It feels painful somehow to just give up problems and watch the ego dissolve.

The pain of the ego dissipating is not a real pain. It is an imaginary pain of an imaginary identity. The Pure Being watching the dissipation is not feeling any pain. It is like pulling a splinter out of your finger. The splinter does not hurt. Nisargadatta, who owned a retail business, used the analogy that the ego acts as customer to sensations, thoughts, and emotions and to all the pains and pleasures that come with them. He pointed out that without the ego there is no customer. Pure Being just sees all the products on the shelf but does not spend itself on any of them and does not take any of them home. In much the same way, we don’t have to sort out all the turmoil in our emotional world if we understand that Pure Being can step out of it entirely. The truth is that Pure Being is already outside. It is just enamored with the view of you as a person with emotional issues that need sorting out. The recognition of Pure Being exposes the psychological illusion of being that person who feels stuck inside the turmoil.

from The Place of Precious Things| © copyright Peter Ingle | All Rights Reserved