Acharya Peter Wilberg's Bulletin

AWARENESS, AWARE ACTION AND ‘FREE WILL’

On the nature and role of ‘The Enlightened Ego’ in The New Yoga:

To me one of the most new and life-relevant dimensions of The New Yoga lies in the way it allows us to reconsider – on the basis of The Awareness Principle – the relation of awareness to action, and with this, the question of 'free will', human and divine.

In this context, I see it as essential to distinguish what I call ‘aware action’ from what finds expression as ordinary egoic agency or ‘doer-ship’.

My central message is that truly aware action always and only arises from an awareness of MORE THAN ONE possible thing we can do or say, and/or MORE THAN ONE possible way of doing or saying it.

Hence its connection with free action or ‘free will’ - since only where there is free CHOICE between alternative words and deeds is there freedom –‘free will’.

Yet choice itself is not an act of will or ‘doership’ but rather a LETTING be or LETTING enact of one possible action or way of acting.

In this letting enact the ego itself can allow itself to be intuitively guided by awareness as such - thus uniting individual ‘will’ with the divine ‘will’.

Essentially however, the divine does not ‘will’ at all in the ordinary egoic sense of being a wilful agent of action or ‘doer’. It just does not 'do' doing at all - initiating action in the way that the ordinary ego BELIEVES itself to do.

Instead it is as Awareness – as Shiva – that the divine lets innate powers and possibilities of Action – Shaktis – unfold and enact themselves freely, from and within awareness.

(This explains also why Iccha, Jnana and Kriya (will or intent, knowledge and action) are not Shiva as such but Shaktis of Shiva, and why the enlightened Ego is itself a Shakti of the Awareness Self.)

As unbounded awareness, the divine is also a field of unlimited and ever-multiplying POSSIBILITIES of action and actualisation.

Within this field itself all potentialities and possibilities are constantly being actualised.

Within the linear time-space of physically incarnate human awareness however, these limitless possibilities present themselves as ALTERNATE possibilities and ALTERNATIVE choices – thus offering both freedom of choice and opportunities for learning.

Freedom, as a choosing or deciding between alternative actions, is not so much ‘free will’ as Responsibility in the essential sense of this word: ‘response-ability’.

This response-ability rests in an awareness of different POSSIBLE responses (some more fruitful and fulfilling, others less so) both to other people and to all the challenges and opportunities of life.

‘Aware Action’ means choosing freely from out of this capacity for response-ability, out of a responsible and responsive awareness of alternatives.

Action in this sense is not essentially an act of doership on the part of an agent - whether a human ego or ‘I’, or a divine ego or ‘I’.

And yet the ego DOES have a vital role to play in ALL human action, not as an initiator or agent of action but as its freedom giver or allower – freely LETTING or ALLOWING one action rather than another to enact and body itself.

The true function of ‘the ego’ therefore is not to ‘do’ but to responsibly recognise alternative choices, not in order to just wilfully, impulsively or intellectually decide between them, but rather to let itself be intuitively guided in its choices BY awareness - by the divine - which is that which alone knows what the best possible action or response is in any particular circumstance.

God knows best and God’s will is all-mighty and supreme. Yet this is not because there is always and only ONE right or wrong thing to do for ALL people.

God’s ‘will’ is supreme only because that very 'will' is essentially an AWARENESS. This awareness embraces and understands - more intimately than the intellect, the full and entire life and world context within which the individual is called upon to choose. Thus it can also GUIDE the ego in allowing or letting do what is right for THEM in THEIR life world and circumstances - and right also for others within that world.

The ultimate choice then, is not between surrendering our ego to the will of a God or Guru on the one hand, or else ignorantly and ‘egotistically’ willing our own actions on the other.

The New Yoga alone recognises that the liberation and freedom that Awareness bestows demands neither the sacrifice of our individuality nor the annihilation or surrender of the ego or intellect.

The New Yoga alone recognises that the pure AWARENESS of ego is itself innately egoless – just as the ego itself can become a pure mirror of the self that IS that pure awareness.

