The Siren's Song

The Greek mythology of Sirens can be seen as an allegory for the mind; the stories and hypnotic trance it generates, and the unnecessary suffering caused by believing it.

There are a few different versions of the story, says wikipedia. The most common is that; “Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting songs, causing them to wreck their ships on the rocky coast of their island.” Another version is that; “Sirens would charm sailors by their song and having lulled them to sleep, would come and tear them to pieces.”

Some historians say that the etymology of the word siren comes from ancient Greek words that means; ‘rope’ and ‘bind’, giving the meaning; one who binds or entangles through magic song”.  Also interesting; according to some of the ancient Greek writers; “Sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs were able to pass by them.”

Isn’t this the way the mind works! Through one ‘song’ (mental story) or another, we can easily get lulled into a dreamlike state, and the next thing we know we can wind up ‘on the rocks’, entangled in the morass of thoughts and emotions and maybe torn to pieces by the torment of the mind — until we no longer get lulled into and ‘lost’ in the mental dream. Which is to say, when we see this tendency and we don’t believe it to be true, we can choose to pull our attention back and be the witnessing presence. Then we are free to let our humanness rise up — and let it fall back, like a wave on the ocean — and we remain free.

The Ocean of Being

 

We humans can be likened to the ocean. The waves on the surface are like our thoughts, imaginings, emotions, sensations and perceptions. Beneath the surface and holding the waves is the vast ocean of Being.

Our attention tends to be focused on the waves of phenomena and maybe fixated by beliefs that the surface is the total of who we are, while overlooking or ignoring the depth of our being.

From the perspective of the oneness of the ocean, we can understand that most of ‘our thoughts’ are really the waves of the collective mind of humanity — high and low. And like waves against a shore, the more we’re identified as the mind, the more we feel the crash of the waves and we get tumbled in the surf.

While it can be fun to play in the surf, we can also get beat-up by it. So when we want clarity, peace, to know the truth of life, we drop deeper into the calm of the ocean of being.

Diving deep into yourself is only a way of speaking, because there is no place you have to try to get to. Some people like to dive deep and some like to play on the surface, it doesn’t matter — when you know with certainty it’s all one ocean of being.

Ripples On The Waters Of The Collective

The divine presence is never absent from life. So too, the peace of Being is never absent. But in this busy and often crazy world, the focus of attention may be on other than peace, then of course, it appears to be absent.

While each apparent individual has their own unique perspective and personal challenges, at the core it is the same One seeing, and this one consciousness is always at peace.

Awakening (or what ever you want to call it), is the realization that you are, in actuality, this One. Which is to say, you can live as a regular human, with all its ups and downs, and still be aware of and nourished by the presence and peace of Being.

Resting in this peace invites serendipity. And this peace radiates into the collective human consciousness like quiet ripples on the waters.

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

There persists in our culture a misunderstanding about going within oneself and there finding some voice that will give all the answers. But of course when you look for an inner voice you may notice more than one, and depending on the level of fragmentation of the psyche, there could be several. 

This is barking up the wrong spiritual tree. Instead, look and see in your immediate experience; is inner silence here, under thoughts, feelings and perceptions? Does this silence actually go away or change – or is it your attention that focuses on to thoughts, feelings and sense perceptions? This silence will lead you home.

Seeing The Seer

                                   

(photo by David F. Smith)

Who or what is in those eyes reflected in the mirror? What is seeing — deeper than the facial features and the mental layers of personality? Not ‘somebody’ — but Life itself, conscious and intelligent.

Seeing the core of one’s Being, even for an instant, can be life changing — a ‘sacred sighting’ (darshan in Sanskrit), that fills one with awe and delight.

This One has not aged as the body has aged, doesn’t need to be fixed or healed in order to be whole, is not female or male — but infinite Life itself, seeing itself through the eyes of a life form.

Letting Go Of That Which No Longer Serves

“Letting go of that which no longer serves” is a phrase I came across in the study of Chinese medicine. That system is holistic so it refers to letting go of mental and emotional toxins as well as physical.

We all know that holding on to disagreeable or negative thoughts and emotions fires-up the nervous system, causing stress and ‘dis-ease’ that can negatively impact our lives. So to let go of what doesn’t serve is both a matter of worldly practicality as well as opening us to a heightened awareness of the spaciousness of our being.

The ‘great play’ of humanity (the battle between the forces of dark and light) has been going on for aeons of time. And it is easy to feel weighted down, carrying the burdens of human suffering, both personally and collectively.

We could say that our challenge is to make time to not know what it all means. In other words, to decline to engage the mind and simply be aware, allowing our attention to drop back to the light of Being — again and again.

Then even with an aging body and uncertain future there is a contentment, a peace, a lightness of spirit and one can be carried on the currents of love.

Holding Water With A Fork

Trying to grasp the truth of life with the mind is like trying to hold water with a fork. But we can be conscious of the ineffable truth of life (in the present moment) by turning our attention to and abiding in and as our own silent center - they are one and the same. 

The Ego

The ego can be likened to the eddies that occur in a river as it flows toward the ocean. Moving water creates turbulence, like the circular patterns of thought and emotions create a vortex of identity.

When we look, we can notice that the ego is not constant. It gets bigger sometimes and smaller sometimes. And there are moments when the ego is not there at all, like in moments of deep meditation or being fully present in nature or when our attention is fully absorbed in any activity. In those moments, there are no thoughts of “me and my story”, just absorption in one’s experience — just being.

One could say then, that the ego is more of a tendency, almost like a behavior. In this sense it’s more like a verb than a noun — ego-ing. Oops! Pardon me, I was ego-ing again!

When the ego is believed to be some entity, whether superior or inferior, thoughts and behaviors get constellated around that core belief and difficulty soon follows.

But the vortexes of water are never separate from the river. Which is to say, our true nature is like the river of life, eddies form and disperse and the water flows to the ocean of infinity.

Still Water

In Greek mythology, the allegory of Narcissus has different versions. The one that most are familiar with has to do with some ego fixation.
But there is another version of the story that is more like the metaphor of still water that is used in Zen and Taoism.
That is; a beautiful youth who rejects the alluring nymph Echo, (who had the habit of chatter and could only repeat what others have said) and turned to the still pool of water. In the clear reflection, saw his-Self (his true nature) and fell in love with what he discovers and was transformed into a flower. 

When we stop giving attention to echoes in the mind, it’s like we stop throwing rocks into a pond, allowing the ripples settle down. In the still water we can see our reflection clearly and when we see ourselves as we truly are, we fall in love.

The Persona

In the ancient Greek theater, actors wore a mask that was called a ‘persona’ — they would don a persona to play their part in stage performances.

In a somewhat similar way, the One consciousness, dons all personas and plays all roles on the stage of manifest life. In other words, this one that we all are at the core of our being, loves to experience, and through the awesome power of mind, plays as all life forms in this multidimensional experience.

In this grand drama, we humans lose sight of this fundamental truth and believe, “I am this person and this is my life”. All the harm and suffering in the world happens because the One behind the mask is not recognized — and the play becomes less a comedy and more of a tragedy.

Through some amount of suffering, there arises the desire for freedom from this human condition and to awaken out of the dream of separate self existence. This desire gives us the capacity to consciously reflect and shift our attention or ‘pull back’ deeper than the persona and become aware of our natural Being — that is aware of the body, sense perceptions, emotions and thoughts. We can ‘float' here and rest as that One. Which is to say, the open mind enables the realization of who or what one is — boundless consciousness itself. From this realization, we are free to play our part in this grand drama, with compassion and a confidence that all is that formless One.