Know Thyself: The Spiritual Basis of the Path of Self-Awareness

By Steve Beckow

 

In my view, the Creator designed and built us like a Babushka doll. Inside the physical body is another body, and then another, and then another. And by the same token, more essential than the I as ego (“ego” in Latin means “I”), is another deeper I, and then another, and then another.

I believe that it was intended that we reach God by knowing successively higher forms of our “I” or Self.

Certainly the masters of enlightenment agree. Sri Yukteswar Giri said that “the highest aim of religion is … Self-knowledge.” (1)

We speak of enlightenment as Self-Realization, the attainment of the Supreme Self. Moreover, the masters universally say that one cannot know God until one knows one’s self. Ibn Arabi for instance: “To know God is not an easy matter, until one becomes a knower of one’s self.” (2)

Or Al-Ghazzali: “Knowledge of self is the key to knowledge of God, according to the saying: ‘He who knows himself knows God.’” (3)

Or Krishnamurti: “Without first knowing yourself, how can you know that which is true? Illusion is inevitable without self-knowledge.” (4)

In fact our deepest, truest Self is God. How could it be otherwise? If all is God, how could we ourselves not also be God? St. Catherine of Genoa went so far as to say: “My Me is God, nor do I recognize any other Me except my God Himself.” (5)

Sri Rajneesh tells us to “begin with yourself. Do not ask whether God exists; ask whether you exist.” (6)

As incredible as it may sound, even the Divine Mother (Prakiti) may disappear, but the Self does not disappear, as Sri Ramana Maharshi reminds us.

“It is the experience of everyone that even in the states of deep sleep, fainting, etc., when the entire  universe, moving and stationary, beginning with earth and ending with the unmanifested (Prakriti), disappear, he does not disappear.

“Therefore the state of pure being which is common to all and which is always experienced directly by everybody is one’s true nature.” (7)

To know our true nature, our true Self, it turns out, is the purpose of life. When we know ourself truly and deeply we know God, because the Self and God are one. When we know ourself deeply, we solve the puzzle of life and fulfill the purpose of life – that God should meet God. 

“To attain enlightenment,” the Buddha reminds us, “without seeing your nature is impossible.” (8) And, upon knowing the true Self or our true nature, all that we could wish for is attained, as Sri Ramana reminds us: “When one’s true nature is known, then there is Being without beginning and end; It is unbroken Awareness-Bliss.” (9) 

I think that, when Jesus said ” I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” (10) he was pointing not to Jesus but to the Self, the I, or the “I am.” Certainly no one comes to the Father, or the Supreme Self, except by first knowing the individuated Self at progressively deeper levels. 

All of Jesus’s parables of the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price, the great fish, and the mustard seed are about how knowledge of the Self becomes knowledge of the All-Self. Here is one parable: 

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” (11) 

Put in other words, what Jesus is describing is how the aspirant sees a discrete light – the Self – in a moment of awareness called “spiritual awakening” by Hindus and “stream-entering” by Buddhists. This is what is meant by finding the treasure in the field, the field being the body. This occurs when the kundalini reaches the fourth chakra. 

If the aspirant then meditates on that light, giving up all desires but to realize it fully (“selling all he hath”), then eventually that light becomes the light of the All-Self transcending all creation (the aspirant has “bought the field”). This occurs when the kundalini passes the seventh chakra and returns again to the spiritual heart or Hridayam. It is called sahaja samadhi. It is a permanent heart opening and brings all gifts. 

Vedantic masters say that “you must realize absolutely that the Atman [the Self] is Brahman [the All-Self].”

(12) Here is that moment described in the Upanishads: “I am that Self! I am life immortal! I overcome the world — I who am endowed with golden effulgence! Those who know me achieve Reality.”

(13) 

And here is Jan Ruusbroec referring to that same process in the Christian tradition: 

“In this darkness an incomprehensible light is born and shines forth; this is the Son of God in whom a person becomes able to see and contemplate eternal life.” (14)

 “It is Christ [the Son, the Self, the Atman], the light of truth, who says, ‘See,’ and it is through him that we are able to see, for he is the light of the Father [the All-Self, Brahman], without which there is no light in heaven or on earth.” (15) 

And where is this Self to be found? Within, which is why Jesus would say: “The kingdom of Heaven is within you.” (16) The searchlight of awareness is to be gradually turned within, deeper and deeper and deeper. 

