Becoming Empty

Becoming Empty

The following post is based on an essay written by our friend Dharmesh Shah, Ahmedabad Center.

Today, while filling a glass of water, there was the perception that if the glass is already full, but the water is still being poured inside it, then the water will start spilling out as the glass cannot hold more water. In a similar vein, conscious influences are continuously being showered upon me, and the reason I am unable to hold them is that I am too full. The influences are not getting absorbed because I am full of me, me, me… [Ouspensky called these lower influences, A Influence.]

One of the aspects of work on oneself is to become empty and make space for higher influences to flow freely [Ouspensky called these C Influences, those from a conscious source]. There is a need to become transparent. It is necessary to give up the mechanical habits, unnecessary movements, style, thoughts, emotions, and the vast databases of knowledge acquired over the years. The knowledge of various systems, religions, beliefs, traditions, spiritual streams [Ouspensky referred to these as B Influences, influences that were initially from a conscious source but have been diluted by life] must be removed before anything new can enter. In today’s modern age, there is a surfeit of knowledge available at one’s fingertips.

Increasingly, there is the realization that the work is quite simple. Being present in the moment does not require too much knowledge. One just needs to be in the present and enjoy the state without drifting away into the past or future. It seems quite easy, but it is the most difficult achievement. Being present in the moment is not a passive state of just doing nothing. It is the active vision, active hearing, and being present to not only to what is around one, but also of being present to the inner functioning of the machine. It is a very active state.

Becoming empty of all ‘I’s is a dimension of Self-remembering. The Nine of Hearts [the intellectual part of the emotional center] has emptied itself and given way for Higher Centres to manifest. Francesco Petrarca, a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, said, “Life is short. Time is fleeting. Both steal away with silent footsteps, while we sleep or make merry. And oh, that the swiftness of time and shortness of life were as well known at the beginning as they are at the end.”

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Anonymous Florentine, Ideal City (c. 1470–1480), Walters Art Museum, Baltimore