Challenge of Coping with Those Who Are So Identified with the Illusions of Their Ego

The less and less I become identified with the physical body the soul borrows and the life stories it experiences, the bigger the challenge I face has become in coping with those who are so identified with their respective body and life stories. Paradoxically, it's thanks to those who try to force this illusion of their ego upon me that I'm getting even more liberated from this illusion. "Who am I?" "I am." I know this even more clearly now.

This week I watched again (and again) The Enlightened Self and How to Do Self-Inquiry by Leo Gura, from whom I've learned than from any other living person, except for a few Chabad rabbis, and have experienced even more strongly that I'm pure presence or awareness.

I used to think I wished I could be a hermit as a way to escape from all these people who are spiritually asleep. But asceticism isn't part of Jewish tradition, so I have nowhere to seclude myself. Of course, I already know that this isn't a healthy solution, either. Our soul is borrowing a physical body in this physical world for a reason. Asceticism fundamentally contradicts this life mission.

I already know how to rise up to this daily challenge - by fusing self-consciousness, which most people are stuck with, and divine consciousness into rectified self-consciousness, or combining physicality and spirituality.

Before I started to wake up, I myself was also identified with the body and life stories, so I was at least unipolar. But awakening has resulted in a riduculous situation - polarity between physicality and spirituality, which is nothing but the very opposite of nonduality!

There are a number of teachings and practices for shifting from self-consciousness, or identification with the illusion of the ego, to divine consciousness of experiencing oneself as pure presence or awareness with no egoic identities, and I've read and practiced many of them. But when it comes to a shift from divine consciousness to rectified self-consciousness, which is, again, a fusion of self-consciousness and divine consciousness, I've found few teachings and practices so far.

One thing I've started practicing right now is not to put myself back into the prison of my egoic mind every time someone forces his illusion upon me and I become irritated by giving a mental interpretation to his speech and/or action. On the other hand, there is one thing I should stop doing - to try to explain to such people how they are stuck in the illusions of their ego. This can't help them become aware of their dream state they are unware of now. I can't change others; I can only change my response to them, especially mentally.

Another, proactive, measure is to increase my inner light. I suddently received this insight while I was deeply immersed in my daily study of Chabad Hasidism this week. But I don't know yet exactly how to except for continuing my study of Chabad Hasidism and other teachings of nonduality as well as some spiritual practices.

PS: I've decided to take a temporary measure of escaping from Jerusalem for two weeks. So I may not be able to update this blog in the next two weeks until I return to Jerusalem in the beginning of January, hopefully with new insights.

Parallel between Spiritual Awakening and Political Awakening

"If you have to hold on to your illusions because denial makes you feel better, then truth isn't what you need." - Kim Dotcom

Rather recently I noticed a parallel between spiritual awakening and political awakening. By spiritual awakening I mean the (ongoing) process of realizing that you were trapped in the prison of your egoic mind and identified with your egoic thoughts, which are nothing but illusions, and liberating yourself from this prison. Political awakening may be a subtype of spiritual awakening in that the latter is also a process of realization and liberation.

If you are politically asleep, you are brainwashed by the *ropaganda of mainstream media outlets and trapped in the prison of the collective ego these media outlets represent.

I started to wake up politically for the first time in 2002 when I realized how most mainstream media outlets of two disputing countries in one region had been brainwashing us in favor of one of them. This time I started to wake up politically about ten months ago. Thanks to a small but growing number of courageous independent journalists, I'm realizing how the mainstream media outlets of the most aggressive country in the world and its allies have been deceiving us by demonizing one country and sacrificing a neighboring country of this demonized country as a *roxy.

When I first started to experience this second political awakening, I couldn't believe what I had discovered. Just like someone who is spiritually asleep, I wasn't even aware that I had been politically asleep.

Unfortunately, most people around me seem politically asleep on this specific issue and probably on other political issues. I never fail to surprise them by telling them that justice is totally with this demonized country this time and this demonization has no foundation and justification. They in turn never fail to disappoint me by showing their total ignorance of the country they demonize and blame. They simply repeat the same *ropaganda uncritically without checking primary sources. They are so brainwashed that they aren't even aware that they are brainwashed.

At this transient stage of my political awakening I can fully understand why many of those who are spiritually waking up decide to keep silent and even seclude themselves as hermits after realizing that almost nobody around them understands them and they are trying in vain to help those around them realize that the latter are asleep.

I first realized this parallel between spiritual awakening and political awakening last month when I met someone who had also experienced spiritual awakening through the study of Hasidism and applied this experience to liberate herself from the *ropaganda of mainstream media outlets pointed out this parallel to me. It was a pleasant surprise to hear that she is also convinced that justice is with this demonized country this time.

Fortunately, more and more people, if not those around me, seem to be waking up on this specific political issue.