Ego

Student: "Is it possible to destroy the ego internally, but bring it out for work in the world?

Babaji: Sri Ramakrishna says one cannot destroy the ego while the body lasts.  Actually, one cannot really destroy anything.  So, Sri Ramakrishna says to ripen it.  The unripe ego is the cause of all our problems.  Surrender to a higher power is the answer, to Ishvara, preferably.  As I like to recite, from Vivekananda's poem to Sri Ramakrishna: "I make a complete offering of myself to my Guru, who is an all-powerful wave of purity rising out of the infinite ocean of Shakti.  Whose lila floods the being with a love that destroys all doubts and who is the ultimate healer of the chronic disease of worldliness and attachment. I surrender my life, mind, and soul to the divine Lord who appeared in human form, and whose superhuman actions are inconceivable to mortals.  Whose life reveals and exemplifies nondual Truth and removes the incapacitating effects of relative existence.  May His Blessed Name be eternally Triumphant!"  So the mind/ego complex has to be surrendered, and as this is accomplished, it learns how to shift — all without shifting.  So if you ripen the ego, it will not insinuate itself in ways that are binding.

Religion and Spirituality

I want to give religion a capital R again, said Vivekananda.  You see, left with a small "r" it is ineffective for convincing anyone of Truth and God.  Thus, as I have observed, it has lost its case in more ways than one.

 

The one-size-fits all theory only tortures many feet.

 

Without cosmology, one's philosophy is incomplete.  Without philosophy, one's spirituality will be inaccessible.

 

Spirituality is not religion, and it is not philosophy either.  Rather, it is a good combination of both when subjected to practice.

OM & the Trinity

Om, taken through the Trinity, becomes prana.  Prana, taken inwardly, is Shakti.

 

The Trinity creates, sustains, and destroys all in Sattva.  Brahma loves to create the worlds with love aforethought, not malice as an afterthought.

 

Know that Siva is that part of you that can destroy/dissolve everything.  Make as close a friend of him as you do with Lord Brahma, the Creator, and Vishnu, the Sustainer.

 

Om generates the light of Intelligence.

 

Intelligence is a living "sheen" off of Om.  Intellect is its container.  My body may be a product of Nature, but it begins as a thought in the mind.

 

OM stands for "Original Mind."  But one must use it correctly or it will be om, "ordinary mind."

 

Become attracted to the Nectar of Naturalness, like a salt doll is attracted to the ocean.  Everything is soluble in Brahman; it has all come out of That.  That is why we learn the Twenty-four cosmic principles.  Form has come out of mind, and mind from Om, so repeat Om before sitting for formal practice to remind yourself that Om is humming inside of me.  Where else would it be?