Mysticism from A to Z. A clear introduction to the deepest and most complex spiritual issues. NGO-MA
answer to the question of what this discipline is about. Buddha also said: “life is suffering, and there is a way to get rid of suffering.” He had an Eightfold Path where he outlined the steps to be taken to overcome suffering. Nothing has changed, everything is the same.
Now, whom is this discipline for? Whom is this teaching for? The main thing here is the request for the deliverance from suffering. Of course, there is the illusion of getting rid of suffering and achieving happiness through the object world, and this is the first thing people try to do. In our modern time, happiness often means: to become successful, rich, to reach some social heights, and so on, that is, everything is as usual: money, power, relationships – it is where we are looking for happiness. But there is also a deep frustration with these object-oriented ways of achieving it. Everyone should check it out based on their own experience. Someone checked it in a past life, as they joke, so there are some young people who start the mystical path early enough and do not particularly bother achieving social benefits. However, my path was different. I came to mysticism quite late, and before that I tried to overcome suffering and achieve happiness through all of the above mentioned methods. When you realize that it is unlikely to be successful, then you start looking for another path. In this way you become a seeker, you become one who tries to overcome suffering. You study ancient teachings, meet masters and those who are looking for this path within themselves. The term “turn inward”, believe me, is about this, and not about the fact that you should turn to yourself and conduct self-investigation, you will realize this later, when you already become a real mystic.
When do you become a real seeker? When you realize that looking outside does not bring relief from suffering and does not lead to happiness, that is, I repeat again, this can happen as a result of deep disappointment, when you have already tried everything in this life. However, this is not a dogma, for some, right in the depths of their consciousness, the absurdity of this direction is spelled out. There are cases when young people realize that they will not find happiness in the world, they will not find it among objects, so I am not inclined to send everyone into the world, to try to impose some kind of family happiness on everyone, I accept people as they are.
Further, I would like to show what path you are going to use. Initially, you are encouraged just to be attentive, yes, just be attentive. Throughout all your journey, this direction will pass: be aware, be attentive, be alert, develop attention, develop awareness. What is this about? The main instrument of the entire spiritual path is awareness, attention. We are not able to use any other means. All mysticism is the work with attention, and the first thing you should do is to be attentive to your thoughts, learn to be aware of them, learn to be aware of the movement of attention into thinking, into imagination. This is a very important stage when you start to be alert. You are alert and attentive to your thoughts. This is exactly the beginning. The beginning is attention, which is directed to thinking itself, because the first point of teaching is liberation from the mind, which brings suffering.
It happened that few people in the modern world already live right here and now. It means the same thing that we have broken away from direct experience, we are completely bogged down in this swamp of conceptualization, thinking out, fantasizing. Today, the virtual world is still to help us in that way that we simply do not crawl out of our thinking. This stuck attention is not just stuck there, it is stuck because our image lives there. There is an image of ourselves in which we believe, which we promote, which we serve, and it lives in our thinking. Here you should be able y to distinguish this image, should be able to understand how constant immersion in imagination occurs – it is the beginning of the beginning.
Next, we begin to practice, for example, drawing attention into the direct experience. In the second chapter, where I have described different types of experience, I just stopped at the fact that the withdrawal of attention to direct experience is the cornerstone of all mystical teachings. Without passing this path and not completing this point, you will not be able to distinguish when the imagination turns on and the sensory response begins, and when you are in your direct experience, that is, you will pass the imaginary as a mystical experience. Therefore, the most important Rubicon here is staying effortlessly in your direct experience and, thus, the next practice that you will be given, will definitely be the awareness of your direct experience. It can be sensations, feelings, observation of the breath, it can be the contemplation of external objects, but the important thing is that it passes through your senses right now. You are not unfolding the mental time, you are not unfolding stories, you are living through your current direct experience.
6. Personality, social body. Can a personality be called an ego?
This chapter is going to present one very important issue, that often could be insinuated – it is the issue of personality, and I know that many of you would be interested in it, and many of you wait for it for a number of reasons. How does Free Away define a personality? Does personality disappear as the result of awakening? These are questions that are endlessly confusing.
First of all, what do we call a personality? I believe that the main problem, as I see it, is that the word “personality” often means “individuality”, sometimes “person”, and therefore some confusion arises. “Ego” is also sometimes referred to as “person”, and so some speculation begins that the personality is equal to the ego. It is a very big mistake to equate personality with the ego: then it turns out that the personality must disappear, dissolve, as the ego structure dissolves. This is how such speculations begin: “I am no longer a personality, I have no personality!”, which in turn frightens off sincere seekers, because sometimes they have a greater sobriety than those teachers who have dissolved their individuality, personality, or for whom everything has disappeared altogether.
I would like you to hear this message, which sounds like the following: a personality has nothing to do with the ego, nothing at all, a personality is a social instrument, a social body that is formed within the social environment. To make it clearer, I will give a more detailed explanation of what a personality is. A personality who is brought up within the framework of a social environment becomes a member of society, this way it gets habits, skills, and certain qualities that it acquires within the framework of social education. All our values, all the skills and habits are acquired, ranging from “just wearing pants” and ending with our interaction within social structures, as well as all our ideas about what is good, what is bad and how to behave, to interact. An infinite number of skills, habits and various character traits are obtained in the framework of education in the social world, in the social environment. Consequently, a person is a body, the same body as a physical one, it is a social body, therefore the correct understanding is the following, there is a society, and there is a social body, and this social body is called a personality. The only thing is that it is not congenital, as physical, but acquired, because all bodies participate in its formation: the emotional-sensory, physical, and mental, and the body of sensations – they all participate in the creation of another body – the social one.
Therefore, the personality has nothing to do with the ego-structure. Personality is your ability to communicate, interact – it is a set of skills, habits, characteristics and habits acquired in society. And they don’t disappear, and you continue to function as a personality. There is a completely different story: it is a story about false personalities arising in the mind or in other words some false personalities appear in the imagination, on which the ego structure parasitizes. For example, such as: “What would I like to be?” “What kind of personality should I be to receive love, attention, and recognition?” All these are games into certain personalities, which I am not in fact, and it is these false personalities that arise as subpersonalities, as pseudo-personalities that have been modeled in your mind, in your imagination, and to which a sensual response appears. So, through the ego they are opposed to your natural personality.
Your personality is formed throughout