Hence the motto ‘Love thine ego as thy Self’ - that is to say, as and from the Awareness Self - is by no means ‘egotistic’ in the ordinary sense.

For it is the true and future role of both ego and intellect to recognise and reflect that Awareness which both allows us to BE aware of more than one possible action and also guides us in CHOOSING between alternative actions.

Our innermost Self, being nothing but a pure awareness of individuality in all its many sides, is in no need of ‘realisation’ - for it is already our most essential, ultimate and divine Reality.

The aim of The New Yoga therefore, is not ‘self-realisation’ but the creation of something wholly different and indeed new – a newly enlightened ego and intellect.

The enlightened ego does not see itself as a wilful doer, agent or initiator of action. Instead it recognises its own source in Awareness, and understands its true role within it – to let or allow Action to unfold - freely from and within Awareness itself.

It does this through the enlightened INTELLECT -which is there to reflect the INTUITIVE guidance granted by awareness in choosing between alternate possible deeds and words.

The ego and intellect are therefore nothing to be sneered at. For they are that very portion of the divine awareness in each of us which alone can grant or ALLOW more time and space for awareness (this being the most basic practice of The New Yoga).

It is the enlightened ego that grants more time to awareness than the ordinary ‘wilful’ ego - thus expanding that field or space of awareness within which ALL potentialities and possibilities of thought and action lie latent.

It is the enlightened ego that can say the word ‘I’ in a way that resounds with and reflects the Awareness that is its source – that ‘Self’ whose nature is Awareness and nothing else.

The enlightened ego is nevertheless quite distinct from that immature ego which thinks of itself as 'possessing' or 'owning' Awareness, and as initiating or willing Action – and that solely in order to do or to own MORE.

The enlightened ego itself can be no wilful creation of or by the ordinary, immature ego – whether in the form of a human ego, a divine ego or the still immature ego of some self-proclaimed spiritual master or guru.

The enlightened ego is not an ego ‘with’ awareness but essentially a pure awareness of the ego – itself recognised as that portion of our Awareness Self entrusted with the role of letting or allowing an expansion of Awareness - and the unfoldment of specific Actions from it.

The enlightened ego does not place demands, give commands or impose commandments. It is not a demander or commander but rather a granter and allower.

Its role is not to Rule over the body or nature, the social world or other people but instead to (1) Recognise them all as manifestations of awareness (2) Receive or let them into awareness, and (3) Respond to them with awareness – not least the awareness of alternate ways of responding.

The Enlightened Ego is the human eye and mirror of Self and Other - not their ruler or master.

Oddly and alone, The New Yoga recognises The Enlightened Ego as the ‘Third Eye’ and Third ‘I’ of Shiva Himself in human form.

For it can shine, radiate and burn with the reflected light and heat of that Supreme Awareness whose power of action or Shakti it LET BE - whether reflecting it like a broad mirror, differentiating it like a prism, directing it like a laser - or focussing it like a powerful burning lens.

Yet its mundane significance too is immense, being that part of us which grants more time – even if only a matter of minutes - to be more aware of WHAT else, HOW else or what MORE there is we can let into or let arise from Awareness - or let unfold as Action from it.

The Enlightened Ego dwells within the larger time-space of the Awareness Self. Indeed it is through the spacious expanse of this time-space - the Sky of Shiva and womb of Mahakali - that the ordinary ego is itself en-lightened and en-lighten-ed.

To be or abide in this time-space means to not feel confined in some cramped ‘now’ – the sole focus of the ordinary ego.

Instead it is to feel this and every ‘now’ as the centre of a vast, clear time-sphere of awareness, and to feel the very vastness of cosmic space around us AS this vast TIME-space.

This Spacious Cosmic Time-Sphere can then be felt to span, encompass and embrace an entire surrounding day, month or year - and more – with all its joys and tears.

For it holds within it all actual and possible ‘nows and heres’ - past, present and future - together with all their corresponding ‘thens and theres’ - and all that is Let-Enacted within them.

Acharya