Seeing Beyond Illusions: Freeing Ourselves from Ego, Guilt, and the Belief in Separation
256
Seeing Beyond Illusions: Freeing Ourselves from Ego, Guilt, and the Belief in Separation
256eBook
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Overview
Using the fundamentals of A Course in Miracles, Seeing Beyond Illusions walks us through a gentle dismantling of the dualistic lie of separation, freeing us from our unconscious guilt at having forsaken Source by learning to trust our divine connection to all that is. At its core, this book is about letting go of our need and urge to control, freeing ourselves to embrace forgiveness, and experience the reality of our profound connection with others.
The easiest of easygoing spiritual coaches, David Cowan has a gift for synthesizing wisdom as old as Jesus and as cutting-edge as neuroscience, his writing is infused with an all-encompassing relevance that heals.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781609259761 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 960 KB |
About the Author
David Ian Cowan is a biofeedback trainer and teacher in spiritual communication and the art of dowsing. He is a counselor, alternative health practitioner and trainer living in Boulder, Colorado. He is also the author of Navigating the Collapse of Time (Weiser Books, 2011) and co-author with Erina Cowan of Dowsing Beyond Duality (Weiser Books, 2013). Visit him at www.bluesunenergetics.net.
Read an Excerpt
Seeing Beyond Illusions
Freeing Ourselves from Ego, Guilt, and the Belief in Separation
By DAVID IAN COWAN
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
Copyright © 2015 David Ian CowanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-976-1
CHAPTER 1
Ending the Drama
Life is a dream—for some a nightmare.
As noted, I am a student of A Course in Miracles, which I will refer to as the Course. Despite how it sounds, this is not a religious work at all. Spiritual, yes, but religious, no. What's the difference? Quite a lot, it turns out. Spirituality is natural, personal, and rooted in direct experience. There is no such thing as secondhand spirituality. No one else's spirituality can serve as substitute for your own. Spirituality, it can be said, represents a natural developmental stage in human growth—a birthright. As we go beyond ego and survival as our main orientation for life and begin to entertain greater possibilities beyond the limited life of the body, we will have experiences that validate this natural expansion into a greater reality. When and how these experiences happen is beyond our conscious control. It is inevitable, though, that every one of us will have a personal Spiritual Awakening sooner or later. For some, the awakening can come from working with a specific practice or discipline. For others, it just seems to "land" out of nowhere.
Religion, on the other hand, grows out of the attempt to codify a deeply personal Divine connection into a structure that can be learned by others and maintained as a specific form over time. With this noble intention, spirituality is "cut down to size" to meet the limited needs of humans as perceived by other limited humans at that time. To think that a system of belief or code of behavior based on someone else's experience can in some way impart a spiritual benefit to another is like thinking that one person can breathe for another.
The difference between religion and spirituality is analogous to the difference between ego and Spirit. We are all bona-fide schizophrenics in this sense. We walk a fine line between our thought-made ego-self and our divinely appointed Spirit self. Which "self" is ascendant in the moment is easily determined by answering the question, "How happy am I?" Spirit is in joy constantly ... limitless joy without any specific cause. You see, if our joy is caused by something, then the joy is always contingent on outside events and limited by uncertainty about what will happen when the cause for joy is gone. This is conditional joy, concealing a deep fear of loss of joy. Spirit experiences unconditional joy all the time—no exceptions. Ego vacillates between states of conditional happiness and abject misery that is unable to even imagine causeless joy. "Causeless joy," or joy without opposite, is another non-dual concept!
Most of us find ourselves wandering between these two states or modes of being in an awkward and unpredictable dance. Some days we dance pretty well; other days we seem to be stuck with two left feet. Until we fully awaken to our Spiritual Self and consistently remain in that state, we tend to stumble around, half-asleep. One critical thing we are generally unaware of before awakening is the "third element" of our being: the Will, which sits as the chooser between the True (Spirit) Self and ego. The Will is called the "choice maker" in the Course. Even when we are asleep to the Will, it's still operating—it's just asleep and hostage to the ego. The dormant Will tends to exclusively lean toward the apparent safety of our past conditioning and the conditioning of those around us.
Even when we do automatically react as we always have, there is a microsecond of choice before we do. This is the "gap" of silence between primary perception and thought. The gap of decision is so tiny in those who yet sleep that it is easily obscured by the steady stream of ego-babble we entertain as "our thoughts." Yet how we react to any situation does represent a choice, albeit automatic—a choice to remain as we have always assumed ourselves to be; a choice to stay in line with a mental image of ourselves that seems to work, for now. But sooner or later the self-image will fail, and we will be in the strange and uncomfortable position of having to make an entirely new choice without the support of any past reference. The Will has awoken. Our new choice will be determined with our sincere asking, "What is it that I truly want to experience now ... conflict and pain, or love and peace?"
