Praise Your Fears

Demons and devils and fearsome beasts: these are things that we avoid. We are aversive because it is the attachment to our fears that strengthens the ego. We can not let go of the self when we actively keep ourselves from something that we say we are not. Fears are nothing more than valuable lessons we have yet to learn.

When I teach enlightenment to Westerners, I often use the analogy of God and the Devil, as this is a thought structure they are familiar with. God is said to preside over Heaven; and the way through is by surrendering ourselves to God. The Devil has a very accurate description as being lord of this world. As long as we fear what we perceive to be bad, we are bound here, to suffer fear. The duality between God and the Devil allows one to easily overcome duality itself. When you love all that you feared, all that you avoided, they cease to be. When there is only love left, bad does not need good and both dissolve. The ego does not need to be if it is not separate from anything.

You can not pick and choose with enlightenment. One must let go of all attachments, to both good and bad. One must have a heart of whole love that does not discriminate. Contemporaries have pointed out to me that Hitler is akin to the Satan archetype and that he is implicitly evil. The enlightened, they are untouchable. The enlightened is not swayed by the actions of good and bad that others may direct at them. To hold yourself at a distance from Hitler, or anything for that matter, is to hold yourself from unity. The ego loves this. The ego feeds on our fears, our sense of ''I am because I am not that".

Beneficent beings or malevolent demons; it is all a matter of the perception of a discerning, resilient, self. All that is in relation to you, simply is not. The enlightened have become an implicit, undefinable part of their world, not something that can be measured against it. The enlightened one is God nor Devil, saint nor sinner. They have transcended the cognizance of duality and of being this but not that. They simply 'are'. They do not measure with a yardstick or with a sense of morality. Without a sense of something outside the self, there is nothing to weigh judgement against.

Enlightenment does not come upon the seeker, but upon he whom has surrendered all hope. The gates of Heaven are guarded by the Devil himself. And he will do all that it takes to keep you out, so that you may enter.

Image, The Observant, by Craig Reuter