Stage One: Transforming the Ego
The “Dancing with Life” KM Group meets tonight and we’ll be discussing the Three Stages of Realization: Transformation, Transcendence, and Transparency described by Phillip Moffitt (in Dancing with Life pages 197-206 in the hardback edition).
Here’s what Phillip has to say about Stage One:
At first your inner changes simply mean that you are becoming psychologically or emotionally healthier….But you intuitively know your journey is about something larger than just creating a healthier ego; therefore, you stick to your practice. What are at first just shifts in your thinking and behavior gradually and cumulatively amount to substantive changes in how your mind is organized, and you enter a new state of development.
You realize that your suffering is the result of the way you are, not the way the world is. You know you know this is true, not because someone told you or you read it in a book, but because you feel it in your body. This direct knowing transforms you within your ego structure…
Once you reach the ego transformation stage of awareness, you feel a sense of ease with life and selflessness that makes you more available to others….You continue to be organized around your ego, but the ego’s identity is transformed, therefore, much of its focus is on wholesome behavior and serving others….
At this stage of spiritual maturity, cessation means you have ceased being self-referencing. You are much less tormented by greed, ill will, and delusion. Despite whatever flaws you may have at present, you are capable of achieving genuine ego transformation…..
If you are exceptionally motivated, you realize at some point that you could spend your entire life exploring and developing within the transformed ego stage and you would still not be free. Therefore, you do not lose the thread of your inspiration. You stay connected to your deeper calling–your heart’s full liberation.
So you persistently practice noting clinging and nonclinging and witnessing arising and passing of phenomena. You can imagine that transcending the ego might be possible. You are not clinging to a desire for transcendence, it is a natural progression; the mind and heart spontaneously move in this direction.
Which takes you to Stage Two. More on that tomorrow.