These processes are what is being referred to when one says that one must know the Self first before he can know God. Meditation directed inward is an intensive spiritual practice. The path of self-awareness might be seen as what the meditator does when he or she rises up off their cushion and re-enters everyday life. It is an everyday practice of self-observation, responsibility, and acceptance. 

So therefore it’s not narcissism or egocentricity to want to know the Self. It isn’t a trivial activity to observe the self and its ways. It isn’t frivolous. God has set up the round of life so that we can and must know our selves; doing so fulfills the purpose of life. There can be nothing more momentous, mystical, and miraculous than absolutely knowing one’s Self. 

 It is not service to self to know the Self. It is the most profound contribution to life because all of life is arranged, designed, set up to lead to this culmination of knowing the one Self, at which time God meets God, satisfying the commandment at the basis of all life. 

So “Know Thyself” is the soundest of advice and the most sacred of duties. The path of self-awareness is specifically designed to allow us to know ourselves in this mystical and yet most practical way. 

Footnotes 

(1) Sri Yukteswar Giri, The Holy Science. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1984, 6. 

(2) Muhyidden Ibn Arabi, Kernel of the Kernel. trans. Ismail Hakki Bursevi. Sherborne: Beshara, n.d., 3. 

(3) Al-Ghazzali, The Alchemy of Happiness. trans. Claud Field. Lahore: ASHRAF, 1971; c1964 19. 

(4) J. Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living. First Series. Bombay, etc.: B.I. Publications, 1972; c1974, 1, 20. 

(5) St Catherine of Genoa in Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy. New York, etc.: Harper and Row, 1970; c1944, 11. 

(6) Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, I am the Gate. The Meaning of Initiation and Discipleship. New York, etc.: Harper Colophon, 1977; c1975, 80. 

(7) Sri Ramana Maharshi, Spiritual Instruction of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Eighth Edition. Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1974, Chapter 4, Question 18. 

(8) Bodhidharma in Pine, Red, trans., The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma. Port Townsend, WA, Empty Bowl, 1987, 9. 

(9) Ramana Maharshi in Anon., Who Am I? The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Sarasota, FL: Ramana Publications, 1990, 24-5. 

(10) John 14:6. 

(11) Matthew 13:44 

(12) Shankara in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher lsherwood, Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1975; c1947, 69. 

(13) Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester, trans., The Upanishads. Breath of the Eternal. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1957; c1948, 59. 

(14) John Ruusbroec in James A. Wiseman, John Ruusbroec. The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. New York, etc.: Paulist Press, 1985, 22. 

(15) John Ruusbroec in JR, 74. 

(16) John 8: 32.

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CLARITY

By Nathan Gill

"...That was it! Suddenly it was absolutely clear to me that these experiences - I call them transcendental events or experiences - actually have nothing to do with clarity. A transcendental experience can last a few seconds or ten years or maybe even the rest of your life, but a transcendental experience is just that. An experience. Many people have had these experiences and then the experience is gone and often the person is left with a desire for more of it. They think they have been given a taste of 'enlightenment' , when all that has happened is that they have had a transcendental experience. Walking down the street is an experience, but it's an ordinary one so you don't go looking for more of it.

The confusion was gone. I knew what I am without any doubt and it was obvious that I already had been that all my life. I no longer required any transcendental experience to prove it to me.

The whole of my 'spiritual' search had been added on to what I already am and I also understood why people are confused around this whole issue. Why they confuse 'spirituality' with clarity. This recognition of my true nature was not associated with any transcendental event or experience. It was clear that a transcendental experience of any kind is easily confusing if it occurs before you recognize with clarity your nature as Consciousness.

It is obvious that the transcendental event that was experienced had nothing to do with clarity of recognition. The occurrence of the event brought my confusion to a head and allowed me to see clearly how I had been subtly waiting for an event as permission to be what I already am.

I see now that no transcendental event has any significance in the light of the plain, ordinary, everyday clarity of what you really are."

Read the entire book HERE.

Shifting Paradigms

The wisdom and understanding of our own divine essence is like a beacon that invites us inward toward ever deeper connection with all around us. Yet rather than look within, most in this world have long preferred to look outward for divine wisdom, thus sustaining a dependence upon a vast hierarchy that stretches between the individual and the Divine. 

