Egolessness through Love

Extracted from my Journal, logged on January 27,2007.

Today meditating on emptiness and impermanence I examined the true nature of an item that was before me; a window grill made up of many parts. It was made up in an elaborate artistic form and did not look brand new. This grill taken by part, each such part did not form a grill so logic would have it that a collection of what does not form a part couldn’t form the whole. Equally the opposite that a part of it is a part of the whole and the aggregate of the parts form the whole agrees with the theory that the grill is a dependant upon the composition of its parts and does not have an independent existence. This is true to the basic theory of emptiness.

Then, I began to examine the energy that went in to forming the parts, which had an intricate artistry to it. That energy certainly was the hard work of someone plus other resources including money. So this energy has a price to it. In the constructive or material world to which the grill rightfully belongs that price is expressed in terms of money, which is the commodity that motivates the activity of the material world. This energy which formed the grill is present in every activity whether in the material world or the non-material world of "suchness". So, then what is the price expressed as in the world of suchness?

If love and compassion replaced the commodity of money, where the sole motivation for the action of forming the grill was out of love and compassion then that would mean that there was an absence of discrimination, attachment and craving in that action. This in turn would contribute to the ideal of “non-self”, against the very notion of “this is mine that is yours”.

In Buddhist teachings the practice of the four divine states of mind (the four Brahma Viharas) is said to lead to egolessness.  Christianity teaches us that “the greatest is love” and “love thy neighbor as thyself”, and so on, without referring to egolessness. Whether a practice is carried out with or without the knowledge of this concept of egolessness is hardly of any relevance if it is indeed the means to an end.

I explain below very briefly the four viharas. The four vihara meditation is a powerful practice.

Loving kindness - treating all beings like yourself.

Compassion - showing love for another's sorrow - simply put - when your fears touch someone else's misfortune it is pity but when your love touches someone else's misfortune it is compassion where you feel the pain like your own. You do not feel sorry for the other person considering yourself lucky that it was not you!

Altruistic joy - if you derive happiness knowing that the thief who stole your cake is having a good time as much as you would have had from it

Equanimity - treating your child and the other man's child like you own and deriving joy from it