“A human being is born as an absolute egoist, and this quality is so visceral that it can convince him that he has already become righteous and has rid himself of all egoism.”
—The Talmud (Hagiga)
“Master, can you explain what the ‘joy of awakening’ is one more time?”
The Master replies:
“No, I cannot. I suggest you go into the place of no-mind and simply be, and find out for yourself.”
The student asks:
“Master, how can I find my true Self?”
(i.e., enlightenment)
The Master replies:
“Lose your little self.”
(i.e., stop identifying with your mind and assuming you are it and it is you)
Ultimately, to be unhappy, judgmental, intolerant, or angry is to deny the existence of God and your own divine Nature.
It is important to know how to identify and deal with the possible illogical, irrational, inaccurate, or improbable nature of any particular thought you may have. The goal is to avoid the Mind T.R.A.P. This is where you often consider a thought to be 100 percent true when in fact it may well be totally false. The exercise described here represents a relatively quick yet effective method that uses critical thinking to weed out thoughts that need to be eliminated from your mind, and thus stopping them from impacting your consciousness and negatively affecting your mood and subsequent behavior.
In every case, you will find that the inquiry in question simply takes the ego out of the situation and replaces it with humility, understanding, acceptance, and love. For if you see things happening to you or around you that you don’t particularly like, want, or agree with, then in a very real sense you are pretending to be the Almighty and acting as though only you know the truth, meaning what is right or wrong about a given situation. Of course, when the ego is at the center of the equation, none of us can know the truth, or what is right or wrong about any situation. And to think we can only leads to unnecessary and unwanted pain and suffering. Invariably, arrogance, ignorance, presumption, and false pride (all aspects of the ego) lie at the center of all false beliefs.
The Mind T.R.A.P. works something like this. Assume you witness an event or are part of a situation that upsets you or makes you angry at either yourself or the world. You then formulate a statement of some kind in your mind that portends to accurately describe what you have just witnessed or experienced. However, you do a very bad job of it because you do this while in a weakened and unstable (i.e., ego-infested) cognitive state. The result represents an unfortunate double-whammy: You end up both upset/angry and stuck with a faulty statement/narrative that you believe justifies your hurt. To correct this predicament, there is only one recourse available to you: You have to calmly and deliberately deconstruct what you have just built. In other words, you have to come up with an exit strategy that brings greater logic, accuracy, and rationality back into the equation. Only then can you move ahead with clarity, wisdom, and understanding, with empowering and uplifting attributes that represent your higher Self.
The inquiry involves the following four questions you need to ask to check the relevancy and accuracy of any given thought, notion, idea, or understanding you may have about a situation you are faced with:
T. Is the thought 100 percent true? |
Yes |
No |
R. Is the thought 100 percent relevant? |
Yes |
No |
A. Is the thought 100 percent accurate? |
Yes |
No |
P. Is the thought 100 percent proven? |
Yes |
No |
Assume you have a thought that is causing you some dismay, distress, anxiety, pain, regret, or even anger of a certain magnitude. Take a piece of paper and carefully write it down. For example:
Now, with this statement in mind, systematically ask the four pertinent questions, carefully consider your answers, and then write them all down.
Obviously, if you determine that the thought is not 100 percent true, not 100 percent relevant, not 100 percent accurate, or not 100 percent proven, this means that there is no reason to hold on to it. To do so is only keeping you in an unwanted, unproductive, and unhealthy state. So you need to throw the thought away faster than you can say, “Get out of here!”
What does this exercise actually accomplish? Specifically, it helps you identify when you might be using prejudgments, total absolutes, over-generalizations, oversimplifications, gross distortions, simplistic rationalizations, or false assumptions, all known enemies of critical thinking, to formulate a certain statement in your mind that describes from your perspective the situation as you see it. “Probabilities” are a critical factor here. For if there is any chance, even an extremely small one, that the statement you have in mind is not true, not relevant, not accurate, or not provable, then you have overstated your premise and mistakenly assumed it to be fact. Thankfully, by seriously questioning its accuracy and validity, you have determined that it is fiction and hence no longer needs your continued attention.
Once the thought has been found to be false, for example, something quite remarkable takes place and it is immediate. Instead of the hurtful, stressful, or sometimes-angry feelings you had before when you assumed your thought was 100 percent true, a whole new set of feelings arises and impacts your consciousness. They include compassion, understanding, peace, joy, serenity, and love. These then becomes your new reality.
In Presence, there is only peace. In ego, there is only pain. So…where would you rather be?
1. A distraught daughter might be saying:
“My parents don’t listen to me; they don’t understand me; they don’t care about me. This can only mean they don’t love me.”
Note: Inquiry here may prevent a depression or an attempted suicide.
2. A disgruntled employee might be saying:
“My boss doesn’t like me; he doesn’t respect me; he doesn’t appreciate the good work that I do. He probably thinks I shouldn’t even be working here.”
Note: Inquiry here may prevent a verbal outburst or an act of physical violence.
