The need for control in spirituality

I have had a kind of homework lately. I've been more curious about all sorts of spiritual groups and practices. I haven't even needed to really do much but it's more that I've been observing it with more interest lately how people go on with their spiritual paths. It's a big bundle to include all of those different ways. You could go into all sorts directions from very ascetic and puritanical old school disciplines to more intellectual metaphysical studies but the most prevalent theme I find in most of it is control.

I can understand control as a mean because we have all been deeply conditioned into believing our identity as a person and in that deep state of hypnosis one starts to feel the call of freedom for the first time. It's the being whispering from the inside, saying "haven't you been sleeping long enough now, it's time for change". At first of course one doesn't really see it that way. It just starts as a kind of boredom and need for something different. There might be a frustration to the way things have been or maybe a bid dramatic accident that swipes the comfortable old life away. It's the start of the journey. Then at this early stage of feeling the call of freedom one starts to act according to what they know from before, they start to force things to change. Control is basically the main driving factor of humanity and has been so throughout the history and we have all learned this as the basic life skill to have because that's what keeps societies together as they are now. So naturally one has to start from that place. We start with practices where we learn to control our breathing, our body, our thoughts just so that we give the mind something repetitive to do so it's not absolutely all over the place, so that it can be more in the present moment. We learn to discern and not allow our minds to wonder from a mantra or a practice. And up to a point this works wonders. It gives a discipline and trains the mind to behave a certain way in a certain situation so that there is some space to just be. It's a kind of contract with the noisy mind that it can still have it's noise but now there are some boundaries where it has some time off. It gets slowed down so that one can catch up with themselves.

This kind of control serves a purpose up to a point but this control has become more or less the basis and end to itself. Very strict disciplines are practiced in temples, ashrams and monasteries and control has been on the main seat of all the religions because that's still what we respond best as unconscious mass. We take comfort in the safety and familiarity of the disciplines and practices and it is not only in the major religions but also in the world of yoga, meditation, new age and all of the more modern streams of spirituality too. I just saw a post on fb saying how the breath needs to be controlled in order to control the mind and I just felt the question coming "Then who is the one who needs to control the mind by controlling the breath?" and the answer was obvious, it's the personal identity.

That reminded me of another post where there was a whole long list of activities, habits and attributes that were called (and I'm not even making this up) ENEMIES of meditation and that really made me stop and take a closer look in wonder. In one way it is true that some things can be hindrances and distractions to the process of controlling the mind (which apparently is what meditation refers to in this case) but then again we need to take a closer inspection into this issue. When I talk about meditation and what it really is I mean the ultimate awareness in which everything else is perceived so then naturally it raises the question of how small meditation must be if there is something outside of it that can obstruct it. Second question: who is the person who needs to control certain behaviours and urges and sees them as problems and obstacles on the path to meditation.. and how far is meditation from this one. Then when we contemplate this kind of questions there is an immediate seeing that there is something more because something observes all of the previous; the meditator, enemies/obstacles of meditation and meditation (control) itself. We see that all of these things are indeed phenomenons happening inside the space that is actually the self. Our essential awareness.. or meditation. Therefore it leaves the issue of needing to remove anything from the path of meditation redundant and irrelevant because for the true awareness it is of no interest. It is only of interest as much as attention is given to it. It also needs energy to stay alive so it's just a mere concept to be used as a stepping stone.

Spirituality has been known mostly as it's practices and they have been given so much attention because of our deep habit of identifying with our body and personality and need to overcome things. To move step by step closer to perfection but it has been just the human minds own idea of perfection. It has been chasing it's limited version of freedom and because it doesn't know anything else than doing and striving. Some have come to the most simple discovery that it has always been there, they have never been separate from enlightenment, it is their very nature. They have found it difficult to convey this simplicity to the seekers because the seeker is always seeking something, trying to get somewhere and it is not something that can be attained. That's why they have been given disciplines and practices to keep busy with so that they can purify their minds and while they are busy they forget to resist the moment and they allow what is already there.

Now I feel there is starting to be sufficient amount of people who are open to that kind of directness that for them the thousands of years of controlling and forcing is not needed, who are just ripe to let all of that go. Maybe you are one of them since you are reading this.

Why do we follow the news and gossip? The consensus reality explained..

I have been staying with my parents after my rental contract ended. I’m waiting for my travels to begin after the summer of working. I have a lot of time observing what is going on in here. I find it hard to believe my eyes and ears sometimes when I’m around my parents because they remind of a certain way of being that I tend to forget to exist when I’m on my own. It’s the desperate need to make sure to belong in every possible way and it’s something that is so automatic and conforming that there is absolutely no awareness of it’s existence and that’s why it’s even a bit hard to detect yet it’s ever present in every little detail of everyday life.

I walked in to the living room today to hear the new Finnish PM giving a talk and I saw my parents just nailed to their seats and every sense laser-focused on the message, the appearance, the tone, the gestures. It was the most serious moment to hear what he had to say as if there was going to be any surprises. I just find it hard to grasp how important a talk can be that’s content everyone already knew. I see people absolutely addicted to the news. So much so that the same news are being checked many times per day in hopes that nothing important would be missed. I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun and say that nothing new really happens, just the actors and sets change within the same plot. In the bigger picture it all plays just as it does by the laws of nature. I find this kind of need to see “what is going on in the world” interesting because it actually gives out many delusions that are needed to be maintained just to keep one's interest alive for the show.

