' The dream of choice '...

The seeker asks, “Should I engage in spiritual practices to bring about enlightenment?” The teacher responds, “Who is going to do that?” This can frustrate the seeker unless it is realized what is really being said.

The dream of self is a dream of time. There is a belief in a separate person with a past and a future who can choose to take action now to bring about some later event. Within the spiritual search, choice is based in personal motivation: “What can I do now to achieve something later?” The dream self falsely believes it is in control. It’s all about the “me” and what it can get.

Enlightenment is the realization of no self, which is a realization of timelessness. When time is seen to be nothing more than a mental stream of thoughts called past and future arising now, the “me” is seen to be a temporary thought form arising from that formless, timeless awareness. Choice is seen to be a dream of time, meaning an aspect of the dream of self.

Should you engage in spiritual practices? In seeing that all spiritual practicing emanates from a central illusion of time and control, the possibility for liberation from that dream arises. Engaging in spiritual practices in the blind pursuit to bring about some later event called enlightenment just strengthens the dream of time and control. It strengthens the dream of self.



Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment