Hello Tsukasa,

Yes, I understand. Perhaps people were not meant to devoid themselves of self-interest. If the interest or desire that is left is that we are warmed and are blissful when we give unselfishly, then eliminating the self isn't what will bring us to bliss. When people gain happiness from making others happy, we will be able to enjoy the fruits of the physical realm, without attachment or expectation to it, but in love, compassion, and community.

Which is the greater bliss: a bliss we have by smothering all worldly interests, separating from others physically and mentally, and losing ourselves in the ocean. Or a bliss we have by enjoying what the world has to give, always ourselves giving and never taking, showing love and compassion with those close to us and receiving it from them, and remaining the belover and the beloved with a physical presence and identity?

I choose the latter. I believe we are meant to have the bliss that comes from awakening to our selves as spiritual beings having a physical experience, but also enjoying everything life brings to us. And I believe the Higher Power that is also our consciousness and the living consciousnesses of the Ancestors, that is all One and yet separated into the beloved and the belover that we experience, is the pattern toward which we're evolving. We are becoming more godlike rather than becoming more empty.

Anything interferes with that inexorable growth that separates man from man, man from the Higher Power, man from nature, and man from his inner self that is the Mind of God. When the impediments in the physical realm are removed, God who was always there becomes apparent, and the growth that is as natural as an acorn growing into an oak tree happens in our consciousness.

And so, I believe meditation, teaching, and dialogue help reduce the influence of the physical realm and show us our place in the Greater Reality, but not so we can rid ourselves of the ego. Instead, it reduces the influence of the physical realm so we can become more loving, compassionate, and godlike, or Christ like, or Buddha like. We have nowhere else to go when we awaken from sleep in the morning but back to our waking consciousness. And when we awaken to who we are in the universe by learning about our place in the Greater Reality, we have nowhere to awaken to but love, compassion, and God.

Craig