 

In all our wanderings away from the Divine, humankind has virtually eliminated its most compelling features through misapplication of the logical mind, and through persistent belief in a language of limitation arising out of the controlling mechanisms of the hierarchical paradigm. Within this paradigm, language has often been used by those who desire to exert control to impose a form of limitation. Though in relative terms their words may appear liberating and empowering, those in power in the hierarchy have often used language as an instrument of entrapment and tyranny. 

At the other end of the spectrum, some of the noblest efforts of humanity in the usage of language have resulted in the Divine being gradually illuminated by the great spiritual visionaries of our world. Yet even the images portrayed by the language of these inspiring leaders cannot help but dilute the pure expression of the most compelling features of the Divine.

The Divine dances outside of the constructs of any language. It is complete within itself, and has a singular purpose of expressing the collective potential of all life in the universe. It is the archetype of perfection. It is the standard bearer of each soul's innate design and ultimate destiny. The essence of the Divine is far beyond mental conception, yet humanity's tendency is to resort to the limiting language of the hierarchical paradigm to define and understand it.

To read more CLICK HERE

The Beginning is Near

Change is afoot. Can't go under it. Can't go over it. Can't go around it. Gotta go THROUGH IT.

Pace yourself. Breathe. Smile. It's all good.

Trees are Happy for No Reason

My continuing passion is to part a curtain, that invisible veil of indifference that falls between us and that blinds us to each other's presence, each other's wonder, each other's human plight.

~ Eudora Welty

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Fear is the cheapest room in the house.

I would like to see you living

In better conditions.

~ Hafiz

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Don't flail about like a man wearing a blindfold.

Believe me, He's in here.

Come in and see for yourself.

You'll stop hunting for Him all over.

~ Lalla (14th Century)

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Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.

~ Joseph Campbell

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In meditating, meditate on your own divinity. The goal of life is to be a vehicle for something higher. Keep your eyes up there between the world of opposites watching your 'play' in the world. Let the world be as it is and learn to rock with the waves.

~ Joseph Campbell

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Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.

~ Osho

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This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside

you, brings what you need.

There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in

myself did I come into this beauty.

Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more

silent.'

Die and be quiet.

Quietness is the surest sign that you've died.

Your old life was a frantic running from silence.

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.

Live in silence.

~ Rumi

Charles Eisenstein: Sacred Economics

Chapter 21

http://bit.ly/zgLqNx

The following is the twenty-second installment from
Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of others.” -Albert Einstein

Trusting Gratitude

The question comes up again and again: How can I share my gifts in today’s money economy and still make a living? Some people who ask this question are artists, healers, or activists who despair of finding a way to “get paid for” what they do. Others have a successful business or profession but have begun to feel that something is amiss with the way they charge for their services.

Indeed, to charge a fee for service, or even for material goods, violates the spirit of the Gift. When we shift into gift mentality, we treat our creations as gifts to other people or to the world. It is contrary to the nature of a gift to specify, in advance, a return gift, for then it is no longer giving but rather bartering, selling. Furthermore, many people, particularly artists, healers, and musicians, see their work as sacred, inspired by a divine source and bearing infinite value. To assign it a price feels like a devaluation, a sacrilege. But surely the artist deserves to be compensated for his work, right?

The idea behind the word “compensation” is that you have, by working, made a sacrifice of your time. You have spent it doing work when you could have instead spent it on something you want to do. Another context in which we use the word is lawsuits, for example when someone seeks compensation for an injury, for pain and suffering.

In an economy that deserves the adjective “sacred,” work will no longer be an injury to one’s time or life; it will no longer be a matter of pain and suffering. A sacred economy recognizes that human beings desire to work: they desire to apply their life energy toward the expression of their gifts. There is no room in this conception for “compensation.” Work is a joy, a cause for gratitude. At its best, it is beyond price.

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Be Yourself.

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."

~ Oscar Wilde

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When anybody laughs, he has no mind, no thought, no problem, no suffering.

~ Papaji

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You impose limits on your true nature of infinite being. Then you get displeased to be only a limited creature. Then you begin spiritual practices to transcend these non-existing limits. But if your practice itself implies the existence of these limits, how could they allow you to transcend them.

