Daily Quote, Tuesday September 29, 2009.

Good morning everyone,

It looks a bit dark here right now, so no weather report!

Here is today's quote:

The "me" and the other "me".

What do you mean when you use the term “myself”? As you are many and ever changing, is there an enduring moment when you can say that this is the ever “me”? It is the multiple entity, the bundle of memories that must be understood and not seemingly the one entity that calls itself the “me”. We are ever-changing contradictory thoughts-feelings—love and hate, peace and passion, intelligence and ignorance.

Now, which is the “me” in all of this? Shall I choose what is most pleasing and discard the rest? Who is it that must understand these contradictory and conflicting selves? Is there a permanent self, a spiritual entity apart from these? Is not that self also the continuing result of the conflict of many entities? Is there a self that is above and beyond all contradictory selves?

The truth of it can be experienced only when the contradictory selves are understood and transcended. All the conflicting entities which make up the “me” have also brought into being the other “me”, the observer, the analyser. To understand myself I must understand the many parts of myself including the “I” who has become the watcher, the “I” who understands. The thinker must not only understand his many contradictory thoughts, but he must understand himself as the creator of these many entities.

The Collected Works vol IV, p 45

Here are my reflections.

On Sunday at the study group we looked at the question of attending to the right beginning, the starting point, and the idea that there has to be a moment of insight at the beginning, not the end. This right beginning comes when we understand ourselves. This is not understanding the 'true' self or the 'higher' self, because this is simply the creation of the self that does not understand itself, that is not aware of it's history, that has not looked back upon itself.

To do this is to put onself in a state of not knowing and so into a state of readiness to inquire, to learn, and also to love. When when knows or thinks one's knowledge means anything, then inquiry is simply a way to strengthen the self by accumulating more knowledge. There is clearly no humility here, and without humility, again, there can be no love and no affection. When we can observe the many entities that we are, the essential impermanence of the "me", this is a moment of transformation, an awakening of what is intelligent, of that which can appreciate the wholeness of life.

Best wishes

Robert