Observe the Play of the Weak and the Strong

Every ego has a weak fragment and a strong fragment, right? Or actually it can be a number of fragments, but there will usually be one that is strongest and one that is weakest. In a healthy ego, the strongest aspect of the ego will take over, and the weak will serve the strong, and gradually become stronger and be able to grow under the guidance and the aegis of the strong fragment—but in a pathological ego, the strong one is made to serve the weak, and if the strong one serves the weak, then its strength is used simply to assure its security for the weak one on the phenomenal plane, and it cripples itself, and it turns its strength into weakness, because it ratifies the reality of the weak fragment. And it says, “No, I can’t go out and stand alone and become great and independent because my weak fragment will feel abandoned, so I have to follow and do what the weak one needs, which is to assure its security by clinging on to someone else, or something,” or betraying itself in some way, or compromising its life and never living to the full. And it calls that self-betrayal, love.

This is number 110:

“The worldly are like mad dogs—

they devour this corpse of a world in their ignorance

and will tear apart anyone who suggests otherwise.”

So this is the chakra three ego—devouring—still out of security need, but now the strong one is turned into aggressive, and bullying, and dominant, and it wants to devour the world—but not in the way that Zorba meant it—but it means to devour it in the sense of consuming all the jouissance possible, and to rape nature, and to do whatever is needed to become successful in worldly terms while selling its soul to the devil. And so the mad dogs are now running the world. “Mad dogs and Englishmen”, of course. At least they think they’re running the world—not anymore, but they’re acting that way. So the mad dogs are within, and not just without.

Now, here’s an interesting one which is kind of like the water treatment on steroids. Number 118:

“Story—

Sheikh Abu-Saeed of Mehne

the Sultan of the path,

was asked by a bystander to intercede

and save from the constable’s wrath

a man who, while being beaten severely,

was pleading to be spared

and took God’s name repeatedly.

‘How can I oblige, friend?’ Said the saint,

‘When only now and thus is he reminded of God?’”

Right? OK, so here is a saint, right, the compassionate bodhisattva saying, “No, I’m not going to intercede in the guy’s being beaten up”. Why? Because this is actually bringing him closer to God. This is the secret of karma—people always wonder, why is there suffering? Because for the ego, especially for the weak or the aggressive or the paranoid ego, it’s only that suffering that will humble one and enable one to be obedient to God, to be faithful, to surrender, to submit at least to the forced acceptance of one’s karma. Because otherwise the ego never accepts its karma. It’s pissed. It’s pissed at God. It’s pissed at others. It wants to blame everyone for its bad fortune and doesn’t recognize that it’s his own dream that it’s consuming in its wrath against its own failure to realize its true nature.

120:

“I’m afraid of sinking in this ocean

so I busy myself with trinkets on the shore,

fattening my ego, starving my soul.”

So that’s what the ego tends to do, and it calls it spirituality. Instead of going through ego death, it’ll learn hatha yoga, or it’ll read scriptures, or it’ll do something else that enables the ego to survive, and the weak one to be coddled by others, and to find/get some weekend seminar diploma that allows it to call itself a reiki master, or some other kind of shingle that it can put out and claim to be somebody in the spiritual realm. But it has only gotten a few trinkets, and it has failed to commit itself to the deep ocean of consciousness, and never knows what’s below the surface of its own crust of fear, really, a fear of the void—because the ocean is the abyss, the Emptiness in which there is nothing to hold on to. And it’s that that we don’t want. “I want a formula! I want a practice. I want a regimen. I want to know what I should do! I want to know who I should follow. I want to know all of the landmarks of my phenomenal existence! I want certainty!” But if you want the Real, you must settle for indeterminacy. But the ego is terrified of that, and it’s terrified of letting go of its belief that it knows, when it knows deeply that it doesn’t know anything.

121:

“Unmindfulness is—”

This is a very important one.

“to see a locked gate

where there’s only a curtain,

and to end up left out in the rain.”

