Who is Working Overtime to Separate Us From God?

There are many names for God: the Supreme, the Creator, Spirit, Krishna, Christ, Allah, Love, Shiva, the All, Om, etc. We tend to favor one or two that empower us to live the most spiritual life possible.

In fact, just thinking of the (nameless) Holy Name can instantly connect us to God and our own divinity (as do blessings like "Namaste - the Divine within me honors the Divine within you").

But what about the names for things that separate us from God? Isn't it just ego, or are there more? Can spiritual seekers avoid their traps?

Here are their most popular names:

Mind/Ego/I/Identity/Me*/self

These "God-separators" each show a different aspect how duality (us/them, feminine/masculine, follower/leader) keeps are distance from God. 

In reality there is no "split," but this illusion is so convincing, we allow it to occur many times a day (despite the fact that it's the cause of all suffering!). 

Take "Mind" (please!). Its distracting thoughts pop up frequently and tell us what reality supposedly is.  

Most of us weren't taught that we can control not only our thoughts but also our responses to them. Until we learn this, we just get pelted by these thoughts like a car in a hail storm, which leave large dents in our psyche as well. 

What kind of thoughts? Usually worries of imagined events in the future, or fears that painful events from the past will revisit us. Not healthy at all.

The problems can really pile up without a spiritual practice in place that includes yoga and meditation, both of which help us to stay out of the past and the future, right here in the present.

Being present it our truest state, but the Mind fights that by constantly trying to get us to forget who we truly are (Divine) so we will only take care of it (the Mind), usually through the senses. 

It's consistently successful at getting this kind of care because most of us don't know we are not our thoughts. (We are the ones noticing the thoughts.)

Identity is also a strong God-separator by creating a convincing (phony) beingness that makes being separate from God a plausible reality. With such vivid colors, no less, like painful (or pleasurable) memories of past experiences; the temptation to dwell in the emotional meaning we give those experiences (which affects how we react to life moving forward); our societal conditioning; the story of Me, and who I think I am. 

Identity appears as a consistent phenomenon, and that sameness gives us a comfort we're unwilling to give up, at least without great motivation. 

It's very popular to refer to all of this as Ego because it feels detached; scientific even. Here, it's handy to use what Gautam Baiji teaches, that the ego is a tool which can only be dangerous when handled improperly, much like how fire is very useful for cooking, but you wouldn't want to turn your back on it for long. 

Finally, when one refers to their self, they may wish to pause and ask, "Am I addressing the little self who lives inside me, or the Self?" It's easy to see that we default to our ego-mind-self. We can reverse by entering into an inquiry every now and then to re-member Who We Are again and put the Self back in control (which causes the little self to disappear). 

That is, until we're distracted again. But the back-and-forth is part of our spiritual journey.

*They all have capitals because they are always straining for importance or significance. This is their attempt to replicate the true Self to attempt to fool us, but in the end they are all imposters. 

**One of the mind's greatest distractions (for people on a spiritual path) is the desire to accumulate more spiritual information at the expense of simply experiencing our True Self, or having self-realization. Sri Mooji says, "It cannot be learned, it can only be recognized in ourselves," and yet we frequently find ourselves pursuing more information for "answers." This is one of the mind's final tricks to delay our re-membering/oneness. (Another mind diversion: telling us we are "too tired" or sleepy as we start to meditate, causing us to stop.) 

***Which is ironically like focussing on the dot in the middle of the blank page, while ignoring the vastness of the white paper and who we really are.

In Relationships, Where Does Happiness Come From?

From a satsang by Gautum Baiji about "finding happiness":

When two people get married, they both think, “Now I will be happy.”

He thinks, “I am marrying her and I will get happiness from her.”

She thinks, “I am marrying him and I will get happiness from him.”

So who is giving all this happiness?

Moral: Only look to yourself for happiness. And when in doubt, you can get happiness by giving it.

Let the Satsang Go Through You/Learning How to Think

From a recent Satsang by Gautum Baiji:

"How can we tell if a person is good or bad: when we see their actions, not doing things the right way.

The behavior is not good. Then we can see this person needs some change if they want to do good.

