For me the highest opportunity of existence is to discover our true nature. Because if we discover everything else, but not our true Self, then that which we consider we do know, is not reliable. Also, discovering our True Self puts an end to a lot of misery, sorrow and anxiety about life – something which so many people feel.
All of this is to do with the ignorance of our true nature and this is due to false identification. Sometimes I say our name is ‘I’… because all beings refer to themselves as ‘I’. But this ‘I’ itself we don’t truly know. Most people just assume ‘I’ to be our body, our education, our conditioning. But actually ‘I’ really refers to consciousness. The body doesn’t know itself as ‘I’; it is something inside the body that says ‘I went, I did this or I did that’. Consciousness needs a body in order to taste experiencing, to have the diversity of experience and so on, but the body itself is not the sentient root or ‘Being’. The body is the instrument.
Living in the now
First there has to be a rise of some urge to go beyond the surface identity. It is only when we’ve developed a certain amount of maturity, looking beneath the surface of our conditioned identity, that we can somehow allow experiences to be momentary.
[As an identity] we cannot help holding onto the memory of experiences, to help to develop that sense of a separate being and a unique identity. Consciousness does not need to hold on.
This is why sometimes I refer to the life lived from the place of consciousness as spontaneous existence or ‘like writing on water’ – you cannot refer to it in a minute because it is gone. It takes a tremendous amount of openness, and a confidence that comes through real seeing, to be able to move into our spontaneous existence.
The ‘play of life’
The ‘play of life’ so challenging because we limit our identity to body/mind and to our unique kind of conditioning. There is a pride that goes with a sense of identity, and a kind of arrogance also. We have a feeling of ‘this life is mine, I can do what I want’ and so on.
It can seem like this until we go more deeply into our true nature, and then the picture changes. But, while we have this strong sense of identity we are not really very open.
Often we feel some kicks from life… illnesses and things that happen to our family. These show us that life is unpredictable and has no guarantee, which brings a sense of humility to the Beingness, and when there is humility there returns again a kind of openness.
Freedom from ego
However subtle the ego can come, you are subtler still! It is you who observes and recognizes ego, so therefore you have the advantage. Whichever way it goes, you have the power within to expose it. The only things that may get in the way are those little memorandums or reminders… of the things that tasted nice or whatver else works to keep you back in the state of identity.
It takes a very deep resolve, a very powerful determination, a grace, to really stay put and hold firm in your seeing. Sometimes momentarily you’ll be thrown off course and you’ll find yourself flapping about again.
But, quickly the ability is there to compose yourself and say ‘wait a minute, but that’s not true’. The more subtle the ego gets, the weaker it is becoming. As your own power increases it has to find more subtle ways to catch you, but still the power is somehow with you.
Anthony Paul Moo-Young, or Mooji, from Jamaica is a disciple of Papaji. His 59th birth anniversary was observed on January 29
Mooji
