Losing The True Meaning

“Be at peace with your self.”
Sounds good, but we can lose the truth.

The statement, “Be at peace with your self”, can either schmooze us – manipulate us by turning a truth into a belief – or it can be direct realisation. There are many statements that are double-speak, using deliberately euphemistic or ambiguous language. In other words, they’re political.

In the Tibetan Nyingma tradition, there are 8 consciousnesses +1. Five are the senses that are non-conceptual, and three are of the mind: perception (brain), judgement and memory. It is memory that holds the ideas of self together. The +1 (the ninth consciousness) is pure consciousness. Whatever we do, we are usually caught up in memory, and so everything is continually related to a self. The ninth consciousness has no self-image; it is the very essence of what we are, before we start reacting.

This why and how we become caught up in belief, living in a mistaken reality through memory, rather than direct consciousness.

Once we are encouraged to believe something, having been steered away from direct experience, the belief turns into a temporary fix but the problem is never resolved. We just feel good for a moment. Our life is a series of ‘feeling good for a moment’, and that is why we constantly look for distractions.

Statements such as, “Be at peace with your self”, can sound good, but are rarely followed up in practice, as our button can be pressed at any time. We can see this happen time and time again with spiritual people, if there is no stability.

In absolute terms, being at peace with our self comes through direct understanding concerning our false self, which is our karma and teacher. So when times are challenging, it is these karmic reactions that tell us something about what is needed on our path to enlightenment. The challenge is our best friend!

Here is a typical generalisation of what most people mean by ‘being at peace with our self’:

Do not let the behaviour of others destroy your inner peace.
If you are at peace with your self or at peace with the world, you feel calm and contented.
You have no emotional conflicts within yourself or with other people.
You forgive yourself.

Notice the repetition of the word ‘you’, ‘you’, ‘you’ that maintains a duality – ‘you’ and ‘feeling good’. This is being caught up in the eighth consciousness of memory, creating something ‘to be’ rather than resting in what we already are.

Pure consciousness is already at peace as it has no sides.
To be at peace with our self is to understand how our self-mind works,
and how it is our karma and teacher.

Self is a tool.
This is how we can be at peace with our self.
Know thy self!

Always look after your tools and keep them bright,
and those tools will do a proper job.
😀