Self-ignorance

The mental prison of fear, anxiety, and regret that we lock ourselves up in is the effect of not knowing who we really are. Without awareness of our true self we look to externals for self-definition. We strive for, cling to, and fear losing wealth, looks, reputation, beliefs, and possessions because we believe that they are us, and that without them we would be worthless or even cease to exist.

This condition is one of perpetual maintenance and problems. We never reach a state where everything is all right. There is always something amiss. It is not the external condition that is amiss – it’s our state of mind that is amiss. We strive for perfection because in our lost state we believe that anything less than perfection is a sign of worthlessness. Let’s say we perceive that we don’t have enough money. Then we gain a lot of money. Will we live happily ever after? Nope. Now we’ll believe that our physical appearance isn’t quite right. Then we fix our appearance. Will we feel at peace? Of course not. Now it will seem that we don’t have enough friends. And so it goes, ad infinitum. The inner sense of lack is the only problem; it uses externals as anchors to give itself form.

We fret about our life situation because we believe that it is all we are and will ever be, so any threat to it is perceived as a threat to our very self. This is why we become upset, argue, and maybe even physically fight when something threatens our wealth or reputation: we believe that we are defending our very existence. The world is a threatening place when our sense of self depends on our life situation being “just right”.

The solution is to see through the veil of illusion that we live in. We need to look past our life situation and see who we really are: a conscious being that needs no external definition. That is the only way to have peace and well-being. Once we do that, the need for externals goes away. 

We are not incomplete entities that need to be added to. We are complete just as we are. Therefore external objects, relationships, and activities cannot “complete” us, because you can’t complete what’s already complete. Not only don’t we need to acquire stuff, we need to get rid of stuff (thought) in order to fully experience our natural peace and happiness.