The Self is the Mother of ALL Scams.
A mans life is supple, free flowing, ‘easy’ when he is a child.
Before he starts to develop the concept of a self — a self image.
This self image is the baggage he drags on for the rest of his life — if he never attains realization.
The self image/concept becomes a chore — it requires maintenance.
It brings a lot of suffering when it is diminished.
All through this, it never occurs to him that this self is a phantom, a ghostly creation, an illusion.
He feels it to be real. Therefore he suffers all it’s ills.
When the self is enhanced it bringS with it a good feeling — which is temporary.
It is often the bad experiences, the traumas, the emotional pains, the underlying fears, anxieties, doubts, conflicts, confusion that leave a lasting impression within this self.
Their effects last longer and is likely to recur than the opposite.
He is therefore doomed to suffer as this self.
And this suffering is inevitable because the self is a tough shell to shade.
It requires a phoenix transformation, intense and relentless suffering, to a degree that the human naturally arrives at a place that they know they can’t sustain this self anymore. Only then are they ripe to shed this self.
Rare is the man who gets to this level.
Almost every human is trained to put out fires, to handle stress, to deal with it, to do A when B happens. To cope this way and that. To see a therapist, to go to the gym, to pursue this and that, to make money to,….
The list is endless.
Unless all these pursuits come up empty, unless their futility is seen. The self will always have a place within the human. Therefore it will continue causing suffering for him.
If a human seeks to find peace, equanimity, enlightenment, lasting satisfaction, bliss, or something of lifelong value by whatever name they call it — let it be known that this ‘self’ is the obstacle. Actively trying to get rid of the self would be to misunderstand.
To examine everyday and from ones history how the self has cost him, would be a wise starting point of examination. It has to be a felt experience and not an intellectual process. Once he begins to understand this, he starts to know this self for what it truly is.
A phantom entity that lives within him, as him, but is responsible for all his suffering. When his understanding ripens enough — and it becomes unacceptable for him to continue living as a self — he immediately drops it like a hot charcoal.
This will be the true beginning of the rest of his life.
The gateway to the gems of nature.
The rebirth of play and childlikeness.
Without a reverse.
Because he will have gotten rid of the very seed of non-freedom from his life.
