kriyayogamalaysia

Defining emptiness

From our e-book “We are Here to Celebrate”

Everything that exists in the world, including every one of us, is ‘empty’ because thoughts and memories are empty. Our identities are based on our thoughts and memories. All our experiences are now filtered through our memories and experiences.

The egos that we all hold so dearly are merely thoughts and memories. This can be understood intellectually, but to stop identifying with the ‘fluctuations in our consciousness’ or with our mind-body personalities, we need to experience this. It is beyond our mind and therefore, cannot be explained but the Masters assure us that it can be experienced. It is call self-realisation or enlightenment.

Even in our dreams we cling to our mind-body personality. When I was a toddler, I used to be able to consciously choose to wake up whenever I had a nightmare. I would imagine myself coming back to where I was staying, into my room and back into my body. I did not identify with my dream body. As I am writing this, I could still picture the images clearly in my mind. As I grew up, I lost this ability as I identify more and more with my ego.

Recently, I had a dream of purple leaves lifting me up from the ground. It was a pleasant experience but as I was lifted higher and higher, I started to worry about falling and that took the joy out of the dream. In a similar way, when we identify with our ego when we are awake, we take away the joy of being human.

Ego can only exist if there is a belief in separation. We may identify with our religion and the ego tells us that our religion is better. Within the same religion, our ego will say that our group is the right one and the other groups have strayed from the original teachings. Each group is an ego of its own. Let us recognise the ego-involvement when it shows it face.

Let us decide our own paths for ourselves. We can easily do so by observing how the teacher and his disciples live their lives. We can observe our own progress when we are under the teacher’s guidance. Are we becoming more conscious? Do we understand our Self more clearly?

We can only grow if we remain flexible and open. Only then can we use all knowledge and events as mirrors to understand our own beliefs and conditioning. Our beliefs and conditioning are the veils that are blocking us from seeing our own divinity.

We have millions of layers of beliefs, perceptions and conditioning that we accumulated in this life and in our previous lives. We are the only ones who can remove these layers of conditioning. We are the only ones who listen to ourselves, see our mental formations and feel our emotions 100% of the time. No Master can do this for us. We are our own best doctors. To understand our ‘Self’, we do not use medical equipment, we use awareness.