SHEDDING THE EGO🔗

.............................................. Ajna Chakra - overview

The ajna chakra is located at the point between the eyebrows. It shrinks by ego and seriousness and flowers through innocence, simplicity and shedding the ego.

The third eye or Ajna is the key to experiencing a whole different realm. When this chakra opens, the being moves into a new level of awareness and other faculties become available to experience.

Characterizing the experience of the ego is seriousness, perfectionism, self-consciousness, fear of making decisions, etc. When you have moved beyond the confines of the ego, you have available the fluidity of Existence. The flow of Existence is not available for the ego to experience. The ego is really the mind, or mind chatter; the flow of negativity and complaint. Only when we drop the ego can we know the fullness and fluidity of Existence.

This flow of Existence is only available when we learn to follow the heart instead of the mind. The heart is the path of creativity and allows us to drop dependence on the mind. Being creative brings us an experience of our individuality and our unique contributions, as well as what it means to be in the flow. When we are stuck in ego, we see ourselves as a solid entity, and are unable to flow with Existence.

Surrender is an important part of the process of moving beyond ego. The Master's intervention is a blessing which we can experience through trust and through opening the space for him to enter.

The other keys to opening the ajna are awareness and meditation. Laughter and dance are powerful meditations that take us out of seriousness to the experience of 'no-mind'. Again, as with the manipuraka chakra, seeing life as a drama rather than being involved in it, allows us to become less serious about life.

As we take the mind less seriously, we begin to be embraced by the creative spontaneous flow of life. When we stop resisting, this experience will simply emerge and overtake us. Then joy and spontaneity will be our natural experience and we will have emerged into a totally different and fulfilling experience of life.

............................ ## Understanding Seriousness (Seriousness to Sincerity)

Seriousness is nothing but paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life and makes you dull and dead. It curbs your thinking and makes you stick to the familiar patterns that you know.

Seriousness stems from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute and from being too concerned about the result. When you are serious, you see yourself as a separate entity, (too much of 'I') and you become egoistic.

Sincerity, on the other hand, is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness. It is giving the task your best without worrying excessively about the result. When you are sincere, you can be laughing and playful. You can continue to do the job at hand in a playful and creative way and the job will get done in a joyful fashion.

## Daily Awareness Practices

◈ If you understand that the whole of life is only a drama, you can never be serious. When this understanding happens at a deep level, you will simply do things for the sheer joy of moving in tune with the cosmic drama or Existence. And when you do it this way, you are not serious, you are just sincere in playing your part, that's all. You will be able to see that everyone is not only a player but has become so serious with their role, and you laugh at that. You laugh at how each one is deceiving the other when playing the game. You laugh at the thought that you are playing a game!

When you are able to laugh, you have become the watcher, and when you have become the watcher, you are separate from the 'I' and 'mine' - the ego. So keep this awareness through every event during the day. Keep reminding yourself, 'This is just a drama. I am a player.' Keep this perspective at all times.

❖ If you want to move from seriousness, first, flood awareness into every action of yours. The second thing is to stop being judgmental about everything that you see. When you stop being judgmental, you will simply love everyone and everything with total innocence.

❖ Also, have the courage to make mistakes. Serious people are always afraid to make mistakes. They take themselves too seriously. They think too much about themselves. It is too much to make mistakes and have someone point them out to them. Actually, these people who are afraid of making small mistakes, end up making big blunders! So, if you are one of these people, consciously allow yourself to make mistakes and understand that you are making progress! When you make a mistake, you learn from it. You know both sides of the coin and thus avoid the danger of falling into the unknown side at a critical time.

.....................................................

Perfectionism is always something from your mind. It becomes a goal for you. You work towards it as a goal. And when you work towards it as a goal, it becomes dead and mundane. But when you are total, you are established in your heart, it becomes a deep experience. The outcome then has to be beautiful and it will give you joy also. Then, whatever you do, you will be in tune with Existence.

Perfectionism never gives you joy, it only fulfills your ego. Even if you feel fulfilled at the end of it, it is only a fulfillment of your ego, never a fulfillment of your being. Be very clear that perfectionists are the biggest egoists. They miss the dimension of being total. Totality is possible when you enter into it deeply. Perfectionism is never possible because it is in your mind and your mind keeps changing its definition of perfection.

❖ Just live with simplicity, with spontaneity and with innocence. Don't harp too much on perfectionism. Perfectionism can make you neurotic. Whatever you do, do it wholly, totally. Then automatically, whatever you do will be total and you don't have to worry about perfectionism at all. When you notice yourself aiming towards perfectionism, consciously drop it. Absorb yourself in the task, not the outcome. Allow the outcome to be what it is.

............................ Understanding the Process of Shedding the Ego

Anything that makes you feel separate from God is ego. When there is ego, you cannot love consistently and with the same deep feeling all the time; your love will be highly subjective. It will keep moving between extremes.

You don't know that there is a world beyond your ego which is much more blissful than what you are feeling now. Your ego is a life-sustaining element for you. But the simple truth is you have to let go of it!

