There’s a field called “Transpersonal Psychology” that’s popular
these days,
hello,
but it's kind of a misnomer
because psychology deals with the personal
when you really get transpersonal you're also trans-psychological;
the psyche is personal.
There is that which is to trans—or meta—psychological within us; that’s what we call the
“spiritual.”
But it doesn't have anything to do with psychology.
Psychology is very complex.
It has to do with motivations and desires and
fears and repressed
phantasies, and it’s
a huge labyrinth.
We study it here,
but the truth is it's not really necessary.
You can transcend psychology.
You can transcend that whole dimension of your being if
you're willing to disidentify
from the person
that you mistakenly believe that you are.
That's the primary illusion:
there's an identification
of the Essence of what we are
with a construct—a very complex construct—and then once we're caught in the labyrinth
of that construct,
that's when suffering begins.
And once you’re in that labyrinth, it’s very hard to get out of it.
But the truth is
you're not really in it,
you just believe you’re in it.
And so all you have to do is let go of the belief
that you're the person trapped
in this labyrinth
of fears, anxieties,
and all kinds of
unknown motivations and reasons for
eruptions of anxiety or depression or any
other of many many permutations of feelings and urges that seem irresistible, etc.
You can transcend the jurisdiction of those
urges,
and those forces
that operate within the psychological plane,
simply by realizing you are not that person.
That's the sacrifice that is required:
when you can sacrifice the identification
with the person—
and it's a suffering person, why do you want to
hold onto it?
“Well it's all you know.”
And so everyone is always saying “Oh, but it’s so hard, why is it so hard to get out of this labyrinth, it’s
so huge.”
Yes it's hard if you believe your that person
but the moment you’re willing to disbelieve in
that prime illusion,
[snap] you’re liberated
because you were never in it.
It's the same when you watch a movie that
you really like and you identify with the
character. When you’re watching that movie, you're not in your seat in the theater anymore,
you’re in the screen;
you’ve identified with the character,
and you're going through what the character
is going through, and
you're feeling all the anxiety, you know, “Will the villain defeat the hero?” or whatever
is going on.
And yet,
the moment the film becomes boring, you're
back in your seat, and
you’re saying, “Wow, that’s a lousy film,”
and you're out of it.
All you got to do is realize your ego’s a lousy film.
You get tired of it. You get bored with identification with that ego.
You've done that. You've been there. You’ve gone around that block, you’ve fallen into that hole.
How many times do you need to do it again?
And the moment you realize, “I don't need to
do that anymore. I’m free. I’m done,”
then you're out:
you can again realize that what you are is not a person,
but an
impersonal or transpersonal
Presence.
That Presence congealed this construct and this identification within a labyrinth
that it called its reality, its world,
but it wasn't really in it, and what it is is
simply
a pure
awareness
that's not a thing; it's not an entity.
It’s not a nothing either—there's no way to
define it or describe it because awareness,
or presence,
never becomes an object that you can look
at.
You can only look at, or
work with, 
concepts,
or percepts,
or things, right,
that apparently exist.
But you're none of those. 
You are the presence to which
all of that occurs.
And so you are transcendent, that's our natural
state. We are transcendent
of any world that we happen to believe in.
And yet we are also immanent in that world
because that world
is itself
the consciousness,
the modification of the presence
that then we ramify into a very complex
set of beliefs,
fantasies, desires, wishes, fears, etc. 
But the actual being and the real nature of
the
Self, if you will,
is simple.
It has no parts; It's not compounded of anything;
It's not put together in any way.
It's prior to the ego.
And Its essential nature, besides being presence, is simply love, joy, 
happiness, peace—
bliss even—
for everyone
not just for one person or another. Therefore
you don't have to compare, “well why is that person
happier than me.”
There isn't
any difference.
The differences are all within the labyrinth, within the illusion of the ego.
But at the level of the
Real Self, which is the presence that cannot be known,
objectified, 
or turned into any kind of a thing,
that which you are inherently at this very moment
is liberated
from all limitations, from all suffering,
from time and space,
from everything,
and filled with
those original qualities
of divine love,
beauty, peace;
what you could call God
or the Buddha Nature,
or Shiva—it doesn't matter
because it's beyond words,
beyond any way of defining.
And you are That, now.
That's what all the spiritual paths are all about.
It all comes down to that. You can read a million books, but it all boils down to that very simple thing.
You are That, just stop believing in anything else
and silence the mind that continues the labyrinth, in this merry-go-round of suffering
that you’re on,
and the moment you do that, you're free.
So that's all we're doing in meditation
is liberating ourselves from an illusion
that was never real in the first place.
So it's all very simple. Let’s not make it difficult for ourselves.
And as soon as you wholeheartedly want to be
out of the movie
and back in
the heart,
it will happen; there's no force that can
stop it—
except yourself, except your own resistance to freedom.
And so that's what comes up when we meditate: after a while we realize it’s our own fear of freedom.
And we make up reasons why we shouldn't be free: “Oh, other people will be disappointed in me
because I'll be different; they’ll be threatened.
I won't be carrying on the whatever traditions
of this or that.
My freedom would disturb the universe.”
Whatever issues you create—but they're all illusions,
they're all stories you tell yourself that have no truth.
And your freedom is actually the greatest gift you can offer to others
by modeling the fact
that freedom is available
here and now, to everyone.
And the cost is only letting go of an illusion,
not of anything real.
And the gain is priceless, infinite,
and eternal.
So anyone who looks at this at all logically
with any clarity of mind
will say, “Wow, I want it now. Why wait?”
And because now is the only time you can have
it, if you wait you’re saying no to it,
and you're creating a “sanskara,” or a tendency,
to say no to it in the next “now” and also put
it off to the next and the next and the next.
And that's what we've had so many lifetimes
of always thinking, “Well, I’m gonna do it soon.” 
And then, boom, that lifetime is over and then
you get to the next one.
Soon never shows up.
So it can only happen in the now.
And because now is all there is,
the past and future are in the film.
If you want to live in time, in that an illusion, then you’re also in the trap
of suffering.
So, if you’re willing to surrender the illusion of time,
the illusion of the ego,
the illusion that brings about all suffering, you’re free;
nothing can stop you.
That’s why God is called “Almighty”: there’s no power
that can prevent
the liberation of your Being.
