Positive Consciousness

Someone today told me that reading "Child of Illusion" was often upsetting and wondered what to do. I want to call your attention once again to the name of this blog and why it was chosen. The ancient Tibetan slogan, "In the post-meditative experience become a child of illusion" is very powerful. It's another way of saying "Be in the world but not of it". We are instructed to realize that ultimate reality is not what the world seems to be but that, even so, we still need to function in the world as it presents itself. While we're doing that, however, it is important not to forget that each person we encounter or read about is, at the deepest level, a fully enlightened being although he or she is not awake to that. Each person we encounter or read about is also motivated by the universal motivation - that is, the desire to be happy. Each one of us cultivates skill in becoming a "child of illusion" by remembering these truths.

I want to encourage everyone who reads this blog to remember that part of what we are doing here is applying a remedy for the mind poison of delusion or ignorance. One way of describing delusion is that it is the need not to know. If we make ourselves feel better by refusing to be aware, we succumb to the mind poison and that, in the end, can never liberate. So even if an article I post is distressing on first reading, try saying to yourself, "This awareness is an antidote to the mind poison of delusion." Next give yourself lovingkindness. Say, "May I be happy. May I be well. May everything be well in my life." Then practice lovingkindness for all the other people who are distressed by the same news that upset you. "May they be happy. May they be well. May everything be well in their lives." Then, if you're feeling very strong, try doing the lovingkindness practice for the person in the news story whose attitude or behavior was upsetting to you. I find this step very, very helpful because I know that the person is doing whatever he or she is doing because on some level that person believes it will make him or her happy. If that person finds true happiness, then he or she will not need to act unkindly or destructively.

Let me give you another tip. When I'm working with myself on difficult issues, I remember that any suffering I experience stems from an attachment to things being other than they are. So I coach myself with the words, "Deep acceptance, deep acceptance." I let any distress over what I may have read be a prompt for coaching myself in this way. This is important because I realize that I truly will not help the situation by being upset. If, however, I let go and accept that things are as they are I will have the energy and motivation to take whatever action I am able and willing to take. I can give money to organizations that reflect my political and ecological convictions. I can engage in email activism. I can become involved politically on a local level. And most of all, I can meditate in the assurance that we are not actually separate; we are all connected. Therefore my meditative practice is truly helping to lift the collective consciousness of the world. I console myself with the thought that things might well be much worse than they are if there were not meditators around the world doing this powerful inner work.

Finally I want to share something that is, admittedly, very difficult to face. The lamas in the Tibetan tradition have been predicting for some time that there will be a new dark age and they have recently said that we have, indeed, now entered such an age. This is not a reason to despair, however. This is a reason to redouble our efforts regarding the work at hand. Now more than ever there needs to be a haven, a place where people can go to give attention to their inner lives and to the state of their consciousness. This is not just a literal place like a meditation center; such a haven can also be an inner reality for each one of us. I encourage you to support such a haven within and to saturate your mind with compassion and lovingkindness - for yourself and for all beings. In this way we can stay informed without being crushed or overwhelmed. Remember your own fundamental inner purity and that of others. It's the most skillful way imaginable of truly taking care of yourself.

Courage, and good luck!