We are a particular kind of machine that protects itself at all costs. There’s no chance of escaping the machine; it’s what we have to work with. The only way to really work with the machine is to completely leave it alone and stop trying to change it. Liberation isn’t liberation into anything else—it’s liberation from identification. We might not remember a lot of the bullying we experienced, which may have left us with shame. We take over the bullying process from imprints we get as children and can spend a huge amount of time and energy trying to prove that we deserve to exist. We bring this with us to the spiritual path. Feeling the entire construct of self-bullying in the body can show us that we are doing this to ourselves. There is no “me” or ego sense other than the pattern of tension we perpetuate in our bodies. To fully get in touch with this can dissolve and release it. The inner bully goes easy on us when there should be more discipline and is hard on us when it should lighten up. To be a friend to ourselves is to challenge the ways we keep ourselves comfortable and to comfort ourselves when we habitually beat ourselves up. We can draw on microdoses of Truth to interrupt the process of self-bullying and bring ourselves back to the reference point that there is literally no “me.” The habit of fixating on the idea that I must be something other than exactly what is present is self-bullying. The idea that “no self” is something unknown, far away from us, some goal or achievement, is fundamentally wrong. We all have a point of reference for it. When we give ourselves the space to line up authentically with exactly what is true for us, we create an opening for others to set down the self-bullying process. Rick is a national speaker and author of 7 Rules You Were Born to Break, The Perfection of Nothing, You Have the Right to Remain Silent, and other books.
Women Talking: Power, Dominance, and Agency in the Age of ‘Me Too’ and on the Path (Elise Erro)
Removing Obstacles to Our Heart’s Desire (Lalitha)
Losing the Taste for Drama (Bandhu Dunham)
Conscience and the Law of Identification (Red Hawk)
Working with Money as Spiritual Practice (Regina Sara Ryan, Tom Lennon, Vijaya Fedorschak)
The Shadow on the Path (Vijaya Fedorschak)
”Honey in the Heart: The Rasa of Enjoyment, Delight and Celebration on the Path” (Nachama Greenwald)
Deep Dharmic Doo-Doo: Resistance is Futile… But So Also Is Acceptance (Peter Cohen)
Wisdom Teachings of the Ancient World: Celtic Spirituality and Tantra (Mary Angelon Young)
Lies We Tell Ourselves (Karl Krumins)
How Do We Enter the Heart, and What Do We Find When We Enter? The Way of the Pilgrim and the Prayer of the Heart (Regina Sara Ryan)
Impermanence: Living with Reality (Bhadra Mitchell)
The Rough Road to Self Awareness: Intention, Attention, and Risk (Juanita Violini)
The Restoration of Love (Elise Erro)
Eating Bears: Notes on How to Go About It (Jocelyn del Rio)
Spiritual Bypassing and Adulthood on the Path (Deborah Auletta)
Pairs of Opposites (Bandhu Dunham)
Escape From the General Law (Red Hawk)
The Obstacle Is the Path (Chris McMaster and Debbie Hogeland-Celebucki)
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