Dumbshit Ego
Either you fully trust or you don’t.
Ishvara Pranidhana is a concept that roughly translates to “total surrender to God” but of course, around these parts we don’t necessarily subscribe to the concept of God in the “old guy on a cloud judging you” way. A teacher of mine called it perfection, or at least the idea of perfection. I think of it as something greater than myself, or a universal divinity that connects everything and everyone. It’s the stars and the space in between the stars, it’s something far greater than our egoic self. In a sense we are all it, and none of us are it, all at once. When we drop our ego we can see a greatness far beyond the day to day dramas of a human life. It’s the greatness we feel when we love something fully, when we play music, when we walk in nature. It’s the greatness we connect to when we get out of our own way. It’s an experience more than a thought, it’s our natural state. It’s who we really are. I don’t think something separate from ourselves is judging us, condemning us to hell. I think hell is whenever we act in a way that is out of line with our true nature. When we hurt each other, that is hell, when we hurt ourselves, that is hell. The good news is this: it’s all an illusion.
From a certain perspective the only truly real things are permanent, and suffering, hate, fear and anger are all temporary. Love on the other hand is always there, waiting for us to connect to it. It never ever goes away. This is what I think God is. This is what I surrender to. I trust that this universal love is always there, it’s a part of me, it’s a part of you. In fact it’s who we are. Separation is an illusion. We are connected and we must love each other, even if our dumbshit ego tells us otherwise. The more we surrender to unconditional love, the more we connect to each other, the more we find out who we really are. If you want to live a truly happy life, you must love. You must love yourself, each other, you must love the challenges life presents and you must love the beauty that is ever-present. Brothers and sisters, don’t buy into the bullshit. If our actual day to day dramas are illusion, then our internet dramas are straight up bullshit. Remember, even when life is painful, there is beauty, there is love. To say I love you is a great thing, but it’s not quite what we’re trying to say. What we’re really trying to say is: we are love. You, me, and everything/everyone in between: on some level we are an expression of love. Connect to this daily.
DO things instead of thinking about doing things. Return to the present moment again and again. Love each other, even those who would do you harm. It’s not who they really are, they’ve simply fallen victim to the ego trap. Considering we’ve all fallen into that same trap many times, the best we can do is have compassion. Our enemies are our brothers and sisters and while we don’t need to invite them into our lives, we can certainly hold space for them in our hearts. Say a silent prayer for the wellbeing of all, because when none of us suffer, we are all truly free.
May all beings be happy. May all beings be free. May we be happy. May we be free.