolle, from A New Earth _______ Okay, this is a good one. Instead of role lets say pattern. And we know a pattern because it is a wave that repeats itself, and a wave looks like a roller coaster. We like to think in nouns, but we are verbs. We are actions, bodies in motion. Just got some more coffee, and this perks. The role or pattern can be small, like a way of relating to a spouse, or a recurring tsunami where you keep getting fired the same way, or marrying the same type of person over and over. Patterns are addictions. They recur over and over. They are involuntary we believe, so when we are riding a patten on our surf board of the mind, we dont feel in control. We feel we are being carried along by some force. We are paddling along minding our business, when suddenly a wave picks us up and we cant stop it, nor can we get off. The fin of dread appears in the water beside us. There is an excitement and dread all at the same time. The problem with patterns, with waves, is that there is an up and a down. We like the up; we hate the down. When we identify with the pattern or role, we only identify with the up side, but the down side comes with the up side. We pray it wont, but it always does. Patterns and roles are Karma. Buddha called it the Wheel of Samsara, which is the world of suffering, of karma. But wait, said Buddha: there is liberation from this wheel. It is the Wheel of Nirvana or Dharma. And then Buddhism says that the Wheel of Samsara and the Wheel of Nirvana are the same wheel. This means that when you awaken to the truth that you are identifying with the up turn and not the down turn of your karmic wheel, when you see that with body and mind, you are awake and no longer identified with the karmic pattern—even though it is still turning with its inertia. You may have to finish the roller coaster ride, but you know you dont have to ride it the next time the cars comes around. You dont have to buy tickets anymore. And above all, the Fin of Dread turns out to be a floating box.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 14:26:57 +0000