First of all news are a kind of reality filters chosen by the collective mind, the mass hypnosis that makes us all see in consensus in order to make our experience feel more real. We crave for agreement for what is real because it simply feels too scary and vulnerable to realise that all of this is merely interpretations and best guesses. We seem to think highly of this kind of knowledge. Not knowing about the world affairs or having no opinions on immigration or other current issues is considered ignorance even if adding opinions to the vast sea of opinions just doesn’t make any difference and the current issues are themselves are just based on the principle of what brings out the most emotional reactions which in itself is completely relative to what we hold important at any given moment and what we can relate with. News agencies decide what is new in order to sell their product and causing cheap emotional rollercoaster rides is what people respond to. We think that gathering as much input from the surroundings as possible is the highest kind of wisdom and will ultimately lead to more perfect understanding. Actually the need to collect all this knowledge is just a hollow attempt of the tiny human mind in trying to control and make sense out of this vastness surrounding us. We feel the need to deploy our attention in gathering all the information from the outside mostly so that we can place ourselves correctly in the picture, so that we have meaning, purpose.. that life makes sense and we can keep on doing what we do. There is just one issue with that.. life doesn’t really make sense, we cannot really control or understand it and in trying we are seriously limiting ourselves which naturally causes pain.

News and scientific interest is mostly the male way of keeping one connected to the mass mass consensus but more feminine way of doing it is more in the everyday life.. what the neighbours are up to? who has lost weight and which celebrity wore which dress and did it make her look fat? In this case the news is replaced with gossips. There is a need to know every single detail of how other people are living their everyday life even if the actual use for knowing what someone's cousin is doing for a living remains a mystery. Maybe it just gives a sense of social coordination and where to belong in the more pragmatic way so that the network of people and their hierarchies keeps safe and predictable. Whether it's the more masculine big lines or feminine small details doesn't matter. The tendency is exactly the same.

Actually this holding on to the common world view is a great imprisonment because one has to define oneself into a a tight compartment in order to maintain this point of view. If there is something that doesn’t fit into the picture it causes great turmoil because it shakes the very ground that the self-image is built on. So because there is such deep and intimate identification with the picture of who we are related into how we perceive our surroundings and what beliefs we hold it is so devastating to stop having the kind of input that we are accustomed to. That’s why it would be an absolute shock for example to drop someone from a very closed community into a culture with completely different set of principles and beliefs. Imagine getting someone from West Borough Baptist movement and suddenly planting them in a place like Christiania in Denmark. They just couldn’t handle it because they are used to a certain kind of constant input of information and values. They would simply have a breakdown. 

It’s easy to laugh at the whole idea but the truth is that the same situation is with the whole world with varying degrees and we all have our own cultural operating systems that need constant update in order to work. That’s the main reason to all the wars when you strip it down to the core. It's the reason for us having opposing sides on politics and simply not being able to agree on anything. It’s all about different operating systems causing shocks to each others which are handled usually with such and sophisticated tool as dualism and blaming. It’s all about who’s right and who is wrong. Who is justified in having their operating systems and why they should not be questioned. We love to keep in our little wombs of culture, our familiar little sufferings. We don’t like the growing pains that are necessary in order for maturity to happen.

The holding on to the one world view and defending it also means a submission and fear of authorities. It's the kind of thinking that because someone holds a position means that they are more wise and understand things better and their voice and reasoning becomes the only truth. They are given the role of the parent who automatically knows better and the best thing to do it to conform in every possible way because they must have valid reasons behind everything they do and certainly are not looking world through any distortions, right? They wouldn't have been chosen by ALL those people for no reason other than that their appearance and way of talking just makes people feel a certain soothing way. They just seem the kind of people that fill the characteristics of how a person who knows what they are doing should look and act like so they must, right? We just love to have that safe feeling of everything being wrong and scary in the outside world and having that reassuring parental figure leading us through the darkness because we simply could not rely on our inner wisdom. 

We also need to police each other and make sure that everyone around us is contributing to this nation and community and doesn't cause trouble. We feel bitter if someone is not confined within the beliefs that everyone must suffer for the greater good. It feels bad if others are not suffering alongside us not only because they make us doubt our own choices but they are destroying the foundation of our common wellbeing that is only accomplished if people don't feel well... that makes sense, right? Man, I wish I had a chance to meet someone from another part of the universe and explain this to them. I could become the new big intergalactic comedian making tons of space coins.

What was I talking about?... Oh, right... the sum up..

We live in a misunderstanding that life happens from outside to inside. We think we need to create ourselves, that we are not already there and for the creation of that self-image we need all possible material from the outside to keep the house of cards rising up. Thus we feel the need to accumulate more solid evidence of the reality we believe to be true and convince ourselves by saying "yeah, well everyone else seems to think so too" and then we try to convince all the others that it is so.. you know.. just in case someone forgets to remember. This is how fragile it all is. It's just a matter of constant repeating and reminding that keeps us chasing the outside input in order to paint the picture on the inside. The real wisdom is understanding that it works exactly the opposite. Everything is already there inside and the construction of identity is not needed in life. Everything that needs to happen is already happening perfectly without the need to try to predict and control it. If something needs to happen there will be a sufficient feeling, energy and circumstances for it to happen. When this understanding settles in then the need to gossip, follow news or try to keep up with the latest trends, have more money and stuff becomes uninteresting in itself because the warmth that is emitted from inside and the restful joy of letting the inner guidance do it's work becomes too big to be overshadowed by the constant need for that outside fix. It's a kind of snowball effect that when you trust yourself it just feels better and you become more calm about the outside world and it's movements. It's rewarding unto itself to follow it and it creates and authentic self-respect when you trust your inner being and see how perfectly is functions. Then the interest in how others are leading their lives loses it's significance because the flow of energy has morphed from an endless black hole sucking all the light and energy from it's surroundings into a natural spring that cannot help but overflow and nourish it's surroundings.