Nobody or Body?

A popular saying among spiritual teachers is “You’re Not the Body.”  Since authoritative gurus/teachers say those words, people believe them.  If we aren’t our body, then we’re “nobody.”  Why do we even have a body?  Same thing goes for our senses.  The body and senses are the effect of our mind.  A True Self in a body with sharp, clear senses is as good as it gets.

Many people send their True Selves floating high above their body trying to get to the God in the sky.    Others long for the OBE (out-of-body experience).  People desire relief from the heaviness of the emotions they feel in their body.  When they exit their body, they no longer notice their emotions.  So they feel lighter.  Often they encounter the thought forms that constructed the illusion or words of truth that have been spoken within the context of the illusion.  They bring these beliefs back with them and create the next expensive workshop to success or enlightenment.  They think they’ve found the exit to truth, but they’ve been fooled.

Our truth is resting quietly below the illusion; the illusion is a construct made by human minds that veils our True Self.  We find our True Self by letting go of our false mind.  We find it in our mind — not out there somewhere.  But we have to know what is true and what is false — discrimination is key.

Floaters, as I like to call them, are highly suggestible.  As a former hypnotherapist, they make great hypnotic subjects.  When we’re hypnotized, we’ll accept anything authorities tell us.

Can you see the trick?  Magicians in powerful masculine roles of Lords and Priests have used hypnosis for thousands of years.  They got people to chase the light to a God in the sky, ignoring the True Self (discrimination system) within the body, so people didn’t notice they were being lied to.  It’s so amazingly clever that I almost have to admire them.

Who’s Speaking in my Mind?

Gurus keep disciples in a hypnotic state.  The disciple hears the guru’s beliefs as if they’re true.  Soon the disciples start thinking exactly like the guru.  

When my son was six, he took a martial arts class in something called Hwar Do.  The Korean teacher had an athletic, young AMERICAN woman for an assistant; she spoke with exactly the same Korean accent as her teacher.  It was like he was her mind.  It was creepy.

In my business life, I took the popular Landmark Education/EST training.  The seminar leaders spoke just like Werner Erhard.  Again, it was creepy.  They allowed their teacher to possess their mind.

Partners, lovers, and parents can also take over our mind.  Some wedding vows say “One mind, one heart.”  “Holy Marital Crap, Batman,” said Robin.

Lately, I’ve seen creepy kids on TV that speak or perform like little adults.  That’s not genius; it’s mind control.  They’re Mini-Me’s of their parents.  I love the ones that talk politics, like they were born knowing the American political system.

Religion produces the same result.  The preacher, wearing a costume that shouts authority, bores the living shit out of the congregation in a big room (that echoes) using routine, rituals, and repetition.  We stop discriminating, and our unmanned body absorbs their every word like a giant sponge.  Later when their words arise in our conscious mind, it’s our chance to let them go; but most people think the words are true and believe them again.  They hold on to those words.

Native practices use movement, chanting, or ceremony.  Vision quests and traditional meditation get us to float above our body.  Drugs do the same thing.  Letting go happens when we are in our body — feeling our emotions.

The false mind’s job is to remember.  It remembers anything until we tell it not to.  Words like, “That’s false.”  Or, “Wow, I don’t need to remember that anymore,” or my personal fav, “What the fuck was I thinking?” help us let go.  We’ve all had the experience of studying for a test and forgetting everything by the next day.  Our mind holds on to information that we need or that we consider true, but only as long as we think we need it.  Letting go is a declaration of falseness.

Western Meditation

One antidote for floating is what I call western meditation.  You can find the western meditation process link here.  There’s a PDF below.

In western meditation, you aren’t trying to relax or get specific results.  You’re doing what the Greeks called “Knowing Yourself” — knowing your mind.  You’re simply asking your mind to give you all its got right now.

When you tell your mind that your thoughts are false, you’ve given it permission to drop the answers to yesterday’s exam.  If emotion does arise as you do this, witness the emotion until it goes.  Beliefs and emotion go together.  If you’ve had a belief for a long time, there’s often lots of emotion attached.  Emotions always means the belief is false.

Initiation is about turning our body into a Temple for the Living God, a home for your own True Self — not a church.  When beliefs float us above our body or hypnotize us, no one is home.  We might get ideas, but we often can’t manifest those ideas in the world without lots of willpower.  Like a filmmaker, we want to bring our story to life.  If we can’t live our story, then “We don’t get no satisfaction,” (says Mick).

For most of the world, it takes too much willpower to create — people become apathetic.  They have too many beliefs to leap over.  They don’t even have the willpower to use their willpower.  In truth, the purpose of willpower is to will our mind to discriminate and let go.  Eventually, we won’t need willpower anymore.  Then our dreams are no longer in the clouds; they’re our normal reality.  We’re creators again.

Meditation for the Western Mind pdf