Right? The ego tends to assume that it’s being rejected by a teacher if it is corrected, and that it’s being locked out when, in fact, it’s being offered a curtain through which it can let go of that which had failed to recognize its true divine royalty, and pass through that gate by accepting humbly the need to let go of its false Master’s Discourse. And when the strong fragments of the ego fail to gain real strength, right? And what is real strength? And why does the weak part not want the strong to lead? It’s because it’s risky. It’s because if the strong healthy part of the ego were allowed to lead, it would dare to go through ego death. And that’s what terrifies the weak part. It’s the last thing it wants. And so it has to pretend the gate has been locked so it doesn’t dare go through, and it can blame the other for locking it out, and then it closes its heart, and indeed, then it locks itself out of the Shakti Gate and the Throne of God.

122:

“O’ worshipper of yourself”

(Your ego-self.)

“isn’t it time for the demon you carry within

to prostrate itself?

Every breath taken in ego

adds to that dark smoke that settles in your chest.

Attar has revealed what he knows,

now then, the decision is yours.”

It’s a decision that few can take, given the psychological internal conflicts that prevent self-sovereignty that is required to make such a decision.

Let’s see. 140:

“In this prison of illusions be insignificant,

vanish in this sea be not even a drop.

All creation is a mirror reflecting God’s face—

Let the face be your delight,

not the mirror.”

So there mustn’t be even a drop that remains separate from the sea—not even that lifeless shadow from the other poem, not even the shadow of a drop. There is only the Face of God.

141:

“While here, cease this scatteredness in your heart,

for tomorrow in your grave this would be very difficult.

Seek ‘Huzur’, the Presence, here,

so there you will not feel lonely and out of place.”

Have you yet faced the reality of your death? Because, you know, we’re dead a lot longer than we are alive, so our death is much more important than life. Life is over like that, but death can be your condition for a long time, and it can be in any kind of bardo state. Death isn’t just a deep sleep. No, it can be some very troubled dreams if you haven’t resolved your issues while alive, and if you’re scattered and not concentrated on the Real Self, all of those scattered fragments will become wrathful deities after death. So tomorrow, when you’re dead, it’s very difficult, because you can’t be awakened to the fact that those are just delusions and fantasies and dreams. You can’t be awakened from death until God has freed you from that grinder of karmic consequence, and it could be very lonely there. Because if you are living with fear of abandonment and loneliness, imagine feeling that on steroids when you’re dead and there’s no one you can cling to.

“Keep your secret a secret”

142:

“for your enemy is hiding in your shirt.

Attar was not revealed this secret

till he became his own enemy.”

Have you become your enemy? Your ego’s enemy, at any rate, because otherwise you’re not your friend.

145:

“Silence is—

to refuse to entertain that

which is not the Beloved.”

158:

“To fear is—

to imagine a shadow

and then to wither in its shade.”

To imagine a shadow and be afraid of a shadow, and then to wither out of that fear, and wither in its shade, which means you become the shadow, and that fear that the ego carries, which is your shadow, becomes the identity that ordains the karma of your life.

159. This is another octave:

“The breeze of dawn

blows every particle of dust to ecstasy;

Whoever received a robe of honor

received it at this hour.

Rise early and let your longing sigh,

for nothing brings a human more joy

or may elevate one as high.”

So he’s saying come to 4am meditation. That’s the time—and it is the time, that’s why in India it’s called Brahma Muhurat or Amrit Vela—the time of the Nectar, the time when Brahman comes and descends upon your consciousness and gives you ecstasy. But even those who come to meditation often fall asleep. They don’t go into ecstasy because they don’t recognize fully that it is the time to receive the robe of honor, the “Robe of Glory”, it’s called in the Christian tradition. And you receive that robe by total surrender to God.

160:

“To have joy is—

to die to everything that will die tomorrow.”

Live only for the eternal, not for the temporal, because you’ll be left empty handed and in desolation when you lose it, because it’s destined all to be lost—everything that you hold on to in this plane. And most egos turn their strongest fragment into a scavenger to hold on to whatever they can get, to hoard it, to dominate, to manipulate, to become con artists, to try to control the situations of the phenomenal plane, not to surrender to the Real. And so they create more karma and less joy.

Audio File: Observe the Play of the Weak and the Strong – Audio File.mp3