Session 4: Letting Go of Ego (19th May 1966) by Lester Levenson
I guess the best way to start
is with an overall picture of our direction, in such a way that it embraces
those who have been here for some time and those who are here for the first
time. I think all the questions that the
philosophers ask and try to get the answer, to that the psychologists ask, but
even the field of medicine asks, and the world of religion are really all asking
the very same thing, approaching it from different angles.
Everyone is seeking the answers, and if we sift out what is
it that we're all seeking, we put different names to it. Some people call it spiritual, some truth,
some philosophy, wisdom, understanding. But the basic
thing that everyone is seeking, is very simple — it's Happiness. But it's the ultimate happiness, it's nothing mystical and nothing far, and
nothing complex. Every
being is seeking pure and simple happiness, in a way that there is no more
sorrow.
So, the word I like best for
our so-called path is the ultimate happiness. The ultimate happiness, of course, is
the ultimate truth of our beingness, truth of the universe, and there is only
one ultimate truth, this is the way it turns out to be.
So, all of us
are seeking this continuous happiness with never a taint of sorrow.
Most people in the world, of
course, are making the error of seeking it where it is not, and therefore not
attaining it, and becoming extremely frustrated. Because the more they try to get of it where
they think it is, the more they discover that it isn't there; in place of the
happiness, they're finding more and more discontent, more and more misery. We
never had so much material as we have now, and I don't think we've ever been so
unhappy, at least in the past fifty years we haven't as we are today.
So, when seeking this ultimate happiness, there's one most important thing
necessary, and that is to have pointed out to us: “What this
happiness is? And how to get it?”
Now, as I said it is very
simple — truth, happiness, God is simple. If
it's not simple — it's not godly; it's not truth; it's not happiness. It's an artificial complexity set up by man's
ignorance. So again, I say this whole
direction we're in is very simple.
Now the number one thing preventing us from seeing what this ultimate happiness
is, is our sense of
ego-ity — so opposed to this ultimate happiness which is really
the goal. And the only thing stopping us from having
this constant happiness with no sorrow is the
sense of separation, “I am an individual, separate from me all.”
Once we take on this sense of separation, we seem to develop
it more and more, and we keep pulling away from that ultimate happiness, the
ultimate state which in the beginning, we were all in [Oneness]. And more and more, we began to believe that
we are a limited mind, a limited body, so limited that we need a thing called
oxygen to survive, or food and so forth and so on.
This
ultimate happiness, that is the goal, is something that never ever really leave
us, it's right within us all the time, but we covered it over with
concepts of limitation, of being separate. And the more we do it, the more concepts
we've built up, until we get to the point where
we are today — extremely overloaded with concepts of limitations.
Now, this
ultimate joy that we're seeking is our natural state. It's a natural state to all mankind. To get this ultimate happiness which is our
natural state, all we need to do is to let go of the obstructions that we have set
in the way of seeing what this happiness is. We
have built up endless concepts of limitation over this unlimited Being that we
are, naturally.
Well, how do we
rediscover it?
First, we need someone to tell us that the direction is
this way,
someone must point out the direction. Secondly, we must look in that direction, and we must
discover it for ourselves.
No one can give it to us, we must see it — we must see it through our own minds-eye. And when we do, we re-recognize that which
we always were — an unlimited Being with unlimited joy.
Now, the direction must be inwardly, it is not outwardly. Everything out there we discover is something
that we have dreamed up, and then put a tag on it as being real. This world, this universe, we
have dreamed and through accepting this dream for so long, we think it's
real.
So, what we need to do is to turn our attention inwardly to
re-examine, rediscover, what is the truth of everything.
And, as we do that, we begin to see the falsity or the
illusion of the world, and by getting concentrated in the inward direction, we
see this infinite Being that we are.
So, the path
resolves itself into two things: One, seeing this infinite Being that we are, and two, seeing the
limitations that we have superimposed over it and letting go of them.
So, to repeat
what I said,
to obtain this unlimited happiness, the direction is
pointed out to us — we must take it by going inwardly and rediscovering this
wonderful, unlimited, ever joyful Being that we are.
The time it takes us to do this, is determined by one
thing only — the intensity of our desire for it. If we are convinced that our joys lie in the
world, we will never ever attain this happiness, we will always be with much
misery. But, when we accept and then begin to prove that the
joys are just our natural state, are not attached to anything out there, then
our life begins to become more joyful, and we can, with more conviction, take
the right direction.
It seems, at first, the thing that drives us in this direction is the
thing called misery. We go so far in the
wrong direction, we just can't stand it anymore and because of the misery, we are driven to seeking
happiness elsewhere than in the world.
When we begin to receive the fruits of our search, we
begin to feel these joys that we never experienced before, then the mere joy of
the path is what will give us the intensity of the drive in the right
direction.
We also discover that this path ‘cannot be a part-time
thing’,
if we really want to make it. We have
spent so many centuries, so much time, going in the wrong direction, but it takes a superhuman
effort now to redirect us into the right direction.
[Comment: This term ‘cannot be a part-time thing’
refer to the Attitude and Consciousness aspects of us, — of applying the
concepts that we’ve learnt, applying it in the background mode as a way of
habit. Just like the computer running
that anti-virus program twenty-four hours a day and it does not affect the use
of the computer.]
So again, the whole thing is simple.
We are that infinite, unlimited joy we are seeking; we
are that God that we are seeking. We
must turn within and discover that. When we do, we know it and we hold on to it. Then we go through the process of continuing
elimination of all the concepts of limitation, all the ego concepts, until we
are fully established in that high exalted state of Beingness.