Real spiritual experiences always increase our joy. This is partly because true spiritual experiences always involve an element of greater inclusion, expansion, and connectedness. This is love in its real meaning, an ever-expanding and creative field of total inclusion with the accompanying collapse of perceptions of difference and separation. Love on this level requires no concepts or thoughts to sustain it. The ultimate reconnection is between you (what you think you are, as separate from your Source) and your Source. We say reconnecting because the connection has always been there. We have just lost sight of it.
Religion and religious sytems typically evolve in reaction to the awakening experiences of one person or a small group of people. For whatever reason, at some point in time a group of people felt it necessary to attempt to conceptualize a largely subjective and abstract experience into a concrete form, typically ending up encoded within "sacred" writings. Not to say this is "bad" or "evil"; the codifying of spirituality in the past represented for the most part a sincere desire to share the benefits of the spiritual life with a larger population—this particularly in past ages with limited communication systems and illiteracy across the board.
The idea of "educating the masses" with an imposed secondhand spirituality, however, contradicts a basic tenet held by most Eastern faiths, where "(only) when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." This edict recognizes a Divine timing to our spiritual awakening that cannot be rushed or prevented. When the student is not ready, laying a set of beliefs or behavioral codes on him will typically be perceived as an unrequested imposition on his freedom and sovereignty or will feed into his self-image (ego) of being religiously special. The entire Western missionary credo, a form of spiritual colonialism, was and is based in the arrogant assumption that "one size fits all" and "the prevailing patriarchy knows best" for everyone when it comes to spirituality. Spirituality is thus torn from the realm of the strictly personal and intimate to one of a culturally defined pre-packaged product.
History tells the story. Religion, a human invention, tends to separate people into "believers" and "non-believers," despite many creeds and injunctions that altruistically suggest otherwise. Upon truly awakening, many people naturally drift away from the spiritual kindergarten of religion. This is not to say that someone can't have a genuine spiritual experience within a religious context. Spirit is not limited by any time or circumstance at all! For some, a religious context may offer the ideal environment for their emerging spirituality. Sheep like fences, right? But religion itself does not guarantee a spiritual experience or connection. The arrogance of dominating hierarchies, of dogmatic separation and "holy wars", is a sure clue that the ego is in the mix, as only ego is invested in hierarchies that separate rather than join. You can inherit a religion like you can an accent or hair color, but your spirituality is entirely up to you!
There are many non-spiritual religious folks who by their beliefs and actions display anything but greater inclusion and connectedness. Sadly, many religions become happy havens for the ego and offer institutional support for propagating fear, intolerance, anger, and even war. If you doubt this last statement, have you seen the evening news lately?
It seems that as soon as we try to organize anything in our world, certain group dynamics arise spontaneously. The field of social psychology documents fairly predictable group behaviors. In the world as processed through the ego's filters, any human organization tends to gravitate to the establishment of hierarchies, or to something I like to call the "cheese principle." This principle suggests the following: In any human organization, the leadership (those who like to think they are the cream) rises to the top and solidifies. The resultant cheese then resists recirculation, and even as the milk sours, will hold its position at any cost.
Evolutionary psychologists have offered that the first politicians were also the first priests. After all, it was the priests who had the "connections" with the almighty or the forces of nature, and so could sway the Great Spirit to assure good hunting or crops, and to avoid the dangers of an uncertain future. Priests had the "hidden knowledge" of how to please or pay off the Gods with the most appropriate rituals and sacrifices. Religious leaders assumed some of the first class-based power distinctions in human cultures, along with hunters. As power in unawakened humans tends toward corruption and self-interest, many religious officials became subject to the "cheese principle" and were deeply invested in creating and maintaining ongoing power structures in their societies. Priest-politicians became among the first promoters of wars on other humans (more recently declaring "war" on nature, women, gays, the poor ...) all "with God on our side" ... a sad and divisive tradition based on asserting temporal power that continues to play out this day on Earth. It is likely quite confusing to our extra-terrestrial neighbors, who must see our great potential alongside our bizarre tribal behaviors as puzzlingly contradictory.
The political philosopher Karl Marx had a great degree of insight into the true function of religion in modern societies. Despite his demonization by the true believers in capitalism with their preferred interpretation of history, Marx was a deeply spiritual man. One of his great insights was in seeing how religions generally serve as the philosophical arm of the prevailing economic system of the day. It was Marx who declared religion as "the opiate of the people," lulling them into complacency and acceptance of rigorous male-dominated hierarchies, senseless wars, and inequality. "It's okay, folks, you'll get your reward in the afterlife! But if you screw up and don't 'play ball' in this one, you'll have hell to pay! Oh yeah, and don't forget you have to work real hard at a job you hate for low wages to get to heaven." The priests support the politicians and their corporate sponsors who in turn support the priests with lip service to "religious freedom." How cozy!
