Defending the unreal...

Defending yourself arises from the fear of death. It may not feel like it at the time, but when you find yourself defending your thoughts strongly, you are defending the sense of self invested in your thoughts. The sense of self being referred to here is the thought-based, time-bound self made up of thoughts of past, future, and resistance to this moment. Who you believe yourself to be depends on the content of that realm of thoughts. When someone is challenging you on the level of the mind, they are challenging some position, belief, idea, or other self-image within that realm. In response to such an attack, the energy behind that self comes to defend itself out of fear of its own death.
When you are verbally attacked or when you meet resistance or disagreement from someone, simply notice the thoughts and emotions that rise up in defense within the body and mind. Feel and face the sense of diminishment of self without rationalizing, judging, reacting, or defending. Allow the emotions and thoughts to rise fully in awareness without telling stories about how they should or should not be happening. These emotions and thoughts burn themselves out when they are simply seen and not manipulated in any way.

Enlightenment is just a word pointing to the seeing of that thought-based, time-bound self as an illusion. When it is seen as an illusion, there is no more psychological need to defend what is unreal.



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