Twelve Facets of Reality

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: New York Dodd Made & Company

Page 59

Freedom from Dependency 37 unreal, our essence and our addictions. The genuine teachers and teachings take us into the depth of reality and help us understand the nature of addiction. They encourage us to ask ourselves, “What is addiction? How have we built addictions around us? In what ways have we identified with them? Without them, does our life seem empty, miserable, and helpless?”
In order to see clearly, we meditate on the fourth facet, ekatva. Ekatva means One, and you have so many in your mind. Because of bahutva, or multiplicity, you don't see that One. Around that One everything is circling.
We can think of it in this way: We have a circumference and a center. The center is one, but on the circumference there are many. The circumference is so big and obvious that we don't have the insight to see the subtle center. That is why we are always moving on the circumference, outside of ourselves. That is why we look for some scapegoat to blame. We like to pin our unhappiness on somebody, saying, “If you were not in my life, my life would be heaven.” Or we say it the other way around. “If you were in my life, my life would be heaven."
The circumference plays such an elusive role that one loses sight of the center. One must see that the whole circumference is made for the center, that if there were no center, a circumference could not exist.
See yourself for a while, looking from the center to the circumference. Until now your mind has been engaged twenty-four hours a day with bahutva, the circumference. Always somebody or something has been there engaging your mind-money, power, possessions, a friend, or a foe. That is why you are never completely with yourself. Even when you do sit down to be alone with yourself, even in that moment, something is there to distract you.