Man never wants to let go in totality. He wants to cling onto something all the time and that something is his ego. Your ego is your very strength. You have guarded it so well over the years. It is the basis of your very existence. When your ego comes under threat, you feel insecure about your very identity. You feel your identity is dissolving and you start wondering where you are heading without an identity for yourself. Your ego faces a grave crisis.

The Master-disciple relationship is there only for you to lose your ego. When you are alone, you cannot lose your ego. The Master becomes the device, the support, for you to lose your ego. The more you dissolve into him, the more you will be ready to open up and lose your ego. When do you know that your ego is dissolving? When you start experiencing a certain joy that you have not experienced before.

You will start feeling joy for no reason at all. Just existing will make you happy. Of course, with the Master, you are always undergoing a surgery of your ego and there will be moments of deep misery as your ego is getting slashed. But when you emerge out of those moments, you would have taken many steps forward in your growth and you will feel boundless joy for no reason at all.

Daily Awareness Practices

❖ Life is so precious that it is not worth spending it on dull and lethargic moments. Laugh and infuse your life with energy and bliss. Just decide to enjoy continuously, whatever the job may be that you are doing. Be sincere, not serious. Take any opportunity to laugh. Be aware and when you catch yourself being serious, consciously take a step back and laugh at yourself. Be totally present. That will infuse energy and bliss into your experience.

❖ Drop the goal and enjoy the path. Sacrificing your whole life for the sake of the goal is not the way to live. If you live this way, once every goal is reached, you will only repent at having wasted your whole life on insignificant things. Meditate on this teaching again and again. The truth will dawn on you. Keep this in your consciousness. Enjoy the path. Drop your focus on the goal. The goal will take care of itself.

........................................ Understanding Laughter and Dance as Meditation

Laughter is the highest spiritual quality. It can lead you to enlightenment! Laughing is a great healing energy. If you laugh at your sickness, you will become healthy. Laughter is a beautiful way of connecting with the energy of Existence, which is pure healing energy. Sincerity and laughter always go together. Seriousness can never co-exist with laughter. Either you are serious or you are laughing.

People who are missing the present are completely missing the laughter in their lives. There is no need to shoulder the past and future. Just be in the present; that is enough. Laugh.

Laughter is that which brings in a ray of energy from your being to your body. It totally rejuvenates your whole self. It can heal like nothing else can. It gives you such wonderful glimpses of the present, which you try to achieve through other difficult meditation techniques. Laughter is the most powerful meditation technique.

Laughter can bring you to the state of no-mind. When you are in no-mind, you are in the present. When you laugh, you are in the present because when you laugh there can be no thoughts. When you are thoughtless, you are in the present. When you are with thoughts, you are either in the past or in the future.

Laughter is total and it can simply heal and transform you. It is the best and most easily available medicine for humanity. When you laugh, you radiate energy around you. It is infectious; you radiate a therapeutic bliss around you.

Laughter and dance are the easiest ways to becoming a Buddha! Dance can make you simple and light. Dance, like laughter, is another easy and enjoyable meditation. When you can dance without a care, you become the dance itself. Energy will then gush from you. You can dance without a care only if you are free from all your pseudo identities. As long as you think you are someone, you can't dance in joy. Dance is an outward expression of inner joy. Let go of your so-called identities and feel the oneness with Existence and dance with that joy.

## Daily Awareness Practices

❖ Once in a while at least, in your home, play some music and dance. Simply decide to let go. It can become an intense meditation that can take you beyond your mind and transform you in a way that words cannot. Be natural. Be original. The people who comment on your dance are simply missing out on the joy of dance. Don't bother about them. Just dissolve and become the dance itself. Dance is one of the easiest techniques to shed your ego and merge with Existence.

❖ Laugh! Surround yourself with people who make you laugh. When you find yourself becoming too serious, simply laugh. Notice how serious you are becoming and laugh at yourself. There is humor in any situation if you look for it.

..................................................... ## Understanding Surrender

Commitment and maturity of mind are needed for real surrender to happen. You need not surrender to God or any Master. You can surrender to anything. Surrender itself is a virtue and has a great power in itself. When you surrender, you are acknowledging that there is a life force greater than your ego, that's all. So God is only an excuse for you to surrender.

The act of surrendering is what is important. God is not the goal; surrender is the real goal. When you surrender or when you lose your ego, you are no longer a separate entity from Existence; you merge with Existence or God. You will then understand that there is no God sitting above. There is only Existence that fills everything in this universe of which you are a part.

A Master is a device to help you surrender. Surrender does not mean that you are dependent on someone. It simply means that you are taking their help in dissolving your own ego.

## Daily Awareness Practices

❖ Just fall totally in love with the Master, that's all! Falling totally in love is falling totally into the egoless state. That is why a Master, who is in the egoless state, is capable of only love and compassion. Notice the beauty of the Master and fall in love with that. Notice the wisdom of the Master and fall in love with that. Trust in the process.