~ Ramana Maharshi

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To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

~ Eckhart Tolle

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"Who cares if you're enlightened forever? Can you just get it in this moment, now?"

~ Byron Katie

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Be still. It takes no effort to be still; it is utterly simple. When your mind is still, you have no name, you have no past, you have no relationships, you have no country, you have no spiritual attainment, you have no lack of spiritual attainment. There is just the presence of beingness with itself.

~ Gangaji

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For a day,

Just for one day,

Talk about that

Which disturbs no one...

And bring some peace

Into your beautiful eyes.

~ Hafiz

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There is no profound knowledge. There are no good words. Everything you've been told is a lie. The only truth that exists is your self, but who is the self? The self is you, just the way you are. The mistake most people make is they want to change themselves. How can you change yourself? You think you've got problems, or you think you've got a bad mind, or you think something is wrong and you want to change that. Those things don't exist. There is nothing to change. That's what I mean when I say, "Be yourself, just the way you are." Yourself, just the way you are, spontaneous, live in the now, has no time to worry or think. When you are yourself you are God, you are consciousness, you are absolute reality. You are always yourself. You never were anyone else. You never were anything else. Your nature is divine. You are not what you appear to be. The only thing to remove is the appearance, or the belief in the appearance, for the appearance is false.

~ Robert Adams

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Nothing is born, nothing is destroyed.

Away with your dualism, your likes and dislikes.

Every single thing is just the One Mind.

When you have perceived this,

you will have mounted the Chariot of the Buddhas.

~ Huang Po

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"I can walk on the clouds!" says a child.

But if she reached the clouds,

she would find nowhere to place her foot.

Likewise, if one does not examine thoughts,

they present a solid appearance;

but if one examines them,

there is nothing there.

That is what is called

being at the same time

empty and apparent.

Emptiness of mind

is not a nothingness,

nor a state of torpor,

for it possesses by its very nature

a luminous faculty of knowledge

which is called Awareness.

These two aspects,

emptiness and Awareness,

cannot be separated.

They are essentially one,

like the surface of the mirror

and the image which is reflected in it."

~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Peace, Love, Compassion

Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love

Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.

~ Rumi

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Love is seeing

the unity

under

the imaginary

diversity.

~ Nisargadatta

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The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.

So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other [people] and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmongers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

~ Thomas Merton

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Don't look for peace. Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance.

Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.

When you accept what is, every moment is the best moment. That is enlightenment.

~ Eckhart Tolle

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The truth is that a whole new state of consciousness already exists, that every part of your experience that’s unfolding right now is already enclosed within absolute stillness, absolute ease. And so there really isn’t

anywhere to go or anything for which to search. Struggle only gets us deeper into the very thing we’re trying to escape. This is a very important thing to know about egoic consciousness: The harder we try to get out, the deeper we dig ourselves in.

~ Adyashanti

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We try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake. The Self is all-pervading. Our real nature is liberation, but we imagine that we are bound, we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free. Birth and death pertain only to the body, they are superimposed upon the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self. The universe exists within the Self. Discover the undying Self and be immortal and happy. Be yourself and nothing more. Thoughts change but not you. There is neither past nor future; there is only the present. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it, therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.

All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that? Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.

~ Ramana Maharshi

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Enlighten your desires.

Meditate on who you are.

Quit imagining.

What you want is profoundly expensive,

and difficult to find,

yet closeby.

Don't search for it. It is nothing,

and a nothing within nothing.

~ Lalla - 14th Century North Indian mystic

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The Ineffable Mystery of Being

What I have discovered through my spiritual practice is an increasing self-intimacy. ..a sense of authenticity and real-ness, that has become the cornerstone of my daily life. I cannot imagine how I could have lived without this living presence and sense of emerging fullness.

Our awareness is incredibly powerful at enabling the unveiling of ourselves, revealing a fuller picture, illuminating our experience, but only if we are willing and committed to knowing the fullness of what we are.

I find as I continue noticing and encountering this awareness in my life what comes into view is both particular and vast, discordant yet harmonious, life sustaining yet challenging and not necessarily easy. This active engagement demands my courage and honesty, this is no walk in the park.

As I continue, the sense of congruence and authenticity begins to sprout and this self-intimacy becomes the rule, in time. Although it is not as though there is one mode of being, that of self-intimacy, no, it is more like that a dance has begun.

