Joyful Egolessness

As indicated, there are plenty of other meditation techniques that will take you to conscious chatterlessness. For some people, prayer delivers them to that place. Others use sutras: meaningful sounds that are used in ways similar to mantras. Yoga is a means to the same end. They all reduce to the same effect: the elimination of a sense of ego or self.

The lingering effects on your consciousness of this experience of transcendence can be pretty amazing as well. Under certain circumstances, such as prolonged transcendence, or repeated transcendence , or the right physical environment, or the purging of certain emotional baggage, you can go about your business while having this sense of joy accompany you. It dissolves when you admire it, but you can learn to balance your attention on real-world stuff while sustaining a kind of joyful egolessness.

There is always pain underneath ego. I have referred to it in various ways, as insecurity, fear, or feelings of emptiness. When we are not focused on the object-level or otherwise transcended through some meditative-like process, we become subject to all sorts of angst-ridden experiences. We judge, we blame, we hide, we worry, we take control, or we get panicky. We experience ourselves as a singularity that thinks its special in some way.

But good news! We can transcend this dynamic and leave our symptoms behind. Its not that we can permanently exit from the meta-level paradigm. I have never met anyone who is free of the impulse to, for example, feel hurt. This thing called ˜˜mental health comes in fits and starts, and in degrees. Without the meta-level doing its job, we wouldnt be humans .

So we have been blessed and we have been cursed. We are cursed because we have this illusion-promoting program that drives us to what Buddhists call a life of suffering. We are blessed because, with effort, we can periodically transcend our suffering and be more true to ourselves.

Visualize yourself living a willful, compassionate, and authentic life, making peace with your fears, relaxing your judgments , staying focused on the facts. Visualize the possibility of the true you, insecurities transcended, facing the future with presence of mind.

Now imagine your workplace with other people taking this path as well: people working together with commitment, ego-free communication, and compassion, with joy infused in task orientation as they reach synergies peacefully together.

Such a lifefor you and the people you work withis not only desirable, it is also quite achievable. And achieving it would be a beautiful thing.