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.
The Recognition of Our Heart (Karen Sprute-Francovich)
Timing Is Everything: Opening to Windows of Opportunity in Life and on the Path (Vijaya Fedorschak)
Fourth Way Magic: How Hermetic and Indigenous Traditions Interface with the Gurdjieff Work (Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick)
Stop the World, I Want to Get Off (Regina Sara Ryan)
Basic Trust: The Soul’s Key to Being (Peter Cohen)
Kneel and Kiss the Ground: The Poetics of Presence and Purpose (Mary Angelon Young)
Do You Want to Be Right or Do You Want to Be in Relationship? (Matthew Files)
The Benefit of Good Company on the Spiritual Path (Tom Lennon)
War: What Is It Good For? (Bandhu Dunham)
Cultivating Spiritual Maturity: An Honest Look at Our Commitments (Lalitha)
Writing as a Transformational Path (Mary Angelon Young and Regina Sara Ryan)
Living From Paradox (Juanita Violini)
Hospitality: The Practice and the Art (Regina Sara Ryan)
Using Death as an Advisor: What Death Can Teach Us About Living (Vijaya Fedorschak)
Grace and Mercy: Return of the Goddess (Angelon Young)
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For... Why? (Matthew Files)
Giving Ourselves to Love (Nachama Greenwald)
Nonduality: Speaking the Unspeakable (Peter Cohen)
Know Your Character: Who’s Running the Show? (Elise Erro/e.e.)
Awakening Conscience: The Potential Value of Not Expressing or Suppressing Negative Emotions (Panel Discussion with Red Hawk, Clelia Lewis, and VJ Fedorschak)
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