Humility is the Key to Moksa
There are billions of experiences we could be having in every moment of our existence. Life never stops delivering them. You can only ever experience the one that is right in front of you, right now. Experiences never end until the body dies. I can choose to go to India to live in an ashram when it’s as hot as Hades. Or I can go to a nightclub and drink until dawn. I can stay home and listen to a satsang. But am I in control of the experience in front of me, right now, whether in India, a nightclub, or at home? No. We have control over none of them, other than our attitude to them. To get what we want we can take appropriate action, but there are countless factors involved in every experience we have that are utterly beyond our control.
Instead of accepting each moment as it is, we tend do everything in our power to manipulate it to get what we want or avoid what we don’t want. This requires a lot of effort, and it wears us out because life just keeps coming at us. Yet, in allowing the experience of each like and dislike as it arises, thought by thought, to be seen and to pass through the mind unobstructed, this eventually takes care of the deeper blockage from which that like or dislike arises. When we sacrifice each like or dislike on the altar of karma yoga the instant it arises, it chips away at the deeper issue, one thought at a time. Attend to the small ones and the big ones take care of themselves. The devil is in the details, as the saying goes.
If we can greet every experience generated thought/feeling, good or bad, as God visiting us, showing us something we need to see, without judging it, every moment of our lives is a sacred moment. One that has never happened before and will never happen again. If we acknowledge it, honor it, and let it go, it will not stick to us. We remain a tabula rasa because we are the witness, standing as Awareness. Love rules.
This is probably the most important realization we can all have, if we want a happy life.
Living like this has a name
Amor fati
Love your fate
Every moment of Every Day
How to do it?
It Takes Learning the True Meaning of Humility
1. Take a stand as the impersonal witness.
2. Surrender to God EVERY experience (thought or feeling), i.e. like or dislike, instantly, as it arises. Every single one. DON’T GIVE IT TO THE EGO!
If we can do this, we are living a spiritual life. Then and only then do we allow God to enter our lives, and become our life. Then everything moves through us unobstructed, no matter what shows up at the ego’s dualistic perception door. It is checked at the door. This is the meaning of true devotional practice, and of true humility. We never fail to say yes to God. From this viewpoint, which is the nondual viewpoint whether we know it or not, we can see that whatever experience life presents us is just what is. Humility is not about being right or wrong. It’s not about something being good or bad. It has nothing to do with who we are as the witness. It’s a movie playing out, just the field delivering karma. This is how the field functions.
Though it seems personal for me as a person, AN EGO, it isn’t. In this gap, we have the power to make a choice. Freedom is in sacrificing our reaction, whether it’s a mild or extreme like or a dislike, in true surrender to the field, or God. We don’t deny it. Even if we act on a like or dislike, we still do so as the witness, and let it pass through. That’s where karma yoga comes in. The renunciation is not a giving up but an impartial recognition of what is. This is easier to do with the mild reactions we have to what life presents to us. But it is very hard to do when life hits us hard where it hurts most: the ego identity. And that is where we develop humility, and when it matters most. While an injured ego is hard to let go of, it involves far more suffering to hang on to it.
Total Surrender is Humility
The final stage of doer negation and the signature indication that Self-knowledge has obtained comes only when you have learned the meaning of humility. That usually does not come before the edifice of the ego has cracked open and crumbled. And that is always extremely painful.
In the west we don’t easily understand the true meaning of humility, nor its importance as the hallmark of a surrendered ego. There is no moksa without humility, let alone any assimilation of nonduality. What is so amazing about ignorance is that people become inquirers, even adept at reciting the scriptures, without ever having any real intention of negating the ego. One wonders if they ever had any idea that the basis of moksa is relinquishing the ego identity. But in fact the opposite seems to be true. Some inquirers take on nonduality to enlarge or maintain their superiority as an ego. We have seen this drama unfold many times, and it is always a head scratcher, but that is how hard wired ignorance is.
If the student is properly qualified they will have the humility to have total faith in the teaching and thus submit to the teacher as its representative. If the teacher is qualified there is never a question of the student being right. Isvara in the form of the teacher/Isvara is the only trusted authority. Rightness only belongs to the scripture.
To understand better the true nature of the teacher/student relationship, read Ben’s excellent satsang on the topic:
The need to be right is the hallmark of ignorance/duality, and the harbinger of suffering. Without fail we sacrifice happiness if we need to be right. We have seen inquirers espousing karma yoga suffer deeply hurt feelings, especially when the ego gets a big hit. Clearly, there never was any faith in karma yoga, the teachings or teacher, thus no assimilation of nonduality. The egoic identity, the one we all want to be free of, rules the mind. Suffering remains.
So what is true humility ?
True humility is neither debasing yourself nor obsequious devotion to a teacher. It is not based on blind faith or allegiance to the teachings. It is based on faith in the nondual teachings pending your own investigation. It is complete and automatic surrender to Isvara in the form of every experience as it appears to you in every moment of your existence. There are no bad results. You accept all results as benign and never doubt that everything that comes to you is love in action, Isvara speaking to you directly. No matter how hard the lesson. Especially then.
It’s not that tough things don’t happen, blissful or hurtful feelings do not appear, or that you don’t have preferences or desires that may be contrary to dharma. But none of it has the power to hold sway over your mind. The prison door of your mind is no more. The egoic identity has been vanquished. You are the bliss of love, undefended and open. The dam wall is gone. There is nothing to stop love flowing from you and to you. This stage can be attained even without Self-actualization, though in essence, it is moksa. I know people who naturally apply this without being fully cognizant of their true nature as the Self. They just live it. You can too.
If you are Self-realized but not actualized, and you truly live this way, it will take care of residual ignorance. You will not care much either way, because you will be very happy. Your life is an effortless devotional practice. You will find that you no longer get hurt or injured even if hurtful things show up at your door. The karma is understood, processed and not ignored, but it doesn’t come to you, the witness. It goes to the jiva, and as you know you are the witness and not the ego, all experiences can pass through you without leaving a trace.
Once the last bit of egoic identity gives in to humility, you are not enlightened or unenlightened, and you will notice that you have no ignorance or knowledge. You have no teacher, no teaching, and no problems. You are Existence shining as Consciousness, that which is always good. You live a normal life, and it is always satisfying with all its ups and downs, whether you get what you want or not. You know that none of it is real, but you honor its apparent existence and interact and transact with life happily, not for happiness.
And it’s no big deal.
Sundari
