selflessness

The enlightened way of being is one in which the sense of one’s self has disappeared. This is very difficult to imagine for those who still have a sense of a self. For ordinarily this feeling of one’s self is present in the mind all the time. Or rather, it is present implicitly almost all of the time. For there are moments, in everybody’s life, when through a sudden shock, surprise, for a moment, the consciousness is suddenly alert, in the moment, without any frame of reference to fall back upon. And in these sudden moments of presence, the feeling of the separate self is temporarily absent. Such moments – although they may not be recognised as such – such moments are glimpses of enlightenment, moments of satori: of a total, unwavering awareness of what is, in the moment.

For the enlightened ones this lack of the sense of a self has become the way of being. For this sense of a self is but an idea in the mind, a concept. And it is a concept without substance in reality. It is the ego. And concepts which have no substance are the most dangerous concepts. They cause most trouble in the world and none more so than the ego, the sense of oneself as a separate existence.

When this sense of a self has dissolved, we come to a selflessness. And this selflessness allows us for the first time – at least the first time since we were very new in the world – to see things as they are, unfiltered by our desires and our fears and our memories and our hopes. For these things are elements of our sense of self: mind objects only, without reality in the moment. So this selflessness, which can come to us, is actually a release: a release from the illusion that certain ideas in the mind have a reality to them. Once those ideas no longer carry the weight of a supposed truth, once we are no longer pinning our hopes of finding truth in those ideas of the thinking mind, then those ideas lose their power over us. And the way things are can be seen.

And it may seem strange but life can be lived – enjoyably, fully, with great vitality – without this sense of a self. And of course, this state of selflessness is a state of effortlessness, for it was the self that was making effort. And it is a state of choicelessness, for it was the self that felt itself to be making choices. So let this whole house of cards collapse and live simply, without the need of a self. Melt into existence, which is where you are anyway, and float with the currents of life, in a blissful selflessness.