A Zen Technique I Use Every Day | Reminders to Myself

These days I find myself in a somewhat challenging situation. A plan I have long made is coming to fruition and with it a mighty wave of change is gnawing at my ego at every turn.

Didn't think it was that hard to let go of the urge to control everything but it still is. And on days where nothing seems to work out and another round of challenges present themselves I am thinking about the teachings I have picked up from studying the proverbs and techniques of Zen that always put a smile on my face, even when I am faced with some tremendously energy-consuming situations that could so easily solve themselves if the will just stepped out of the way in complete trust.

Whether it is trading, making a new track on a level I demand of myself or just dealing with everyday system struggles that present themselves when wanting to make a big change and transformation in life - I find the more I cling & the more I try to make it work the more it seems to slip away. Painfully so. There is almost a direct correlation of the level of force applied to make it work to the level of failure that comes out at the other end ;) Which - on bad days - the ego can't possibly deal with any other way than throwing a fit like a stubborn child wanting its lollipop.

As I have written a few months ago it was dawning on me that the mind, intelligence and willpower alone are not enough anymore to hack things, sadly. Rather they are turning out to be the things that tie me most to the old ways of existence - the old "me" - that wants and needs to undergo a drastic shift.

And that's where the Zen teachings I have picked up from the likes of Alan Watts come in so handy, something I want to write a small series about as soon as my life has reached a level where there is energy available to make that happen.

For now though and out of sheer relevance, one of these ideas goes like this: "If you try to accord, you deviate". And that's exactly what I find, the more I try to stay on course the less I feel I am on it.

Now this is all ego chatter because I know we're all always on our path, and exactly where we need to be. I used to believe this, today I know it. Nevertheless this insight doesn't make it a whole lot easier for the ego not to want to take charge of how things are developing in detail. And so when I find myself putting up immense mental and spiritual energy to stay on course, to accord with it, I think of this idea the Zen crew formulated so eloquently and my ego can loosen up a bit.

And guess what, the moment I relinquish control again the more the flow and ease of life returns. To a degree that seems outright outlandish and impossible even, and other parts of my lovingly try to show the ego that "See, we can trust it. Let's learn to make that more the priority in life... without forcing it of course! ;)"

As conditioned human beings we are always trying to make things work, very often desperately so. But as many of these teachers have pointed out - that might be exactly the reason things are so in upheaval everywhere. We are cells in a cosmic body's bloodstream trying to control the entire thing on our own, doing our best to "decide" things on a daily basis - when we may completely miss the point of our role in life as parts of the whole that always knows better than each "individual" part. It's megalomania really that spawns out of a faulty image about what reality is caused by lower levels of awareness.

And so, even if it seems hard sometimes, I am rediscovering daily how valuable this Zen insight is and that I can afford the "luxury" of trusting what is at all times, even and especially when the ego screams in pain that it wants the reigns back. I think that mind-domination time is slowly coming to an end and the funny thing is even my ego itself - despite its protest and fury - is warmly anticipating and welcoming it.

Being in control is so tiring and was likely always an illusion to begin with. Only that these days, the illusion has become so unconvincing and obviously unworkable that I am doing my best to step aside and let the universe take the reigns. And I find that what my ego originally thought was deviation brings me right back on the path in a resonant way and is total accordance with a mighty dose of bliss and joy to discover things!

So - if you are struggling in these transformative times, try to not try so hard ;) Trust the current and the ground of being and you will be miles ahead of where your ego could have brought you with all its endless mental and physical energy burned to try and stay on course on the cute and rocky path it was able to conceive of with all its might.

I think this shift away from the personal megalomania to a more trusting way of encountering reality is what marks this great transformation in our times. And I wish us all the best to be able to let go of according all the time so that we get right back on course with the universe at the helm, able to open up paths the ego could have never dreamt possible. Paths that have long been waiting to be discovered as soon as we got the message that our will can no longer guide us on its own but instead as an ally that is rather rarely to be consulted in the grand scheme of the flow of life.

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