joey lugassy ‘04

    In our daily lives we can always be reminded of the deeper meaning of this quote from the Bible; “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” Matthew 6:3, meaning, that although we know that to do good is to receive good (the two hands), we must work independently of this knowledge. If we think that by doing this or that good deed we will benefit from it we ruin the heart motive, i.e., the love of good for good’s sake (also, you’re not being in the moment because you’re anticipating a future reward). In this same way, if we set out to dissolve the ego we are doomed. For one, it’s already a subtle, egotistical, aggression against self (”I’d be great if I killed this ego.”). Who we are, is so mixed up with who we are not, that we needn’t start picking apart what to keep and what to discard. Some energy we have is what makes us “crazy” but some of that same energy or personality is what makes us amazing drummers or motocross racers, etc. Again, the only way around this seeming quagmire is to meditate for the sheer love and interest of meditating, not to become better and not to try to dissolve the ego. To be inquisitive. No commentary. Just observe. By doing this, one begins to identify oneself with the observer instead of the observed. Celebrated, Tibetan author, Sogyal Rimpoche, calls it “Sky-like Mind” as opposed to the clouds (parade of characters, comedy/drama). That which sits behind and is never stained or marked by the temporal clouds that come and go. With this clear intention - the inconsistencies, cherished human beliefs, fears, etc., fall by themselves without the ego saying “I’m never doing that again!” or “I’m gonna beat this thing!” They both sound a bit violent and egotistical, do they not?
    The common analogy of your mind being like a shaken jar of water filled with sediment is a great one but there’s one more point that can be seen from it; the jar that is shaken represents the mind full of distractions (cloudy). If we let it sit still (meditate/focus to the exclusion of thoughts) the sediment (or grasping distraction) settles to the bottom leaving a perfectly clear jar of water (empty mind). Now here comes the left hand, right hand stuff that we’re not supposed to think about; once your thoughts are all settled and you have a thought of anxiety, fear, etc., it’s like seeing a single particle floating in the center of this clear jar of water. You can identify it and you can also see the thread that leads to its source. You’re not searching for a needle in a hay stack of a million voices all trying to speak at once. Your mind is not full of chatter. When you see the origin of these things, it’s hard to cherish them and take them so seriously and therefore they dissolve by themselves.
We as a species are standing at the threshold of Conscious Consciousness (Consciousness becoming conscious of Itself), the ability to deduce from within out. This is the state that allows our enlightening conversation, discovery of meditation, the sciences, music, and the potentiality of full enlightenment or what is often called Self Realization, but I will add that this is also the destroyer. With the ability to deduce from a supposition comes the ability to say “What if?”, which also is the ability to be anxious, fearful, (“What if they don’t like me?”) regretful, vain and basically the ability to tether way out in dreamlike free association requiring the need for meditation or focusing on something you’re doing now, like breathing. If the past is over and the future has not yet come and we are spending most of our lives in these two concepts, then we’re not here at all!
    Dogs don’t understand mirrors. Nor do dogs understand vanity. Why is this? Because they don’t understand the concept of stepping outside of themselves and looking back. To do this requires deductive reasoning or reasoning from within-out and the animal level has only unfolded to inductive reasoning or reasoning from without-in. With the virtue of deductive reasoning comes the comment. This word is very revealing; communicating with your own mentality, com-mentality or even co-mentality, i.e., stepping outside of one’s self and looking back and commenting on it (sort of a ‘co-brain’). Again, it is the cause of the mess that has become the so called “human condition” but at the same time, it is the wonder and glory of this elevated state of life that we are so lucky to be a part of.