There has been much written on the subject of transformation from both the practical and the philosophical perspective: lose weight, look sexy, make money, be more productive, find peace, increase personal magnetism, etc. And while each of these is a goal worthy of achieving, none of them represents the ultimate transformation. Rather, at best, they are stepping-stones. When that goal is achieved, no other transformation remains. It encompasses every transformation. Once it is attained, there are no other attainments to be realized.
Jung once said that in everything we do, consciously or unconsciously, we are seeking wholeness. To experience this wholeness, consciously and permanently, is the ultimate transformation.
But this ultimate transformation cannot be understood through the domain of the mind, for it is beyond the mind. It is a state of transcendence. To approach it is to enter into an inner world of consciousness, beyond the perception of the five senses.
Most people doubt that such a state is possible. Some few suspect its existence. A few people have conviction about its existence because they have read stories about people who have experienced it. Fewer still have a conviction because they witnessed first hand a rare being who achieved that state, and they indirectly experience it. And a very few people have the only conviction that really counts — the conviction that comes from direct experience. This is what the Buddha stressed — direct experience.
But as any lover of flowers knows, you don’t have to hold a rose to be under its enchanting influence. A scent carried by the breeze also has an effect.
Likewise, some people get a whiff of what lies just beyond their reach in the inner realm. And that in and of itself changes the course of their lives. A longing is created; a restlessness is awakened. Transformation is at hand. For an oak seed planted in favorable soil is destined to be a mighty tree and even the smallest stream eventually finds its way to the ocean. Life takes a new direction and that direction is an inner one. There is movement, and the movement is of the infinite.
The inner experience of this new direction is one of increased perception, and a deepened sense of inspiration. Once this process begins, there is no turning back. The heightened experience is too great to resist and ignore. And yet it can be agonizingly painful because it creates a longing for the complete dissolution of separateness. This is love’s longing for itself.
The Ego as an Obstacle
The ego serves an integral purpose in the organizing and understanding of experience. But in the end, to make the ultimate transformation, it has to be annihilated. It has to be annihilated because it is an unending source of illusion. It is an affirmation of separateness.
For instance, the ego tells the soul that it is the body, finite and destructible, where in reality, it is infinite and eternal. The ego looks upon life as revolving around its separate sense of self, instead of around the unity of life, which it feels separate from. The ego says, “look at me,” instead of experiencing the infinite power, knowledge, and bliss of the soul’s true nature.
The ego flourishes due to the false values it puts on experience. It seeks possessions and achievements that separate it from others instead of seeking experiences that connect it to its source of being which is the source of everything in creation.
Instead of losing itself in the infinite oneness of universal consciousness, it strives to preserve its separate and limited self. Instead of experiencing fully the infinity of the present moment, it dwells in the past, reliving successes and failures that have created its identity.
Instead of losing itself in the infinite ocean of oneness and eternity, it nourishes the illusion of itself as a limited drop, finite and perishable.
As long as an individual continues in the pursuit of the illusory values that enhance separateness, the ego thrives. And the baggage of the ego continues to persists in the form of limitation, suffering, and unconsciousness.
When the individual pursues the values that promote oneness the ego gradually withers and dies. The true is the antidote of the false as light is the antidote of darkness. Ignorance is replaced by knowledge, and manyness is replaced by oneness.
As the ego is thinned by pursuit of lasting values, the veil over consciousness is also thinned. With this thinning comes an ever-increasing experience of love. This occurs because love is the essence of the soul — what mystical poets describe as the wine of the soul. The intoxication of love comes not from curtailed consciousness, but from enhanced consciousness. This intoxication leads to forgetfulness.
But this forgetfulness is different from not knowing where you put your keys. It’s a forgetfulness of the separate self and its tendencies. Unlike the ordinary intoxication, this one doesn’t lead to a hangover the next morning. And the intoxication isn’t temporary. It’s a permanent state of being that only deepens.
How is that? Because the veils of perception become less opaque. Each moment of experience is a thinning of the veil. This veil is what prevents human consciousness from seeking the reality of its own existence.
I had a dream recently that seems relevant to this discussion about the ego. In the dream a tiger approached me as I was sitting on the grounds of a zoo talking on a cell phone. Before I could even react to the approaching tiger, I found myself locked in its jaws, which held me by my neck. It wasn’t devouring me. It was holding me. I was helpless to move. I could only surrender to its power. If I tried to escape, I knew it would be instant death.
As one friend interpreted it: “Even if you feel trapped, even if you feel like a prey in the claws of a tiger, relax and allow.” This allowing, it seems to me, is like the surrender of the ego.
There is an omnipotent intelligence orchestrating our lives, seeing far beyond the limits of any one human being. This intelligence is the creative energy behind all of creation. It not only guides us, it pervades us. To experience this is to experience the infinite oneness of all life.
Darwin had it wrong on evolution. It is not about survival of the fittest. It’s about transcendence of our identifications. We are all more than we know.
After all, can you imagine Jesus saying that the fittest will inherit the earth? No, the earth is to be inherited by those who can adapt with creativity and love. And the ultimate transformation is waiting for those who are ready to transform themselves from finite self-identification to unlimited oneness, for those who can relax and allow, even in the jaws of a tiger.
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