The separation of church and state in the Western world, a concept often credited to English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), was one of the "great leaps forward" in the liberation of humanity. It is precisely this freedom that allows me to make statements like these without being burned at the stake. It is a sad and tragic commentary that dualistic religions (religions still caught in the trap of ego mind and its fixation on good and evil) have been the cause of so much pain and discord, each one believing they somehow represent "God's Will." The fact that there are 50,000 different denominations in the Christian world alone, each with their own interpretation of "God's word," should tell you something about human thought-based perception as a means of maintaining separation and egoic specialness. The only way this could make any sense is if somehow this dualistic "god" of religion was not the true God of Unconditional love, but instead the projection of collective ego tortured by its own inner divisions. If the conflicted ego is your god, then I suppose you would be justified in worshipping a god of fear who wages wars to punish "sinners" and "evildoers"—basically those who don't agree with our interpretation of truth and thus pose a threat.
I have touched on only one aspect of the insanity of the world here. No matter where you look in the man-made world of madness, you will find the same glaring inconsistencies, and the cause of much suffering and division in the commonly held thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs of many as held in our institutions and unquestioned historical patterns. If anything today challenges the deeply revered "myth of progress," I would say that the tenacious hold of pre-literate and dualistic religious dogmas on society proves that we are still, in many ways, in the clutch, if not the shadow, of the Dark Ages.
IS THE MOVIE OVER YET?
This brings us back to the question of "ending the drama." How do we solve the problems of this mess of a world on the brink of self-destruction and oblivion? I will not even consider offering political, economic, or philosophical solutions from the same level of mind that created the problem. Most "solutions" in the world today simply do not work because they are only addressing the effects of a deeper, hidden cause of our woes. As in our symptom-suppressing disease care system, Band-Aids can only cover up symptoms; they cannot address root causes. I'm just going to say it: Solutions for the problems of the world and your life do not lie in "fixing" anything, but rather in recognizing the world has no more reality than a dream and is thus not real at all!
This statement definitely strikes at the heart of the ego's thought system, which we grew up with and accept without question. The ego's version of you and the world, as convincing as it may be, is essentially limited to the realm of sensory input and conditioning from others who likewise are limited to a conditioned material orientation. Just because the majority of people around us think and feel the same way does make the consensus viewpoint right. The part of you that chafes at the notion that there is no world is the part that may unconsciously suspect it is true ... and if it is true, then the whole house of cards built up by our belief in ourselves as separate and independent egos could come tumbling down. To this I say "Great!" That belief system is going to come down sooner or later anyway, as any structure started in time will end in time. The idea that time-based structures are by necessity temporary is a basic tenet of Buddhism, a largely non-dual thought system.
"Where does the suspicion that we live only in dreams exist?" you may ask. Remember that spark within? The fact that the world is an illusion is one of its key messages, and this realization is a crucial step in your awakening. I am happy to tell you that the illusion is not only "unreal" but also destined to evaporate back into the nothingness from which it arose. It is just a matter of time. How can I be so confident? It's simple, really. Any belief or thought system based on error must eventually implode, because errors have absolutely no foundation or reality in and of themselves. Only truth is true. Only what is true is real. All the rest is simply nothing—even an error that is held so deeply and dearly by the part of the mind invested in separation. What is this error? It is simply our belief in the possibility of separation, from our Source and hence from our True Self and each other. As we recover from all our illusions of separation, even the distinction between Source, Self, and others must yield to the Oneness, which has never changed, remaining as it always has been.
However, the mind begs to argue. One cannot maintain a dualistic perspective without the presence of the opposite point of view. This is not a criticism or judgment—it is simply an observation. Here is where the error of separation becomes a lie that we live by. Conditioned thought systems only appear solid because of the many complex falsehoods built to prop up the weakness of the original error. The ego loves complexity, because with more complexity comes more confusion and ultimately surrender to something we are convinced is beyond our grasp. Yet the ego, as a construct based on unreality, can only come to insane conclusions. As long as it operates, the ego is a master of smoke and mirrors used to distract from the simple, obvious truth that we remain One and that the separation it imagines is completely meaningless.
The ego's greatest fear is that once you awaken, you will realize (make real) the fact that you no longer need an ego. As a limited, self-contained, and self-perpetuating program, the ego has no single delete button, like a nasty computer virus. It is up to another part of the mind, the part that is real, to create and push that button often until the job is done and the virus is eliminated for good.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Seeing Beyond Illusions by DAVID IAN COWAN. Copyright © 2015 David Ian Cowan. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Ken Carey,Introduction,
One Ending the Drama,
Two Earth School,
Three Metaphysical Creation Story,
Four The Beginning of Wisdom,
Five Back to the Cause,
Six Cultivating Silence and the Rediscovery of the Will,
Seven Practicalities,
Eight Going Deeper: Recognizing Illusion,
Nine Recognizing Reality,
Ten Forgiving for Good,
Eleven The Cost of Not Forgiving,
Twelve It's All in the Mind,
Thirteen Perspective: Creation Story Part 2,
Fourteen The Problem of Guilt,
Fifteen The Healing Power of Forgiveness,
Sixteen The Resolve to Awaken,
Seventeen True and False Forgiveness,
Starting Over,
About the Author,