In my previous blog, I spoke of how the shrunken self we believe ourselves to be is really just a bundle of thought constructs, or vikalpas. In order to free ourselves from that bundle, we have to turn inward, reflect, and be able to know and name our vibrations accurately.
If we want to move forward in our sādhana, we have to be able to know where we are residing inwardly at every moment—what vibration is occurring. And we have to know that none of the vibrations we get lost in is better than any of the others—in fact, they’re all the same shrunken self.
The seed of who we truly are is there even in the shrunken self. And so, when asked “Who are you,” we will always say, “Me.” But how much of that true Consciousness is embedded in and enlivening any of the vibrations and subsequent vikalpas that we call “me”? The “me” that we are so sure is who we are is just an ever-shifting core of ideas. The “me” that thinks of itself as the conscious witness is actually not that at all; it is just a vikalpa.
Any vibration or vikalpa or vehicle is a container that limits consciousness. The goal is to no longer be identified with any container, not to hold onto any container. Whatever container we attach to, that becomes our limiting body of the moment.
If we are operating from a false sense of self, we are lost in whatever we are experiencing. We are our experiences. Or we are lost in our idea of being the experiencer. We have now diminished ourselves in a container. We have to know our containers and we are in them. Most people are in containers but do not know it. Being centered in an idea of self is not being centered. It is not being in the Heart.
A big clue to knowing where we are is that we have to disentangle out of a vibration in order to go into another vibration. If we have to withdraw in this way, then we are not inwardly directed toward the Heart. The whole point is not to go into any vibration/container.
Our job is to be with our experience, whatever it is, at whatever level of inwardness we can accomplish at any given moment. Unless we are far along the path, we are not resting in the Heart. By being with our experience, letting whatever comes up from that experience come up, and functioning appropriately, we can work our way inward toward the Heart, very gradually. Over time, this will allow us not to get enmeshed in any container.
I am working hard to have no identification with a container, no matter how subtle, but rather function through those containers. I have to use them consciously and not be attached to any of them. Baba had no attachment to any containers; I would watch him enliven his vehicles so that he could speak to me.
Every time we go into a container, we are fodder for death. When we are no longer attached to any container, there is no death. To live as though already dead—something warriors and monks have in common—is to be free of any containers. When we no longer are attached to any container, we know who we are, because who we are arises.
Share this Post