3. An angry father (perhaps born somewhere in Asia) might be saying:
“My daughter (perhaps born somewhere in North America) is no good; she is ignoring her culture and heritage; she dances, she smokes, she has a boyfriend, and she dresses like all her other friends. She is an embarrassment to me and our whole family.”
Note: Inquiry here may prevent an ugly confrontation, a physical beating, or even an honor killing in a fit of rage.
Consider the narrative in the first example just presented (a distraught daughter) and let’s conduct the suggested analysis together. This way, we can determine whether the final conclusion that the daughter has reached is indeed true or false, correct or incorrect, fact or fiction.
“My parents don’t listen to me.” Beginning with the first question in the Mind T.R.A.P. exercise, “Is the thought 100 percent true?” we can see that it may be true on some occasions but certainly not on every occasion. Undoubtedly, there have been times when her parents did listen to her. Therefore, we can stop here and move on. This is because if any of the four questions is shown to be incorrect (i.e., not true, not relevant, not accurate, or not proven), it totally negates the final conclusion.
“They don’t understand me.” Again, when we ask the first question, we get the same result; namely it may be true on some occasions but certainly not on every occasion. So we can stop here and move on.
“They don’t care about me.” Again, when we ask the first question, we get the same result; namely it may be true on some occasions but certainly not on every occasion. Again, we can stop here and move on.
At this point, our focus shifts to the final conclusion that was reached by the daughter: “This can only mean they don’t love me.” In this particular example, we have determined all the statements that supposedly support this conclusion are not true. This makes the conclusion itself also not true.
Hence, the daughter has to realize that her thinking represented in this example is faulty and illogical, and her final conclusion is not supported by the facts. Upon knowing this, she is free; any and all suffering she was experiencing is necessarily negated and instantly disappears. Clearly her ego played a large part in the formulation of her narrative and this, in turn, precipitated the anger and hurt that followed.
Many people have narratives like these still haunting them in their life today, and are continuing to suffer needlessly and endlessly as a result. Therefore they need to systematically conduct the Mind T.R.A.P. exercise on each and every one of them, whether the incident in question goes back several years, perhaps even to their childhood, or indeed applies to a situation that exists today.
The quality of your consciousness each moment determines the quality of your life each day. This tells us a great deal just how precious Presence actually is.
The average life has two parts. The first half is mostly spent in the fast lane, frantically feeding the ego. The second half is mostly spent in the slow lane, trying to find your soul.
At this point, having read the text, you have been exposed to well over more than hundred sacred truths and insights that are common to all very enlightened people. Naturally, certain ones will resonate with you more than some others, so you can choose the ones that seem more consistent with your own basic beliefs, experience, and personality. In other words, you may wish to compile your own “top five” list and use these as your personal markers or sign-posts as you go about living your life. Alternatively, you may consider adopting the ones described here.
1. They have come to understand, accept, and practice who they are, what they’re made of, and why they’re here. In other words, they live authentically, consistently, and in harmony with their true Nature.
2. They live in the present, in each moment, in Now. Here, in this place, they see that all things are in fact perfect exactly as they are—that nothing, anywhere, is wrong or incorrect. They see only perfection all around them, in every aspect of their life and their world.
3. They accept that everything (some good/some bad) happens for a reason and a purpose, and in each and every case, it serves them. It may not serve them today, tomorrow, or even five or 10 years from now, but eventually, in the long run, they know it will serve them.
4. They accept that their Source is all loving, all powerful, and all knowing. By understanding their Source, identifying with their Source and becoming one with their Source, they, too, take on these same attributes.
5. They see only love in all things and in all situations. In other words, they live above the fray, above the inconsistent, unpredictable, and incongruous nature of the physical world. They understand only love matters, that it is the essence of their Being and the energy that sustains them.
The top five insights listed here create a meaningful and practical path to follow, indeed a way to live a life full of peace, hope, happiness, serenity, and inner joy. Very enlightened people are able to follow this path because they have the ability—and know they have the ability—to manage the way they think (i.e., using both “active” and “passive” thinking) on a minute-to-minute and day-to-day basis. This way, they control their feelings and actions.
As a result, they have created a reality that is more consistent with what is true and what is real. As such, they are able to be authentic to who and what they are, regardless of what is happening to them or around them. They are able to say to themselves and others, with deep and unwavering conviction, “All is well in my mind, all is well in my heart, and all is well in my world.” Their journey home is complete. Their search for everyday bliss is over.
The student asks:
“Master, why should we seek enlightenment?”
The Master replies:
“A parent, a teacher, a doctor, a judge, a soldier, a police officer, a swim coach, a scientist, a politician, a business manager, an architect, a nurse, a salesperson…would they not all be better at their profession if they were also better as a person?”
There is nothing wrong with who you are; this is pure perfection. The error is who you think you are; this is pure conjecture, pure fantasy, pure nonsense.
You think you can manage the known and the unknown. In fact, you cannot. For you will always experience pain when there is some distance between Truth and who you think you are, between Self and your notion of your self.
It takes an enormous amount of energy to be a “somebody.” You have to maintain the charade, live up to expectations, keep on script, and stay consistent with every aspect of your story. It takes no energy at all to be your Self.
