Balancing forces versus re-balancing myself
When I act on the basis of false ego – seeing myself as something very different from who I truly am – sooner or later certain things will occur that will bring me back to the truth of who I am. These corrective forces are not malevolent but benevolent and re-balancing ones as they are pulling me back into the truth of who I am.
These re-balancing mechanisms operate in all of our lives, they bring us the message that we have gone in a certain direction that we should not have for our true well-being. It maybe that we fall ill, lose our job, our car is written off, etc. The pain of illness, for example, is due to our bodies trying to remove something that is foreign to it (a virus etc.) and restore it to health. It is natures way of protecting me and of calling me back.
If we look at ourselves in terms of different roles we play, there is nothing wrong with the role, the problem begins when we begin to define ourselves by that role, rather than seeing ourselves as the actor playing that part. It is foreign to my real sense of being. Sooner or later I’m going to have to return to that true self because it’s who I really am. The moment I give birth to that ego of being Claire, John, Sam or Georgie a certain corrective process is put in place, a certain counter balancing energy develops. The more we move away from who we really are the more we experience an ever increasing tension. As the ego grows and gets bigger so does the counter balancing force.
If there is pain it is there to tell me something, whether it be physical, psychological or emotional pain. The message is don’t identify with the role, the object, the achievement etc. You can perform and do just don’t define yourself in terms of that doing and having. Taken to its broadest level any pain any suffering can be traced to a foreign consciousness, a wrong sense of self due to identifying myself with something external to one.
If I let go of that ego, if I remove the pride I feel in owning the object or in being Sam for example, then I don’t need to experience the fall. I will have corrected myself. If we voluntarily drop that pride we wont experience such suffering in our lives, such return of karma.
Bob the Porsche owner.
Bob has spent years and years saving to get that Porsche, it has been his life’s desire, and finally he is the proud owner of a Porsche! Bob the Porsche owner is born. This identity is born and not just for himself but for others too: there goes Bob the man with the Porsche. To others when Bob comes to mind they don’t think of Bob the person with certain deep and positive qualities but of the man who owns the Porsche.
Now if that Porsche is stolen, someone puts a brick through one of its windows or scratches keys along its length Bob the Porsche owner wont be very happy. It might even feel like a personal injury. It could be as painful to Bob as if someone had put a knife in his leg.
Then what happens if the car is written off? There is no more Bob the Porsche owner. He has literally died, and for Bob that maybe what he experiences. He feels bereft and his self-respect his purpose go. Bob himself still exists the only change is that there isn’t that particular object in his life anymore…
