Break it open!

Break it open! Tear it smash it rip it apart! Shatter it! Saw it in half and throw it out the window! Destroy your head! End the madness! Burn a hole in it with the light of the sun by gazing inward toward the depths of unquenchable fire! Fry to freedom!

That’s not for me, of course. It couldn’t be for me because me is the ego and ego don’t want any of that crazy business! No healthy ego seeks its own destruction and yet so many of us are drawn like moths to the many vehicles of our own demise. Yoga, meditation, purification, ecstatic dance, philosophical self-digestion, any of these things can contribute to the dissolving of the ego, dissolving of the self, destruction of the supposedly independent individual.

Of course, this is not what most people are seeking. In fact, most are drawn to these paths seeking quite the opposite: A firmer, stronger ego, glorious and capable of enduring. We hope to establish our individuality through these paths, not put an end to it. We desire bliss for ourselves and freedom of the self, but this is not possible. The highest goal is simply a quiet spaciousness and freedom from the self. Not glamorous, not popular, not marketable. In fact, true accomplishment, true advancement and true discipline are themselves rarely marketable. Who would be interested in the many years of hard work and practice that sometimes lead to a small and specific mastery? What fool would wish to purchase something as simple as peace at the high going price of commitment, sacrifice, and self-obliteration? Certainly no one in their right mind. Especially when it is mainstream human society that determines which minds are “right.”

What hope is there for the yogi living in America today? Break your ties to the mainstream culture, or at least to the image it seeks to propagate to convince itself of its own validity. Be wary of those who seek power, accumulation, and title. But most importantly, set aside what you have been told about winning or losing at life. That is not the way of life, that is the way of the marketplace, which indeed is no model for human behavior.