The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 6, Part 2

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

So, even my failures are to be affirmed?

As Bob Dylan sang, “there is no success like failure, and failure is no success at all.” You have no failures. And you have no successes. You have stepped off the ladder. You are in the circle observing all with disinterest. Because all things are equal, all things are affirmed. All of your life is affirmed.

I would challenge all of you to consider enjoying your selves. I did not say enjoy yourself. I said, enjoy your self.

What’s the difference? ‘Yourself’ is vague and undirected. It may also be construed as self-absorption. Enjoying your self , on the other hand, is a more focused exercise and one that can be done in a spirit of non-attachment. It is also an exercise that leads to transcendence of that same self. Find this sense of self. Spend time with this sense of self.

I have spoken many times of a metaphorical structure of our phenomenal reality. I said that the self is the creation of awareness and the ego-self-identity is the creation of the self. The ego-self is the attempt by self to establish itself as an independent existence. We considered how this source of so much of our suffering and bondage can be eliminated through the refusal to believe its claims. Ego is nothing more than a belief. Through not-knowing we cut it off at the root. I am now going to assume that you have done so.

Again, I speak metaphorically: Were we to imagine our phenomenal reality a stair going up from ego-self to self to awareness and possibly beyond, then in ascending this stair we would need to take one step at a time. I am going to assume you have met and dealt with your ego-self and its false identity. You have mounted that step. What step now lies before you? Your self.

I would encourage you to spend time with this self. This self, if allowed to flourish, will reveal itself to be your innate nature. It is the expression in the phenomenal world of what you are when free to be you. This does not imply that it exists independent of the awareness from which it arises. But what I would suggest to you is that it arises of the awareness spontaneously — naturally — and as such, calls to be experienced in affirmation. Enjoy your self. Appreciate your self. Affirm your self.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.