You deserve better than such ignorance
Published in Orient Yourself
Jan 23, 2024 (Medium.com)
Last year, one of the most optimistic humans in history passed away.
His name was Lama Zopa, said to be the reincarnation of a yogi from a region called Lawudo in Nepal.
This yogi died in retreat, and Lama Zopa as a child would spontaneously run to climb up the mountain to his previous life’s retreat cave. He’d say to his mother that he still had work to do up there!
But such aberrations of behaviour aren’t the only “proof” that our subtle consciousness can continue beyond our mental/physical dissolution.
You can find it yourself — but only if you get your head out of the sand.
The biggest stumbling block to this, in modern folks, is that we’re utterly identified with what isn’t truly us–our name, appearance, privilege, mind, thoughts and emotional state.
You can’t even consider that the deeper reality beyond, which is reborn, will actually be “you” when it manifests a new form. Because you identify totally with the lie of a self that’s bound to come to an end one day.
How will you ever notice where your root tendencies actually come from, which is beyond your parents, culture, education, and environment?
To an extent, this lazy and ignorant interpretation is right
“You” are a unique recipe of manifestation that won’t ever come about in the same combination again.
Congratulations, snowflake – now realize when you melt, you’ll still be water. And it’s cold, so you’ll freeze back again – influenced by the way you melted last.
Reincarnation isn’t much different.
Sure, your future manifestations will process the world slightly differently. They’ll have a very different body. Emotions unknown to you now will reveal themselves in full bloom in another realm of possibility.
But if you latch onto all this, calling it truly you and yours, guess what? It’ll slip through your fingers like sand. Again and again, birth after birth, with nothing lasting but the passing pains and pleasures of this unpredictable world.
How is that even a remotely dignified way to live?
It’s not your fault you’re brainwashed
Our culture is inherently geared to what Buddhist philosophy labels as “the affairs of this life.”
Your reputation, material gain, relationships – all the bridges made of sand that you can’t take with you. And not because of some kind of inherent Western inferiority — because even ancient India, China, and Tibet had cultures tending to gear toward this physical reality.
It’s because it’s simply easier to focus on what’s in front of you. The distant future is just that: out of view and hence out of mind.
But is it actually out of reach, if every moment is creating it?
It’s not only right in front of you, but it’s the deep purpose in you being here in the first place.
Humans are the only form of life we know of that can influence the process of their consciousness’ development.
We undergo involution, whereas the natural world is subject to evolution.
So how do you obtain that which benefits you even after death?
Proper effort on the spiritual path is considered to be the only thing that brings value beyond this coarse manifestation. Because it creates the conditioning of the next ones.
How, you ask? Most obviously by shifting the kind of mental and physical apparatus that emerges from the “DNA” of karmic seeds deposited in the subtle mental continuum.
- Acts of generosity and patience deposit energetic potentials of expansiveness and sturdiness.
- Selfishness and anger produce contraction and restriction.
Engineer enough of these deep, root-level habits, and happiness is likely to come about in this very life, let alone in the far future.
But if you roast the seeds entirely, something magical happens
In the Buddhist theoretical landscape of psychology models to explain these concepts, there is a term called ‘storehouse consciousness’ that is the holder of all these karmic potentials. It’s the subtle stream of consciousness that reincarnates after death.
The deep work that Lama Zopa’s previous yogic incarnation was doing had something to do with ‘shaking off’ the accumulations of karma in this layer, using the burning blaze of insight.
He saw right through the entire process, so it was impossible to unconsciously fall into (coarse) karma ever again.
One of his most outspoken students, Robina Courtin, told a story about how his childhood was itself “proof” of his success in his past life’s spiritual endeavor.
After falling into a lake and almost drowning, Lama Zopa struggled and barely saved himself from potential death. But recounting his state of mind during the event: he said there was absolutely zero fear, just awareness and action.
Lack of mental afflictions like overpowering lust, anger, dullness, and anxiety is a sign that someone has entered what Buddhism calls ‘irreversibility.’
This is the inability to turn back to faulty, delusional forms of existence in this world.
And these are exactly the inner superheroes our confused modernity desperately needs.
But they can’t arise out of nowhere
Deep work is impossible without dedicated individual efforts plus institutional support.
How will you know which path is right without trying several, that too in an intensive & immersive environment, with access to living masters?
Yet ashrams are rare in our capitalist Western world, where housing is a commodity and community is a luxury.
How will you know what you’re capable of, beyond the whims of this life, without abandoning your obsession with it?
But few people, even supposedly spiritual ones, have actually turned away from the external world, becoming totally dedicated to optimizing their inner one.
So if the causes and conditions actually come together for you to do something out of the ordinary scheme of things – even if it’s sitting for 10 minutes in meditation after watching a video about it on the internet – consider it a lucky moment.
It’s aligned with the higher potential you’re here to embody.
Distraction isn’t your problem, it’s your solution
When the influences of the collective unconscious bear heavy, remember the following story.
A king who would go on barefoot walks decided one day to make all the land he had influence over ‘perfect’ for this strange habit of his.
He went about carpeting the roads, and jailing those who made messes of the walking paths. Until one day, someone convinced him to wear shoes – and then to provide them to all who couldn’t afford them.
- The king is your tendency to think you’re truly in charge.
- Walking barefoot is your overly sensitive nature.
- The carpet is your delusional and stressful effort to change the world to suit your “needs.”
- And the shoes are the insight of your own (fixable) inner faults being the main issue in life, not a list of external complaints.
Like the Buddha said, we’re all walking around minds impaled by arrows.
Why not perform the essential care we need, rather than building whole cultural systems geared toward ways to “cope” with our condition?
Written by Rami Dhanoa
·Editor for Orient Yourself
Re-thinking human potential with meditation & Indic philosophy.