These illusions you cling to, could they not be merely clouds that obscure the sun?
What do you cling to? Is it that little bit of status you get from your job, or how you look, how big your house is, how much money you have, or anything you can do? Go ahead and think of three you are still attached to, three areas that pique your ego’s interest, encouraging it to dwell in illusion.
- The illusion that I am smarter than others.
People have many ways to supposedly prove that they are smarter than others. They tend to favor the ways in which they themselves excel, of course. Some people think degrees prove smartness, the more the better. Some people think which school you went to also proves you smarter than others. Hence the intense competition to get into one above another.
Others maintain degrees prove nothing, because they know people who were successful without going to college, and still others who, though they did go to college, had no sense. And so on.
All you need do is recognize that this valuing of smartness is no more than a seductive guise of division. Abandon it. You can put your attention anywhere else.
What is another area in which you still harbor shreds of illusion?
2. Anything from the outward appearance of the body. Any approbation I give myself to feel pride about it in any way. What am I doing but creating opportunities to feel vainglory, using my body as its tool? Is this what I want to be about?
How easily the lure of outward appearance is disarmed, simply by closing the eyes. You give so much credence to the light show that the body’s eyes see, not realizing it is merely the projection of your own mind you look upon.
For in and out, above, about, below,
‘Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Play’d in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,
Round which we Phantom Figures come and go
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
For the third ego attachment, find some aspect that reliably gets you into a negative feeling-state. What do you think about obsessively? What causes you to ruminate? What situation is the current focus of your negativity? Can you name it?
3. It changes constantly with my focus, but the current focus of my negativity is my fear of pain and death.
Let’s get down to root causes, so that we can eliminate the need for time. Instead of entertaining a focus for your negativity, wouldn’t it be easier to dismiss your need for negativity altogether? Get rid of it; it has nothing good to bring you. Instead of endlessly analyzing every species and varietal of negativity, do yourself a favor, pack the whole lot up, leave it out at the curb to be taken up or swept away.
No illusion withstands examination
