“Beyond Ego” with Benjamin this Sunday + No Session 10/5

Dear Community,

Next Two Weeks of Sunday Gatherings

This Sunday, 9/28, Benjamin will lead the session. The following Sunday, 10/5, there will be no gathering. We will come back together 10/12.

For this Sunday’s gathering, we will explore the theme of “Beyond the Ego,” based on Ajahn Sumedho’s chapter by this same name in his book, Don't Take Your Life Personally. Below is a passage from the chapter (pp. 37-39):

The point is, the ego is a mental object. So, when you give the ego your power, you are empowering something that doesn’t have any wisdom. Your experience of life will then always be distorted through that, and you will suffer endlessly as a result. The Buddha’s teaching is about getting beyond the ego (not trying to annihilate it, though!) and getting to the pure subject, the absolute subject, the buddho, the Buddha, awareness, just simple attention, listening, opening. You cannot get beyond this centre, this still point in which you have perspective on the turning world around you. If you are out on the wheel, you are caught on the dizzying momentum of going round in circles. We call it ‘saṁsāra’ ― ‘saṁsāra-vaṭṭa’ means ‘going round in circles’ ― endless cycles, not really going anywhere but round. That is why when you do things from ignorance, you find yourself coming back and repeating the same things over and over again. You are out on the perimeter, moving round with it. Getting to the very centre, the still point, on the other hand, is by the simple act of attention. You don’t have to spend years learning how to do this; it is not a skill that is too refined or too remote for any of you; it is just learning to recognize and trust it. From this still point you can observe the things that are revolving; you see changing conditions for what they are without being taken over by them, by that which you previously identified with. And you see that your personality or self-view is conditioned.

… The point to notice is the difference between becoming a personality that is the subject of your experience, or being the absolute subject (your awareness). Now, this is an intuitive sense. My experience is to trust the absolute subject. The personality is not something that I trust or believe in any more. It takes a willingness to investigate this, however. It is not a matter of coming from a rejection of the personality, but of knowing its limitation and no longer operating from personal reactions. This is something to experiment with.

All are welcome to join this exploration on Sunday! Registration and Zoom information available here.

With mettā,
Minneapolis Insight