What we call our ego is something abstract, which is to say it has the same order and kind of reality as an hour, or an inch, or a pound, or a line of longitude.
All you have to do, really, is look and listen without naming. And if you are naming, nevermind; just listen to that.
The separate “you” doesn’t exist.
It’s a little scary because you feel, “Who’s in control around here?” Why should there be anyone?
You have this process—which is quite spontaneous—going on. We call it life. It’s controlling itself! It’s aware of itself. It’s aware of itself through you. You are an aperture through which the universe looks at itself. And because it’s the universe looking at itself through you, there’s always an aspect of itself that it can’t see.
We are in search of the Self, the ātman. Well, that’s the one thing we can’t find because we have it; we are it!
It’s a far more amusing arrangement for nature to continue the process of life through different individuals, than it is always with the same individual.
When we get to thinking of everything in terms of survival and profit value—as we do—then the shapes of scratches on the floor cease to have magic. And most things, in fact, cease to have magic. So therefore, in the course of nature, once we have ceased to see magic in the world anymore, we’re no longer fulfilling nature’s game of being aware of itself. There’s no point in it anymore.
And then the curious thing that occurs is: the moment all that is dropped, suddenly, it dawns on you that—to be important—existence does not have to go on any longer than a moment. Quantitative continuity is of no value.
There is a universe for the simple reason that it’s ecstatic. What else is all this fireworks about?
The fact remains: there are a lot of people who just don’t know that and are really hating life, not knowing how to handle hate. And if you are at a certain point you know those other people are you. They’re like—you had an extended body, and all these were nerve ends on the end of it, you see?
