It's all about Me

Sandra and Daniel Biskind. Copyright ©2005

Driving through Los Angeles we were struck by an expression of American pop literature at its finest: the bumper sticker. This one said, in no uncertain terms, both in style as well as content: "IT'S ALL ABOUT ME." While on one level it seemed to be a quintessential distillation of LA narcissism, on another, deeper level, it was expressing a truth - one that many in the ‘spiritual' community often suppress or deny.

Overcoming the self is taken for granted as a virtue. We automatically assume selflessness is a quality of a spiritually evolved person. Many cultural ideals, such as saintliness, appear to express selflessness. Most spiritual schools emphasize the need for the self - that is, the ego self - to die. We commonly think of enlightenment as a state of consciousness that at least transcends the ego, if not does away with it altogether. Often a distorted understanding here leads to the impossible quest for the ego to commit suicide. This would be funny if it weren't the source of so much pain, confusion and suffering.

Another source of confusion about the self stems from the Newtonian worldview in which there is a primary ‘objective' reality in distinction to a secondary ‘subjective' reality of personal experience. Newtonian objectivity is obviously useful, but only when used in a limited, Newtonian context. It is perfectly adequate for dealing with simple objects such as, say, bricks. But complex subjects, such as human bodies, are much better addressed in a quantum context. Here advanced physics has finally agreed with ancient Eastern philosophy that causality is impossible to identify ‘objectively.' In fact, everything is dependently arising and, ultimately, our experience is all we can really know. Appreciating the myth of objectivity and understanding radical subjectivity is empowering and liberating. Our beliefs, while really no more than vanities, still matter - deeply - to us. That is, they have real effects, no matter how inaccurate they may be. And our beliefs about our self are critical.

As consciousness expands, boundaries expand...the sense of the "self" expands. Cosmic consciousness, in which the self experiences "I am the universe," is a classic enlightenment experience. Both it and the experience of Oneness are based upon the dissolution of boundaries. The quality, the depth and breadth and intensity of one's experience of oneness, can have a profound ongoing impact on this sense of where the boundaries of self really are.

The image of the enlightened recluse comes about not only because it is an archetype but because it has often happened. One reason it happens is because when the inner world becomes so fulfilling, the outer world loses its attraction! However, withdrawal from the world is not always necessary for high consciousness. In fact, in the state of integrated wholeness, where consciousness raises and personality issues are correspondingly resolved, the opposite occurs.  There is no need in the personality to withdraw because even while inside and outside merge, there are fewer and fewer blockages to experiencing ongoing bliss, peace, love and joy -- regardless of what is happening ‘outside.'

So, what is stopping this? What prevents us from having the experience of what we know about intellectually? It can only be one of two things: our level of consciousness or issues of personality.