In the Spirit of Halloween, let’s unmask our demons.
One of the forms of celebration associated with the ancient
holiday of Halloween is divination. The ritual of divination is
connected with a primal instinct, as everyone of the world's major religions
are vehicles meant to bring about the realization
of divinity. This ritual manifest in a great many ways, and in
honor of Halloween I would like to take a moment and explore the divination of
our dark side that Halloween emphasizes.
Before we
can experience our shadow side we have to be willing to step outside of the
box, that is, into the unknown. We have to be willing to put away the night
lights and bed time stories the ego uses to keep the demons in the closet. In
short, we have to be willing to go beyond the formed mind that has an answer
for everything before it even happens and step into a world that has no
questions.
Beyond the
institutions of a self-centered mind rests the realm of pure experience. If
what we think about experience is transcended, and pure
experience is touched, we discover the most powerful teacher imaginable, Truth.
This is the Tantric approach to meditation in the Buddhist tradition: awaken to
the living quality of meditation right here—right now. Therefore,
a great deal of these practices are concerned with daily life and not
necessarily relegated to formal meditation sessions. It is not a method caught up in
time & effort, but is concerned with instantaneous awakening. The aim is to
see through the formed mind and tap into the reservoir of enlightened energy
that is our inheritance as human beings. This tapping into happens here and
now—not tomorrow or after a certain amount of time and effort have been
invested. From this point of view, wherever we are is where the path begins,
and sometimes we find ourselves in the midst of pain and suffering. This is
where I would like to begin. In
the spirit of Halloween let us unmask these demons so that we may discover the
clarity and intelligence that underlies even the most uncomfortable dimension
of the human experience, “the negative emotions.”
If we look
beyond our commentary on these emotions we can see the gospel they are pointing
at. However, we have to be willing to let go of the words associated with these
sensations because, such words are loaded and carry with them negative
connotations. These words are the bed-time stories and night-lights the ego uses to keep
the monsters under the bed. When we label them “negative” we reject them prior
to investigation. We have no idea what these emotions have to say, because we
have never listened to them. Embracing them doesn't mean acting out, but
getting to know them in the same way that we come to know the snow by lying
down in it or a piece of cake by eating it—intimately and directly. So,
when I use the words anger, envy, depression, fear, pride, etc. I am
referring simply to the fact or sensation and not to what we think about these
sensations.
The first thing made evident by looking at the sensation itself is
the fact that it demands our complete attention. We do not experience anger or
fear, and then go about doing whatever we were doing. They take front and
center stage when they arise. Never mind all the commentary and negative
gossip, just looking at the facts it is evident that they demand our undivided
attention. These sensations are sharp, precise, and often overwhelming—they are
not to be ignored! So, they are not asking for back stories, commentary,
explanations about the situation, or even solutions; they are simply requesting
complete and total attention. This insight is made tangible when we share with
a friend or loved one a difficult situation we are dealing with; we do not want
them to fix it or solve our problem, but to listen—we want their undivided
attention.
The natural
consequence of giving these sensations our undivided attention is the death of
“me”. When “I” genuinely settles into “anger” it is discovered that I
and anger are
not two separate things, but one in the same—I
am anger. When we get caught up in the words and labels anger
becomes some thing apart from me, some thing that I is doing, usually expressed as,
"I am angry." This perspective enables us to keep these monsters
at a safe distance so that we can continue to sleep. It validates our belief in
a solid/separate self. This distinction is important; one is dualistic and
facilitates blame and aggression, while the other is spiritual or singular and is awakening.
In spiritual experience, anger is not being condemned as negative or praised as
good, but simply accepted as natural since it is clearly a fact—the truth of
the present moment is I and anger are one.
Language
produces praise & condemnation—a sense of division—while simple awareness
reveals the texture of the present moment. So, in undivided attention all
traces of “me” dissolve, along with all the oppressive labels imputed upon
"other", in this case anger, fear, envy, etc.
At this
point, transmutation takes place. The details revolving around our difficult
situation do not even have to change; rather the Truth of this very situation
is revealed to be free of fixed characteristics. Energy is neither destroyed
nor created, it is simply realized! This is the process of
transmutation. When I was a child I use to watch Unsolved
Mysteries, and then head off to bed. I
would often lie in bed overwhelmed with fear, because the nature of the
mysteries were that they were unsolved. Furthermore, I had a security light
just outside my window. Its light would shine onto a tree, which was also
strategically located just outside of my window. This was a recipe for
disaster. I would stare at the shadow it created on my window blinds, and
obsessive over whether or not this shadow figure was the culprit behind the
mystery that was in fact unsolved! Then one day I called my dad in and told him
about it. He opened the blinds and showed me it was only a tree. Fear gone!
Nothing had to change; I only had to see. That is the nature of insight.
These
“negative” emotions were never negative, they are misunderstood facts. Upon
seeing them as they are and not as we would have them be, it is discovered that
they are not some evil thing to be destroyed. It is like getting out of the
bed, and peeking into the closet to see that it is empty. The observation of
confusion is insight.
They demand
our undivided attention, because we are ignore-ant. These emotions are like a
type of psycho-physiological alarm system that goes off when we begin to
operate under the premises of a false assumption. All they demand is undivided
attention, which seems to indicate that the “problem” or the event which
triggered them was ignore-ance or divided attention. They are
pointing at the confusion that gives rise to and sustains the belief that life
is some thing that exists apart from us. They
remind us that we are not solid-separate ego's charged with the task of
dominating our environment, and simply listening to them returns us to the world
of infinite possibilities that is the totality of the present moment. They are
a function of primary intelligence.
Furthermore,
when undivided attention is given to them the alarm is silenced, which
reinforces the claim that all they wanted was for us to wake up to the fact
that we were asleep! When we settle into our own dishonesty or fraudulence
(our attempts to be something we are not), we are immediately revealed to be
genuine or honest; a liar cannot call himself a liar, because to do so is a
truthful. We cannot be genuinely fake, because the moment we accept that we are
phony we awaken to sincerity! When perfectionist ideals dissolve, and we allow
ourselves the space to be who and what we are in this moment all traces of
aggression are transformed into Love—an open and gracious state of mind, that
is free of the unrealistic expectations imposed upon ourselves and others by
the ego. This state of mind called Love is then pressed out or the same openness
is extended to others, which is called compassion. When we realize all of the
envious intentions that motivate us, we immediately become aware of a wealth of
energy and an organic sort of gratitude begins to emerge—envy is transmuted
into contentment. Spiritual Progress is a myth, but accepting life as it is,
in-&-of itself, instantaneous liberation!
Everything that human beings do is fundamentally connected with
basic intelligence, because that is the basic nature of the human condition..
Even in the midst of our confusion we never completely forget our natural
orientation toward happiness, which is our primal resting place. So this
Halloween I hope that as we put on our masks and costumes that represent all of
the dark creations of our imagination we will remember that it is a creative
intelligence which underlies all of these costumes, and the free expression of
this creative energy occurs naturally when it is embraced in it's totality,
which includes our shadow!
