This is
something I have said before in other ways but, since I consider it to be so
important, I am going to cover it again.
I consider it to be one of the most important steps or tools on the
path. This is the reconstruction of your
paradigm such that you no longer allow your mask to dictate your actions. I am sure that most of you have heard the
saying It isn’t about you. Well, it is never about you in the person of
your mask.
What is your
mask? It is your ego, your dweller on
the threshold, often the habitation of your ‘fallen consciousness’. It is all of the parts of your outer being
that you describe with the word ‘personality’.
We often hear people say things like, “That’s just who I am”, when they
are defending their perceived inability, (read ‘unwillingness’), to
change. In one sense they are right
about trying to change their mask. You
may change the mask from one exterior trait to another but you won’t have ended
up perfecting it and you may come to feel inadequate or burdened by the
attempt. This is because you can’t
perfect the mask. The mask has its’ own
agenda and, bottom line, the mask will always have its’ own self-preservation
in mind. That goal will always be at
odds with your spiritual path.
The first
thing to address is recognizing when your mask is engaged. It is the case in most people that their mask
is engaged constantly. This is true
because we so closely identify with our mask as who we are. It follows that we would make no attempt to disengage
it when that would, to our way of thinking, be a negation of self. It is, after all, the personality that we
have identified with ever since we were born and it has had many years of undisputed
dominance over us in which to become firmly entrenched and to deeply root
itself into our consciousness such that it has effectively silenced the
competition. But there are times when it
comes out of hiding and reveals itself in stark contrast to its’
surroundings. These are the times when
it feels the need to defend itself and its’ territory. Whenever you react to a situation by becoming
personally involved emotionally you are seeing the mask. If you have a reaction to something, some
event, someone, some bit of ‘misfortune’, some 'injustice' that you have been on the receiving end of, that manifests through an emotion, be
it anger, disappointment, jealousy, frustration, etc. you are seeing the mask
rear its’ head. Whenever you want to
blame your emotional state on something outside of yourself you are seeing it. Your emotional state is never caused by what happens outside of you. Let me repeat that. Your emotional state is NEVER caused by what happens outside of you. Except as that event triggers something inside of you that is the real cause. You might think of it this way. That event that you think is the cause of your reaction is only the key that unlocks the cage your reaction always inhabits. A good test is this: If you can even imagine a person that would react differently to a given situation than you are reacting then the cause is certainly within you or they would need to react in the same manner as you do.
When someone
does something foolish, inconsiderate, vindictive or whatever that is their
issue. However, your reaction to their behavior
is your issue. More specifically it is your mask’s
issue. Your inner being, the God within
you is not adversely affected by the behavior of others. Neither is it affected by the ups and downs
of returning karma. It is only the mask,
when its’ agendas are thwarted, when its’ desires are unmet, that reacts to the
‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’.
Buddha addressed this issue when he spoke of non-attachment. If you move through your life without
attachment to the results of your actions then you cannot be frustrated or
disappointed by those results or the lack thereof. It is, as
I have said in a previous blog, like the difference between a football game and
a ballet. In the one the goal
matters. In fact, it is all the game is
about – the final outcome. In the other
there is no tangible final goal. Or
rather, the final goal is comprised of the quality of the actions of the dancer
from moment to moment and that is where the focus is. In ballet, the focus is on the relationship
between the dancer and the audience. As
the audience you are the recipient of the dancer’s efforts. In a sense you are the loved one with the
dancer as the lover. In your life dance
God is the loved one and you are the dancer.
A great many
of the books you read, many of the teachings of great masters, that relate to
the spiritual path will be focused on the need to accomplish this goal, some tools
for accomplishing it, describing how to approach it, why you should consider
it, what you discover once you manage it, etc.
Why is so much attention paid to this?
It is because it is absolutely essential to the path. You cannot serve two masters. You can’t serve God and your mask. You can’t focus on your climb to the top of
the mountain when you are given to the distraction of your tumultuous emotions.
So, what is
the key, the solution, to this situation?
As with so many things the answer is simple but not at all easy. My father used to talk about something he
called “The Misery Gap”. He said that
this was the time between when something happened and when you could find it
funny. What he was actually talking
about was the time it took to let it go.
Think about the things that have happened to you in your life. Some of them very recent. Some long ago. Some personally insulting, fear inducing or some
such. Some absolutely devastating. Others only inconvenient. None of them retain the emotional impact now
that they did when they were so vital to your life at the time. You have come to incorporate those things
into your life and the powerful emotional reactions that they elicited at the
time have lost the edge of immediacy. This
is the misery gap working its’ way along to an inevitable conclusion. It may not reach the end for many years,
often not in this lifetime. Yet all this
shall pass. All of it. When it does you are left with only what you
have made of the inner God being that you are.
In order to
resolve this internal environmental situation you MUST have a force that will
balance the power of the mask to assert its’ dominance over you. You can do this by making multiple alliances
within yourself. The first ally is the
most important. It is your love of
God. Love of God must come from closeness
to God. This will rely on your constant
communion with God and your understanding of how God works in creation. Without that you can’t have a pure love of
God for you will always have questions, doubts about God’s perfection and pure
love for you. You will look around you
and often find it impossible to understand how God can be pure love, mercy and
wisdom when you still see what man has made of this world. That is one of the major purposes of this
entire blog site and as I realize it I will come to focus more upon that issue. This is a subject that can be made clear but
only if you are willing to sacrifice your personal paradigm, your own construct.
The second
ally is your understanding of yourself.
You cannot come to grips with the mask if you cannot perceive it when it
is working. You need to peel back the
layers of camouflage that the mask erects in order to preserve itself. Remember that many of the internal assumptions
that you rely on to make your decisions were accumulated by an infant and
toddler. You have carried a paradigm
with you for all of your life predicated upon the internal structures built by
you when you were very young in order to defend yourself, your soul, from the
negativity that surrounded you. You can
forgive yourself for all of that when you realize you were just trying to
survive. But it is time to delve into
that, to see what you have built and to discard the protections that are no
longer necessary and only serve to cut you off from God.
The third ally
is your ability to control your attunement, (read: at-one-ment or atonement).
You are like a radio. There are
all sorts of broadcasting stations out there and without any mental discipline
you will be unable to choose which station(s) to tune to. Have you ever been ashamed by a particular
thought that occurred to you? Have you
ever had a thought you even just regretted momentarily or thought to yourself
that it wasn’t even like you to have that thought? Most thoughts that come into your head aren’t
even yours. They are broadcast by the
greater mass mind of the planet and you are a radio that is open to all sorts
of frequencies on the mental dial. How
do you overcome this? You do it through
meditation and by enlisting the help of your first ally: Love of God.
The process of
personal growth is simple but it isn’t easy.
We have walked too far from God for the journey back to be short and
easy. But as El Morya has said: “The goal
is worth the inconvenience”.
Until next
time: Victory!
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