Once there was a small group of kind, good-hearted, hardworking, sincere, caring individuals who, with other individuals of the same ilk, worked diligently to accomplish a particular goal. What was required to accomplish this goal was consistent encountering and transcending the myriad messages of egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate. The voices threatened, bullied, and attempted to humiliate the stalwart folks and still the intrepid ones toiled on. Of course there were times of great happiness and celebration but always followed by more messages of, “You’ll never do it, you can’t succeed, it’s too hard, you should just quit,” with the accompanying plunge into the depths of doubt, despair, and depression. (If you’re thinking this sounds like the undulations we’ve been talking about, you’re correct.)
Eventually the small group prevailed. They achieved their goal and received their reward.
Now, you’d think this would be the end of the story, right? Not much of a parable, but, hey, it has a good ending so, ok.
It would be a good ending if that were the end, but it isn’t. Each one of these folks went into a new phase of attack from the voices of egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate. There was paralyzing anxiety, sicknesses, fear, guilt, and throughout a general unease that took the joy out of their success.
What is the moral of this story? (Stop here for a few minutes and consider this, please.)
We’re conditioned to believe that if we do all that the voices of egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate tell us to do—which includes surviving the hateful messages it throws at us—we will reach the goal and be rewarded with all our dreams coming true. “You’re a good person and now you get to have a happy life.”
The real moral of this story is that message is a lie told to enable ego to continue to steal a perfectly fine human being’s life.
The only way we’re going to have a happy life is to sever our relationship with ego, conditioned mind, and self-hate. Period. What we call what we have when we end that relationship is “a happy life.”
Believing that meeting ego’s standards will give us the life we want is how ego keeps us enslaved to it.
So, the ultimate moral of this story is: Have the life you choose NOW. Don’t wait to please the voices in your head before claiming your life for you—that’s never going to happen.
In gassho,
ch