Lester Levenson
I believe the only reason why I should be here is to
help, that if I can't help, there's no reason for my being here. I
believe every one of us have been with the path quite some time. I wouldn't like to be in the position where
I'm talking about the subject, talking about the subject is an obstacle on the
path.
What should happen here is that each one moves forward
and very definitely moves ahead. If that
doesn't happen, I see no reason for my being here. Because we can all read almost everything,
I'll say, you can read it in books down somewhere. There's nothing new on the subject of truth — it's
eternal; it always was; it always will be the same.
So, we think that's different, or I hope is different, is
that there is something affected here, that something will happen to give us
more realization than we had before we came here. I believe the general approach to the subject
that I have is called ‘Advaita’ or in English ‘non-duality’, which can
also be translated as ‘Oneness’, and
that there's only one thing — your method of growth — that that one
method of growth is letting go of our ego.
Now, ego-ity is a sense of separation
— “I
am an individual.”
Once I become an individual, I am separate from the whole, or the
all. This sense of ego-ity is what starts all our trouble, or our
division. So, we must get
back to the place where we again see that we are the only ‘One’, with a capital
‘O’.
In truth, there's no such thing as growing into full
realization, and that is because we are now.
We always have been, we always
will be that infinite being called God, or the Self — that's one thing we cannot get away
from. We are that, “I AM THAT I
AM.” That the change was part of us, we cover that
over with a sense of being a separate individual.
So, growth consists only of letting go of our ego. And I hope that through these meetings we do
that more, more so than we have done before.
We are that infinite being here
and now, we are blinding ourselves to it by saying “I, the infinite being, am a
limited ego. I, the infinite being, am
separate from the infinity.”
We must change those concepts, let go of them.
I hope to bring out ways and means of sensing the ego
operating in us, ways and means that we can use to point out to ourselves when
we are being ego motivated. And each and
every time that we are, if we let go of it, we are letting go of a bit of
ego. If we keep this going, from here
until the end, we eventually get to the place where there's no more ego
left. And where the ego is not, there
God is. There the infinite Self is left,
and it's pure pristine beingness.
So, all we
do is remove the cover. If we lose
our sense of ego-ity, in the state we're in now, — we save ourselves millions
of years of growing on the higher planes.
To be in a higher astral realm, or a causal realm, or the
highest of ground, we still need a sense of separation, a sense of ego-ity, we
need a sense of a higher body. And one the
greatest most wonderful things about the state we are in now is that it allows
us to go all the way back home, right to the very top. Even
the gods with the small ‘g’, the angels, cannot do it, we can do. We can go all the way by completely losing the sense of
being an ego.
I try to bring out the very highest of teachings, I'd
like to start in the top. If we ever
expect to know the truth, we must start with the truth, and reason from there. We can't
get to the truth from the falsity, the lie — “the reality of the world” as most
people see it. If we try to grow from this world up to the truth, it just won't work! Because we're starting with the lie, and
trying to reason from there. We must
start reasoning with the truth.
Now, the truth is the absolute One, the changeless that which
never changes is true. If it changes, it wasn't true in the first place, it changed. So, we define truth is that which never
changes. So, if
we reason, we should start with the infinity, as being the all, and reason from
there.
Now as we go on, I believe the various methods of seeing our ego will come out. And the general method we have used has not
been my talking as much as my answering questions. And if I answer a question, I always try to answer by letting the
answer come from within. And if I do that, it
will bring out the ego behind the questioner, or sometimes, we'll put the
questioner right into the Self. And very
often the answer is put in such a way as to provoke thinking rather than answer
the question.
Unfortunately, we all know that questions can't really be answered for
us, that each one must answer the question himself or herself.
So,
my method of answering questions very often might seem kind of odd, that it's
not direct, it's roundabout or it's provoking, but the purpose is to make
obvious to the one asking, the ego motivation, or the ego, so that he may see
it, and if he chooses, let go of it.
When I come in, I sit down, I
just know I have the conviction that “Thou art that.”
And to the degree that I have this conviction, to that degree I help you
be in that mood, in that state.
Now, when we are in that state, we should recognize it. We should get to know that, that is a very
high state and we shouldn’t try to relate that to our ego world, it just
doesn't relate to it. It's a
calmness. It's a peace. It's a very delightful state. And there's no sense of doingness,
havingness. When we are in that state,
it's just beingness.
But that is the experiencing that we need to establish
more and more, until that is full and complete and only, and that's what's
called full realization.
Another point about our
teaching is we like to
get all the mystery out of it, because it is basically so simple — “Thou art
that.” “Stop trying to be not that.” —
is the basic teaching. If we can recognize that state for what it is, we will get to the place
where that remained. And then, we
automatically do, have, talk, and so forth.
And we no more associate ourselves with the doingness, havingness, and
so forth.
But the silent teachings are the most effective teachings,
and this is a teaching that all the Guru's give.
This is one reason why that
they're mostly not in body. Because
when they are in body, most of us attribute ego-ity to them, — because they
have a body to us, and they eat they sleep and so forth. When they don't have a body, we give them
more credit, that is to them. And they
try to teach us via the silent method, and to the degree that we can accept it, to
that degree we receive it from them.
It's the stilling of the whirlpools of thought; it's
quieting thought. When there is no more
thoughts, that is called realization.
All thought is motivated by the ego. When there's no more ego, there's no more
thought. It's
the ego that being separate from the All, thinks it needs things. When we are the All, there's nothing we need. If
there's a desire, there's something we don't have — that's the ego. So, it's the ego we need to let go of.
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