#72: The Flow Knows -- Enlightenment in the Center of Life's Turmoils
ONE: (1:00) Society's chief indoctrination. TWO: (3:16) The entrance of a shocking yet highly liberating insight. THREE: (4:06) Proof Reality is finally getting through to us. FOUR: (5:37) How the Flow has built in relief. FIVE: (6:56) The huge new challenge of the river's divine roar. SIX: (7:29) The false escape to the Church of Paradise Cove. SEVEN: (11:09) The secret of momentum when facing difficulties. EIGHT: (11:49) How we learn the most in the center of the turmoil. NINE: (14:14) Compassion from the Source and your eternal connection.
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Here are a few additional insights connected to the free flowing river analogy.
A person joins the free flow of life by working hard every day to see the actual extent to which he is separated from it. He must work to see himself as he actually is inwardly as he goes about his daily life as opposed to the way he wants to be, imagines he is, deceives himself into thinking that he is, wants to appear to be, pretends that he is both to himself and others.
How does a person go about seeing through his hardened self-deception in a practical, systematic manner as he lives his daily life? By connecting everything that happens to him both inwardly and outwardly with his mistaken belief that he possesses a separate self. In other words, a person can use any circumstance he finds himself in to observe the actual extent to which he is convinced that he owns a separate self that is apart from others and the rest of life. This is the same as seeing that he is sound asleep and not aware of his connection with the free flowing river of life, in spite of how he pictures himself as being.
By doing this, a person comes to the shocking realization that he is not aware of the free flow of life because he does not really want to be. What he really wants is to glorify the separate self he mistakenly thinks he is. Therefore, in order to really join the free flow of life, he must become willing to give up this love. How is this done in daily life? By becoming willing to appear weak, foolish, and wrong in the eyes of the world, by disappointing others in spite of the screaming protests of the thought-based separate self illusion which fears its dethronement. Even a little bit of work in this direction will reveal that a person is far less willing to give up his present level than he likes to think. In spite of all the esoteric instuction, the plain fact is that he is not willing to actually go through with this. Only by clearly seeing this and delibarately going against this unwillingness can he begin to wake up to the free flow of life circulating through him.
To sum up, settling on the banks of the river or going against its current means living in a state of psychic sleep where a person lives from the belief of owning a separate self which he madly worships. A person joins the free flow of life by becoming aware of the extent to which he lives from this delusion in his daily life and becomes willing to let it go by no longer valuing the acceptance of the social world. Observing his unwillingness to do this is an excellent way to start in this direction.
One final note. The idea of being spiritual is a cunning trap because it feeds the self-love of the apparent separate self. The way out of this trap is to work constantly to uncover new layers of self-deception by detecting any inner signs that refer these insights back to an apparent separate self called "I". When a person begins to see that there is no self there to be spiritual, he is on his way out at last.
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I wish to offer Rumi's perspective on this "Flowing River" analogy.
"Be like melting snow
Wash yourself with yourself"
Wisdom encompasses much more than meets the corporeal eye. It points out that that no matter what level of "form" one wishes to use to try to define/interpreted this "being-ness" they will all point to the One-Beautful-connectedness IF this defining/interpreting is done in the spirit of unconditional love. As Rumi has said:
"It all has to do with
Loving and Non-Loving.
This night will pass
and then we have work to be done."
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