This dance, fueled and enabled by the openness and desire of wanting to know myself, is both exhilarating and liberating and, as I develop trust in the unfolding, I soon begin to recognize that any ideas or desires for Awakening need not concern me....it no longer is of interest as my life has filled up with a delicious fragrance of authenticity.

I no longer care for anything other than supporting what has taken root within me…if the self concept or ego continues I don't care, the teachers and teachings tell me this and that and I don't care, life is its usual mix of struggle and strife, joy and love, and I no longer care...why would I care when I know the golden key is within? Why search for anything when the very fabric of experience is the path of unfolding. Everyday experience reveals this once we get a little more familiar with ourselves and stop trying to awaken, stop meddling with our experience long enough to notice what is.

At some stage there was a key realization, one among many, when I realized I can let go of all concepts about the teaching and just feel comfortable in everyday experience without any framework or concepts about how it ought to be. Is their a doer? Is there an ego? Is there an awakening? Are we perfect? None of these conceptual frames of reference are important. Instead I relax and notice that all that stuff is just ideas about...about the ineffable mystery of being.

~ Rob Matthews

Just JUMP!

Listen!

Here’s all you need to know to become enlightened:

Sit down, shut up, and ask yourself what’s true until you know.

That’s it. That’s the whole deal; a complete teaching of enlightenment, a complete practice. If you ever have any questions or problems—no matter what the question or problem is—the answer is always exactly the same:

Sit down, shut up, and ask yourself what’s true until you know.

In other words, go jump off a cliff.

Don’t go near the cliff and contemplate jumping off. Don’t read a book about jumping off. Don’t study the art and science of jumping off. Don’t join a support group for jumping off. Don’t write poems about jumping off. Don’t kiss the ass of someone else who jumped off.

Just jump.

~ Jed Mckenna

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I said Oh no! Help me!

And that Oh no! became a rope let down in my well.

I’ve climbed out to stand here in the sun.

One moment I was at the bottom of a dank, fearful narrowness, and the next, I am not contained by the universe.

If every tip of every hair on me could speak,
I still couldn’t say my gratitude.

In the middle of these streets and gardens, I stand and say and say again, and it’s all I say, I wish everyone could know what I know.

~ Rumi

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First, the question itself is the obstacle to progress, not lack of an answer. The question is the key. Once we truly understand the question, we’ll have the desired answer. The desired answer is always the removal of the obstruction a correct question represents. The question, understood correctly, is the obstruction. If it’s not, see the second point.

Second, come up with the right question. There’s always only one. Wherever you are right now is where you’re stuck, and the only question that ever matters is the one that gets you unstuck, that takes you one step further. All other questions are fear-based ego-sparing time-killers. Forget concepts and ideas, forget past and future, forget mankind and society, forget God and love, forget truth and spirituality. Find that one question; the exact question that ego doesn’t want you to ask. Put your full attention on it. That’s how progress is made. Everything else is a stall tactic.

To move forward, you must figure out exactly what is obstructing you. Whatever it is, it isn’t really there; it has no reality, no substance. It’s your own creation, a phantom lurking in the shadows of your mind, a shadow demon. Your obstructions are your demons, and your demons are shadow dwellers. They live and thrive in the half-light of ignorance, so the way to slay a demon is by illuminating it with the full force and power of your focused attention; by looking at it, hard. Banish shadow with light and see for yourself that no obstruction exists, nor ever did. We create our demons and we feed them. To awaken we must slay them. That’s really the whole process: Slay one demon, take one step.

Repeat.

~ Jed McKenna

Unraveling the Sweater

When you were born into this world, you were undifferentiated consciousness. No concepts, no ideas, no words, just the Isness of awareness, pure and unsullied. And then someone pulled a sweater over your head that was knitted from their ideas and beliefs about the world, what they had been told was important and real and true, and they passed it on to you. And because you had little choice in the matter, you accepted this sweater, and came to believe it was a part of you and it even became the invisible backbone of your identity. Everyone wore a similar sweater, so it was clear that the sweater was a part of being a human being without exception.

If someone wore a sweater that was fairly similar to yours, there was no problem, but a different color or design sometimes was quite disturbing. It was hard not to warn anyone with unusual patterns in their sweaters of the dangers of nonconformance, and there were those who took this to an extreme whereas different sweaters had to be excluded and shunned, maybe even imprisoned or killed. A sweater, after all, is not just a sweater, it is the symbol of self, and must be true. A different sweater means something about you is incorrect, so to remain intact, one must reject whatever sweaters clash with one’s current fashion statement.

