The True Path to the Impersonal Life

Why does one want to be a different human being? Our consciousness is dictated by the opposites. I am not a nice person. There is an ache in my heart and I am at war within. I don't like who I have been. As a man becomes conscious of what is wrong in him, hatred, cruelty he becomes connected to the part of himself that can discern this wrongness without knowing what is right. Once a person realizes the harm being done to them, they begin to realize that that nature can't be followed. Then the wrongness is rooted out by the light. There is a real intelligence that exists that can rescue you from this nature.

What are we on earth for? To live for something other than ourselves. To no longer live for the nature consumed with itself. There is no substitute for self-knowledge. Alice in Wonderland said to the caterpillar -- "I hardly know who I am, I have changed so many times." What we are now is merely a reflection of the thoughts and feelings we consider moment to moment. Our sense of self is a derivative of the thoughts before our mind, the reflection of all these images. "I" is a creation of the negative self. The circumstances change and the "I" changes because it has no reason to keep going. We are like a leaf in the wind.

The sense of self is a creation of conditions this is why we always have to start over. This sense of "I" is a phantom. It does not live apart from the sensations that support it. For the purpose of this talk we will call it "Effect -- I", a self that is nothing but an effect. That "I" has no separate existence apart from conditions that bring it into play. It is like looking through a large kaleidoscope. As you turn the instrument the colored glass takes on a new form and pattern. We are not too dissimilar to these pieces of glass. As life turns, parts of us resonate. We were here and now we are not, no longer in relationship with what we were and we don't like our new combination. These pieces are just fragments of thoughts and feelings that have to change themselves depending on the changing circumstances. One piece is an effect of the whole. We know ourselves by the sensations and as the experiencer of thought apprehended by thought. We are part of the change and can't find any peace.

Trying to keep it together is an effect of the change and another part of the kaleidoscope. There is something higher than all of this. There is an "I" that can look into the scope and view the whole of the changes. This is Seeing - I. It is the part of a human being that is capable of seeing everything changing without the self becoming a derivative of these changes. Seeing - I is constantly changing although it doesn't change. It is unmoving I seeing all the various "Effect - I" and this is the beginning of a new kind of life. Not a sensory self but a seeing self. All changes take place within that I. "To be in the world and not of it." The only change that matters, is the change in you. We are not all the parts of the glass of the kaleidoscope. Seeing connects you to a higher relationship. We personalize everything. The truly impersonal life of a human being is brought to them when they recognize their thoughts and feelings can never bring them contentment. Seeing what is going on inside instead of being it. The source of all pain is the self. One has to come to the end of oneself. The proper end of self is the beginning of a new self.

Here is an exercise: When you are going to get that person, or say "I hate you" "I want that", "I'm so stupid", never say I to these states. All of them are an "Effect - I". There is no separation or conscious awareness. Never say "I" without adding, "All that I am". Catch the different "I's" and become conscious of the source that created them. That I didn't exist before someone did something. See the relationship between thoughts and feelings and the "I". I is a derivative of a condition not the controller. I will know all that I am now, that there is no I there that wasn't a creation. Be the "I" looking into the kaleidoscope. See all of the movement. "I am not this I." Awareness sees the whole of all the parts and movement. I am not that I. That is what is impersonal. Become conscious and aware of yourself when you say I. Then changes the Effect-I for the Seeing-I.