The stories we tell ourselves
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
Something that occurred to me: we continually tell ourselves stories from our past, which form our identities. We tell ourselves, I was once an Osho sannyasin, or I led teams making huge software programs in the entertainment industry, or I once suffered a terrible repetitive strain injury.
It is only when we become quiet inside, and we drop telling ourselves stories, that that which shines from within gets the room to manifest. Our loving nature, our generosity, our non-violence, our kindness comes, even if unlooked-for, even in difficult situations.
When we cease to tell the old stories or listen to them, we cease to act from old patterns. But it takes time to empty the inside, there are places within us where things are stored, and that is why three-year silent retreats are valued among the Tibetans.
“Just be quiet.”
— Sri Ramana Maharshi
Comments
Our egos/identities/ or the selfish self are little more than a continual retelling of our origin stories. Such re-tellings have usually become so habituated that we seldom recognize the sheer magnitude of our moment-to-moment contributions to their continuance. Here, a story keeps us from awakening from a slumbering dream.
Meditation simply describes how to start letting go of that story maintenance.
Thus have I heard...
"One is simply one's experience...One's ego is the abstraction from these experiences...One's ego should be viewed as a convenient analytic device"
This morning I find that I am not just the sum total of what I have experienced, thought, read and dreamt… it is all running and melting together like a Salvador Dali painting. A little sitting will help me today, I think.
I often find that the very degree to which I threaten the storytelling is the same degree that more gripping aspects of its plot are uncovered. Not so much as some reward for my meditative efforts but more like the ink stain that an octopus will release to secure its escape to safer grounds.
Going toe to toe against our mind, expecting it to unravel its self-protectiveness is ultimately unreasonable, as it not only has the home advantage but is actually one of the most uncannily accomplished political adversaries you will ever meet.
Fortunately, all we really need to do to deconstruct such storytelling is to offer all that we see and hear and smell and taste and feel, just as much space and attention as the mind is currently occupying.
Here the storyteller, just gets reduced back to its more minor and original voice in a much more collegial relationship with the rest of all the phenomena and that some might call equanimity.
I told it...I told it from the start. It better realize it doesn't exist before I do or it's gunna really be in for it.
Sneaky bugger decided to cooperate.
Little did I know...I'm Britney Spears in this conservatorship.
Ach! Another story!...
Yes @how I like that, “giving it space.”
Its about being kind isn’t it?
This tendency to take things personally and stew for hours just needs some TLC Spaciness and big hugs.
I actually used to hate my own limitations but I’m learning to accept them and maybe they may just fly off offa their own accord.
I’ll see.