In the discussion of the Three Lords which follows, the words
"materialism" and "neurotic" refer to the action of ego.
The Lord of Form refers to the neurotic pursuit of physical
comfort, security and pleasure. Our highly organised and
technological society reflects our preoccupation with manipulating
physical surroundings so as to shield ourselves from the irritations
of the raw, rugged, unpredictable aspects of life. Push-button
elevators, pre-packaged meat, air conditioning, flush toilets,
private funerals, retirement plans, mass, production, weather
satellites, bulldozers, fluorescent lighting, nine-to-five jobs,
television - all are attempts to create a manageable, safe,
predictable, pleasurable world.
The Lord of Form does not signify the physically rich and
secure life-situations we create per se. Rather it refers to the
neurotic preoccupation that drives us to create them, to try to
control nature. It is ego's ambition to secure and entertain
itself, trying to avoid all irritation. So we cling to our
pleasures and possessions, we fear change or force change, we try to
create a nest or playground.
The Lord of Speech refers to the use of intellect in
relating to our world. We adopt sets of categories which serve as
handles, as ways of managing phenomena. The most fully developed
products of this tendency are ideologies, the systems of ideas that
rationalise, justify and sanctify our lives. Nationalism,
communism, existentialism Christianity, Buddhism - all provide us
with identities, rules of action, and interpretations of how and why
things happen as they do.
Again, the use of intellect is not in itself the Lord of
Speech.
The Lord of Speech refers to the inclination on the part of
ego to interpret anything that is threatening or irritating in such
a way as to neutralise the threat or turn it into something
"positive" from the ego's point of view. The Lord of Speech refers
to the use of concepts as filters to screen us from a direct
perception of what is. The concepts are taken too seriously; they
are used as tools to solidify our world and ourselves. If a world
of nameable things exists, then "I" as one of the nameable things
exists as well. We wish not to leave any room for threatening
doubt, uncertainty or confusion.
The Lord of Mind refers to the effort of consciousness to
maintain awareness of itself. The Lord of Mind rules when we use
spiritual and psychological disciplines as the means of maintaining
our self-consciousness, of holding onto our sense of self. Drugs,
yoga, prayer, meditation, trances, various psychotherapies - all can
be used in this way.
Ego is able to convert everything to its own use, even
spirituality. For example, if you have learned of a particularly
beneficial meditation technique of spiritual practice, then ego's
attitude is, first to regard it as an object of fascination and,
second to examine it. Finally, since ego is seeming solid and
cannot really absorb anything, it can only mimic. Thus ego tries to
examine and imitate the practice of meditation and the meditative
way of life. When we have learned all the tricks and answers of the
spiritual game, we automatically try to imitate spirituality, since
real involvement would require the complete elimination of ego, and
actually the last thing we want to do is to give up the ego
completely. However, we cannot experience that which we are trying
to imitate; we can only find some area within the bounds of ego that
seems to be the same thing.
Ego translates everything in terms of
its own state of health, its own inherent qualities. It feels a
sense of great accomplishment and excitement at have been able to
create such a pattern. At last it has created a tangible
accomplishment, a confirmation of its own individuality.
If we become successful at maintaining our
self-consciousness through spiritual techniques, then genuine
spiritual development is highly unlikely. Our mental habits become
so strong as to be hard to penetrate. We may even go so far as to
achieve the totally demonic state of complete "Egohood."
Even though the Lord of Mind is the most powerful in
subverting spirituality, still the other two Lords can also rule the
spiritual practice. Retreat to nature, isolation, simple, quiet,
high people - all can be ways of shielding oneself from irritation,
all can be expressions of the Lord of Form. Or perhaps religion may
provide us with a rationalisation for creating a secure nest, a
simple but comfortable home, for acquiring an amiable mate, and a
stable, easy job.
The Lord of Speech is involved in spiritual practice as
well. In following a spiritual path we may substitute a new
religious ideology for our former beliefs, but continue to use it in
the old neurotic way. Regardless of how sublime our ideas may be,
if we take them too seriously and use them to maintain our ego, we
are still being ruled by the Lord of Speech.
Most of us, if we examine our actions, would probably agree
that we are ruled by one or more of the Three Lords. "But," we
might ask, "so what? This is simply a description of the human
condition. Yes, we know that our technology cannot shield us from
war, crime, illness, economic insecurity, laborious work, old age
and death; nor can our ideologies shield us from doubt, uncertainty,
confusion and disorientation; nor can our therapies protect us from
the dissolution of the high states of consciousness that we may
temporarily achieve and the disillusionment and anguish that
follow. But what else are we to do? The Three Lords seem too
powerful to overthrow, and we don't know what to replace them with."
The Buddha, troubled by these questions, examined the
process by which the Three Lords rule. He questioned why our minds
follow them and whether there is another way. He discovered that
the Three Lords seduce us by creating a fundamental myth: that we
are solid beings. But ultimately the myth is false, a huge hoax, a
gigantic fraud, and it is the root of our suffering. In order to
make this discover he had to break through very elaborate defences
erected by the Three Lords to prevent their subjects from
discovering the fundamental deception which is the source of their
power. We cannot in any way free ourselves from the domination of
the Three Lords unless we too cut through, layer by layer, the
elaborate defences of these Lords.
The Lords' defences are created out of the material of our
minds. This material of mind is used by the Lords in such a way as
to maintain the basic myth of solidity. In order to see for
ourselves how this process works we must examine our own
experience. "But how," we might ask, "are we to conduct the
examination? What method or tool are we to use?" The method that
the Buddha discovered is meditation. He discovered that struggling
to find answers did not work. It was only when there were gaps in
his struggle that insights came to him. He began to realise that
there was a sane, awake quality within him which manifested itself
only in the absence of struggle. So the practice of meditation
involves "letting be."
No comments:
Post a Comment