“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”
– Pope Benedict XVI
Kabir – The couplet
पिया चाहे प्रेम आस, रखा चाहे मन ।
दोउ खड़ग एक मयान में, देखा सुना न मन ||
Transliterated:
Piya Chhahe Prem Aas, Rakha Chhahe Man |
Dou Khadga Ek Mayan Mein, Dekha Suna Na Man||
Translation:
The lover desires to possess (the full) love (of the lover), but also wants to retain his own heart |
Two swords in one scabbard, this is not something normal or workable ||
My understanding:
This week, as I continue to reflect on the stranglehold ego possesses on the self, I am watching the play of ego in trying to subvert the self into a confused plethora of emotions – all designed to distract, confuse, and remove the focus of the mind from the self to more immediate physical needs (which on closer inspection do not justify their presence as any need, true or otherwise).
 
If this is the state when this is my primary focus, what protection does the average person have in a normal life where society, family and the “pressures” of the day rule roost on the day’s priorities?
If so, are those priorities right? I asked the question, and forced myself to stay calm in the face of the presented storm. Slowly, all of them, spent in the absence of their fuel (emotion), died down, and I began to realize that the frenzy was just a false front designed to scare me into submission, not a presentation of reality. As they died, I began to realize that calm is my natural state – not otherwise as life has led me to believe.
This allows me to look at the activity from a position of great inner strength, and has realigned my day for me.
Try it – this is truly liberating!