❖ Meditate. With meditation and the Master's guidance, transformation is a process that you go through to destroy all that is not you. Have the courage to let go! Meditation takes many forms. Choose the one that appeals to you in the moment. Trust that it is the right one for you at the time. Meditation will relax the mind and increase your awareness.

Meditation is allowing your mind to relax, that's all. Meditation is not concentration as people make it out to be. When you concentrate, you actually try to exclude everything from your mind, which is an impossible task.

Just sit for two minutes and try to exclude everything from your mind; you will go mad! Every single thing that you try to exclude will come back and torture you. So meditation is not concentration. Meditation is simply including everything and relaxing. When you are not concentrating on excluding anything, you can relax.

When you nurture yourself with meditation, your capacity will expand and you will be able to do so many things in the outer world. There will be no limit to what you can do and express. You will find yourself growing in different dimensions.

❖ Whenever you find time, just relax and be aware of everything around you. Listen with your heart to all the sounds happening around you. It may be the sound of birds, the sound of the calendar in the breeze, the sound of the fan above you, the sound of people around you, or whatever. Just listen with an open heart. Mind you, they are all not distractions. You are flowing with them and so they are not distractions. When you flow with them, they cease to be distractions.

As you do this, you will realize that there is a certain silence, a composite core inside that is actually witnessing all this and you will become more and more aware of that silence inside you. You will get glimpses of that silence in you. Slowly, you will lose consciousness of your body also. You will only have awareness.

You will feel yourself only through your awareness, not through your body or through your mind. Your body will not be numb but you will not be able to feel it, that's all; only your awareness will remain. This can take you beyond your mind if done intensely.

.............................................................. Divya Netra Meditation (Total duration: 25 minutes)

The ajna chakra is considered to be the master of all chakras. It is the chakra concerned with the pituitary gland which regulates the whole body's growth.

The powerful ajna chakra is unique in that just awareness of and attention to the chakra activates it.

The ajna chakra meditation is a beautiful meditation technique to show us how to drop the connection with false 'i', the ego and realize the true 'I', to connect with the cosmic intelligence.

This technique has two parts - one to cleanse the ajna chakra and the other to energize it. The ajna chakra or the third eye is known as the destroyer of illusion and lust. It helps open the super-consciousness in you.

Instructions:

❖ Step 1 (Duration: 5 minutes) a. Light a prayer lamp and keep it in front of you so that the wick is at the level of your eyes. The prayer lamp should have vegetable oil or clarified butter from cow's milk.

b. Sit cross-legged on the floor with your eyes closed. Those who cannot sit on the floor may sit on a chair.

c. Focus on your ajna chakra as if to penetrate it.

❖ Step 2 (Duration: 5 minutes) Open your eyes and look at the flame of the lamp through your third eye between your eyebrows. Your eyes may blink or burn or tears may flow; just allow it to happen.

❖ Step 3 (Duration: 5 minutes) Close your eyes and look at the flame of the lamp through your third eye between your eyebrows. ❖ Step 4 (Duration: 5 minutes) Open your eyes and look at the flame of the lamp through your third eye between your eyebrows.

❖ Step 5 (Duration: 5 minutes) Close your eyes. Do not focus on your ajna chakra; just relax.

The ajna chakra is located at the point between the eyebrows. It is locked by ego and seriousness and made to flower through innocence, simplicity and shedding the ego.

The third eye or ajna is the key to experiencing a whole different realm. When this chakra opens, the being moves into a new level of awareness and other faculties become available to experience.

In the diagram overleaf, the woman is shown with an awakened ajna chakra. The ego, at the bottom of the picture, is depicted as a burned-out forest. Characterizing the experience of the ego is seriousness, perfectionism, self-consciousness, fear of making decisions, etc. The ego is dead, as is the forest that portrays it.

The woman has moved beyond the confines of the ego, and has available the fluidity of Existence, portrayed as a lush forest and a mountain stream. The stream represents the flow of Existence, not available for the ego to experience. The ego is really the mind, or mind chatter, the flow of negativity and complaint. Only when we drop the ego can we know the fullness and fluidity of Existence.

This flow of Existence is only available when we learn to follow the heart instead of the mind. The heart is the path of creativity and allows us to drop dependence on the mind. Being creative brings us an experience of our individuality and our unique contributions as well as what it means to be in the flow. When we are blocked in ego, we see ourselves as a solid entity and are unable to flow with Existence.

Surrender is an important part of the process of moving beyond ego. The Master's intervention is a blessing which we can experience through trust and through opening the space for Him to enter.

The other keys to opening the ajna are awareness and meditation. Laughter and dance are powerful meditations that take us out of seriousness to the experience of 'no-mind'. Again, as with the manipuraka chakra, seeing life as a drama rather than being involved in it, allows us to become less serious about life.

As we take the mind less seriously, we begin to be caught up in the creative spontaneous flow of life. As we stop resisting what is, this experience will simply emerge and overtake us. Then joy and spontaneity will be our natural experience and we will have emerged into a totally different and fulfilling experience of life.