Life, Lies, and Sex: A User's Guide to Being in a Body by Heart Mikaya

Author:Heart, Mikaya [Heart, Mikaya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2016-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Ego and Self

“Don’t believe me, don’t believe yourself,

and don’t believe anybody else.” [13]

We’ve all had our individual stories, an image that we are projecting, and a self that we want to be or think we ought to be. Those things are transitory and change-able. Problems arise when we get stuck in them, when we are attached to maintaining them. Most of us have a particular idea about what is good and bad, what is difficult in life, and why it is that way, and what happened in the past to make it so, and what needs to happen in the future. These stories may have some truth to them and we may have good reasons to believe them, but it really doesn’t matter. What matters is now, this moment now, and what we decide to be in this moment. Usually our stories about the past hold us in a rigid pattern that is very limiting, especially if we often repeat them to others, which reinforces them. If you want to make changes in your life, practice not telling your standard stories, even when they seem unrelated to the changes you want to make.

We can let go of all the past in one split second of clear, un-contradicted decision, moving immediately into a completely new way of being in the world, transforming our belief systems instantaneously. It often takes hitting rock bottom to do that. Eckhart Tolle, Jan Frazier, and Byron Katie [14] were three regular Westerners who hit rock bottom, and that is what provided the motivation they needed to achieve what might be called a state of enlightenment. It happened overnight and the change was so radical that they can no longer be called regular Westerners. It is probably possible for anyone to make radical and sudden changes of this kind, but it can be done more gradually, and that may be easier on our physical, mental, and emotional bodies, as well as our friends.

Being attached to stories and knowing nothing

Humans have explanations for everything. They vary from how the Earth came to be and concepts of evolution, to why President Obama was elected, to the family genes that have made you a likely candidate for breast cancer, to how and why your mother neglected you when you were little. Having explanations satisfies the rational brain, that monkey mind that has such a tendency to be scornful and suspicious. Whether or not they are true really doesn’t matter. The satisfaction that we feel from maintaining them at all costs and proving them to be true, often in order to substantiate that we are right and good, is a shallow kind of egotistical satisfaction that maintains a shallow and egotistical way of being in the world. I strongly suggest practicing the art of not-knowing, or as Angeles Arrien put it, “being in the land of gray clouds.” [15] To think that we even can know is part of our wonderful illusion. If you are looking for a teacher, my

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