Sometimes we change through circumstances over time, but Satsang has the power to change us now. Only by Satsang and meditation can a person create change.

Because we don’t need to change the body. We don’t need to change the color, the caste, or the creed. 

The only thing we need to change is our thoughts. 

Because whatever thoughts we have inside… those thoughts will become our actions. And we will be good or bad people because of our actions.

How can we change the thoughts? 

Because when parents raise their kids, they tell them this is good, or this is bad, you should do this or that. They taught us everything. How we should eat, how we should talk. How we should work.

But nobody taught us how to think.

Thousands of thoughts come into our mind all the time. Each and every second the thoughts are coming and going. How do we control them?

One way is to keep good company. Then good thoughts come automatically.

That’s why we have a need, a necessity for saints.

Saints are like clouds. When the cloud comes in the heat, it brings rain and cools everything down.

The same thing happens when the saints come into our life. They teach us techniques, they give us knowledge. Then we practice meditation, and we change our thoughts. And when our thoughts get changed, our perspective changes, and we can see the positive changes in our life.

Sometimes we think merely reading scripture is enough. Some people say, “I’ve gone through the Gita, I’ve gone through Ramayana, I’ve gone through all the scriptures…”

But have the scriptures gone through us?

If we are only reading, we become like a parrot. If we ask the meaning of Ram, the parrot can repeat the word but it doesn't know the meaning of Ram.

We chant so many mantras, we sing so many bhajans, but as long as we don’t know who we are, as long as we don’t experience meditation, how can we change our self and our thoughts?

If we’re sitting in the satsang, and our mind is wandering everywhere, what happens? We didn’t get any benefit from the satsang. 

But if we let the satsang go through us, we can change our life..."

Good Job vs God Job - Ego vs Soul

I read a quote recently about the importance of "imprinting" my intention on the Universe...

Instead of seeing everything as perfect and as God intended, it seemed to suggest I should work hard to impose my view on life and the order of things.

For me it's more true to join with the Universe... to uncover my soul's intention, which is already in alignment with the Universe/God, and live into that.

"Imprinting my intention on the Universe" has ego present in the way an artist seeks recognition through desiring "immortality" in their work.

There's also a warning in the quote about absorbing other's intentions so that you're not steered off your own course.

Of course we wouldn't want to lose ourselves to another's will (except God's!)...

But what if you give your life to serving others, and it's not about you at all? You'd probably engage with them energetically to offer whatever assistance they needed for the next step in their journey.

If I ever think it's about me, then it's just my ego talking. Good reminder.

Understanding and "Innerstanding"

Gautum Baiji said feelings are like waves in the water.

Thoughts are like waves.

I asked if the waves were my soul "talking" to me.

She said we are the ocean. The om vibration is already there.

When we calm our mind through meditation, the waves (our thoughts and feelings) will go down and allow us to be the ocean, to be one with our soul.

Ego Fights Change, Then Self Reaps Reward

self vs. Self

This sounds strange to a part of me. "Not leave footprints?! Not make my mark? But... people need to know what I can do!" we might say pridefully.

For me, there is a lingering echo of ego that gets validation out of being known as "a something," a label that used to make me feel very ego-proud (artist, writer, produced playwright, whatever)...

...as opposed to a spiritual being having a human experience.

I would have defended it before. I would have taken umbrage if I thought someone was trying to "take it away from me" (the label) because I had convinced myself it WAS me.

"Let it go."

We hear those words often, but rarely do we let everything go.

What do we have to unburden ourselves with that would make life easier and our spiritual journey more joyful? It might be good - and educational - to take an inventory of the things we believe ourselves to be... and see if we can let them go.

And if we can't let them go today, maybe tomorrow. Or next week or next month.

(Note: I would keep labels like "mother" and "father" because we embrace them with love and joy - unless we indeed do take too much pride in the labels, then maybe we need to look at our relationship to them.)

Then enjoy your freedom!

Edit: I saw this and had to add it.

It makes sense that our ego is trying to get validation and fit in and be accepted and respected... by other people's ideas of who we should be.

Instead, we can let go and let God.

Edit #2: Okay, ONE MORE addition to this topic:

Ego, ego, ego.
Let it go, let it go, let it go.