Ego and its transcendence is generally considered key to spiritual development and current reading raises the question of the tendency for the slippery old ego (defined here as the sense of a separate self) to disappear with insights arriving unbidden and seeming not of the mind, then sneak back in the guise of the enlightened one, ready to teach the world ... such is the trap of the Guru ...
Current reading list is Krishnamurti's The Flight of the Eagle for early study, when the mind is freshest, Wayne Dyer's The Power of Intention for later, and Margaret Attwood's novel Alias Grace for the evening. Krishnamurti's work is to be a feature of the library and includes DVDs of K in dialogue with David Bohm. As regular readers and students of K will know, he is considered the genuine article, with no trace of ego and who speaks with complete authority without quoting anyone, whilst insisting that each of us has to discover the truth for ourselves and not to follow Gurus. Dyer, meanwhile, who was a popular proponent of the New Age movement in the USA, and who claims his satori moment, seems to have fallen into the trap ... clues here include the consistent inclusion of the title Dr in his books, signifying his PhD rather than the more often assumed medical practitioner; the unattributed borrowing of wise sayings such as: "When you change way you look at things, the things you look at change", originally from Max Planck, pioneer of Quantum Physics and much more powerful with that context; and Dr Dyer's many self-satisfied references to his eight children in his film The Shift. None of this is to decry his scholarship or references (including K, Bohm and Frankl), or his wealth and fame, although the understanding of abundance is rather different in the U.S. version of an ethical life, where simplicity is sidelined somewhat ...
Messengers and messages don't have to be congruent, perhaps, but somehow authenticity shines through and enhances the message.
K's message this morning speaks of the necessity for an ethical life as a precursor to meditation, and rather scathingly of the many techniques of meditation ... scathing being not unkind but perhaps cruel to be kind ... anyway prisoners are not taken and it is up to the readers or listeners whether to take it personally ... and taking things personally is a behaviour of the ego ...
So, onto today's practical and the arrival of the third fridge freezer engineer to examine the over cold and noisy appliance ... his brutal, but kindly delivered, verdict was that the appliance is working as designed ... implying that an "entry level" fridge is a bit rubbish ... loving his honesty and the euphemism, it seems the choice is to tolerate the noise until the kitchen door is fitted, and the solid ice cream, or upgrade to a machine less noisy and with a better range of temperature settings ... though ascertaining such things in the shop looks tricky, not to mention persuading the retailer to part exchange ... let's see about that ... anyway, happy to report the news was indeed not taken personally ... this house business is replete with such mundane challenges and a longish break, a retreat from the retreat house, is prescribed ...
Sun is showing his face after some damp and dismal days, so a walk is next, to keep in condition for the Camino and for its own sake ...
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