One day, as you were getting older, you noticed that the sweater had become a little tight, a little uncomfortable. So you were sent to a knitting class and learned how to sit quietly, knitting away, adding more to the sweater. Of course, you were very careful to not get too flamboyant with the design, just enough to show you had some creativity. And sometimes you would get together with others who also liked to knit and discuss how enhanced life was having discovered “the way” to knit.

Knitting was so embedded in the social structure of your life that there was little time for anything else. Everything was based on being a successful knitter, how else was anyone to tell who you were except by the sweater you wore? It was essential to keep one’s sweater in good repair and to learn how to maintain it. Everyone loved to talk about each other’s sweaters, offering compliments or criticisms as appropriate. You could always tell your enemies from your friends by their knitting techniques and yarn colors, so it was important to learn the differences and pass your knowledge on to others.

But there came a time when knitting took up so much time and energy, and questions arose as to what and who and why. Though these questions triggered great anxiety, you tried putting down the knitting needles for a bit. And for a little while, you were free from knitting and it was exhilarating! But knitting was such a habit that before you knew it, you found yourself knitting again, especially when your friends came over, since it was all anyone ever talked about. Still, you couldn’t forget that scintillating sensation of cessation, so, in secret, you began to sit without knitting, a little bit every day.

On days when your friends visited, you would pick up the knitting needles as usual, but it became apparent after awhile that you were getting a bit sloppy, dropping stitches here and there. Your friends thought perhaps you needed a refresher course, and they all had taken up with a new knitting teacher who was supposed to have the latest in techniques, especially when it came to repairing holes and tears. They encouraged you to attend these knitting workshops and at first you thought they might be right. I mean their sweaters were so beautifully done, with silver and gold thread in incredibly intricate designs. But the truth you were so reluctant to reveal was that you were tired of knitting. And you were afraid to say so, since everyone knitted something. Even ugly sweaters were better than nothing.

One day, while you sat and pondered these things, you noticed a loose thread hanging from the sleeve of your sweater. Usually, you would have taken out your needles and started furiously repairing the abnormality. But instead, you started pulling on the thread. Suddenly, the sleeve of your sweater started rapidly to unravel, at a rather frightening speed. Quickly, you took out your knitting needles and began pulling the yarn back together until one could hardly tell there had ever been a mistake. But you knew.

Now it was all you could do not to pull on that loose thread. It became like an itch under the surface of the skin. You couldn’t help it, your thoughts kept roving to the idea of no sweater and not-knitting. What would it be like to just stop? Would you be an outcast, would your friends and family leave you? Could you survive without your sweater, naked? You sat with your friends, your knitting needles idle in your hands, and many were worried that you had lost it entirely. Perhaps you would have to go to the hospital and have a surgeon repair your sweater for you, or in the worst case scenario, knit you a new sweater entirely! One friend said she would introduce you to the Swami Knityananda, who would put one of his sweaters on you and they were supposed to be just perfect, it was said no one could make a better sweater! And that his philosophy, “Knit This, Knit That”, took one to the highest levels of Knit-vana!

Well, all this talk became a bit much, and you stopped going out and you stopped inviting people over. You sat with your sweater, looking at it in the mirror, wondering at its colors and textures, its strangeness and its beauty, its ugliness and shabbiness, the whole of it. And you pulled at the loose thread. You pulled and you pulled. First one sleeve went. Then the other. You were terrified for a second, having never seen your bare arms before. But it was so freeing. So you kept pulling. And pulling. And finally the remnants of the sweater fell to the floor. And you saw your Self. The Truth of your Self. And you knew you would never be able to knit another sweater, because you knew that nakedness was sweet. And you just started laughing and laughing at the joke of it all.

One day, your friends came over and you were just sitting there, naked. At first they were outraged, then concerned, then curious. After all, you were so happy, grinning like you had an in on the biggest secret! So, as they furiously knitted away, they tentatively asked you what had happened. And with a little sparkle in your eye, you said, “It’s simple. Ask yourself “Why Knit?”

Suddenly, all the knitting needles clattered to the floor.