The Psychology of Letting Go

What is enlightenment? Enlightenment is the ability to know reality, to sit in it and to perceive and function from its point of view! This reality is both the reality of who we are and the reality of what is, because they are inextricably interconnected, in fact are one and the same. However there is a difficulty with realizing this one reality, a difficulty which has led to thousands of years of confusion. This difficulty is that it is not tangible or perceivable; it is not a thing that can be described, for it is without evident substance or form. In fact, that which has substance and form is not it, can never be it.

So what are we? One way of answering is with a paradox; we are what we are not. To put it more simply, we are what is left when we let go of everything we think we are, after we let go of all illusions. What is left is nothing tangible, indeed is no thing, yet there is a presence there. It is imperceptible yet it can be felt, can be embodied and can be a platform for living.

When illusion is dispelled, reality rushes in.

Into the vacuum that is left when illusion is dispelled rushes reality, rushes what we really are, our real Self. That, understood and embraced, is enlightenment. All spiritual technologies, all meditation techniques, all true paths have been about letting go. They have been about letting go of memories, letting go of attachments, letting go of beliefs and letting go of ideas. Ultimately we let go of those illusions that we hadn’t even suspected we had. It’s all the same. We simply let go and let go and let go. What is left at the end is our real identity and is reality and they are one and the same. Reality is that which we can't let go of!

OM,the Omnius method as well as the enlightenment therapy which is based on it, is a distillation of techniques for letting go, both to reality and to your real Self. One of these techniques is called the inner piece technique, and as the pun suggests, it is a way of achieving inner peace by getting the inner piece. The inner piece technique is based on the headless way of Douglas Harding; it is a pointing technique in that it points directly to the desired experience. Other pointing techniques used by OM are dialog, paradox, meditation and philosophical discourse. However the jewel in the crown of the Omnius method is Karmic clearing. This extraordinary technique completely dissolves all our negative Karma, both from this lifetime and lifetimes past. It is the psychology (or perhaps parapsychology) of letting go.

As we let go, we witness the dawning of our real identity, our fundamental nature and our intrinsic sanity. We don't create ourselves; rather we discover who we are by divesting ourselves of what we are not. In doing so, we uncover the serenity, freedom, wisdom and compassion that have been us all the while. Whereas the pointing techniques plunge us into the experience of our real identity, that experience is evanescent at best. It is easily lost in the midst of the anxieties and conflicts of everyday life. Karmic Clearing however, gives us the ability in our real selves no matter what life dishes out. The two techniques complement and augment one another giving us the firm foundation for living.

Spiritual Empowerment

Omnius is the realization of our real identity. Each of us is an Omnius, the singular, the essence and an individual center of the Omnia, the All. However, to read that, even to learn it, is much different than to make it a real experience of Self. Traditionally, the means to one's real identity is to get out of our dual or perceptual minds, usually through some form of meditation, and just sit in undifferentiated consciousness, in Oneness. The problem with this traditional approach of just leaving our dual mind behind is that it also leaves it with all its problems intact. And these problems are waiting to get us, when we rejoin our mind again.

The reality is, no matter how enlightened we are, in order to function in the world, we are going to have to use our dual mind. We can't meditate forever, nor would most of us want to. Once we get back into our dual mind, we are it. As long as we stay in it, it defines us. We re-empower it and we can't tell it from our self. However, since we have turned away from it, even rejected it, our dual mind has not only stopped maturing, but ever fearful of being banished again, it has acquired a will to seize the limelight of our identity. The result is a never ending war between Oneness and the dual mind with the disputed territory being our identity, a war in which the strength of the One is set against Itself, in a psychic judo match, by the delusions of the dual mind.

The wisdom traditions of pre-psychological cultures dealt with this dilemma in two ways. First, they developed monasticism, which greatly simplifies the conditions of external life, limits the need to go into the dual mind, and supports the meditative lifestyle. Second, in order to prevent the dual mind from gaining control over our identity and refusing to relinquish it, they mandated daily periods of meditation. Neither of these solutions recognizes the dual mind as anything but an enemy, which assuredly it is not.

The dual mind creates both perceptual illusion and cognitive-emotional delusion. The problem with it is not perceptual illusion, for without seeing form, color, dimension, causality, etc, how could we do anything? It is inconceivable. The problems are unconsciousness and delusion. Unconsciousness refers to the tendency of phenomena to entrance us, to make us see appearance as reality and the appearance of ourselves as identity. Delusion refers to perceptual distortions. When we are in dual mind, it becomes our viewpoint and determines what we perceive. If the contents of our dual mind are distorted by a false identity, with everything that goes into this, what we perceive will be correspondingly distorted.

The strategy of Omnius is both a psychological and a spiritual one. It is not to reject the dual mind but to fully recognize it. To give our minds their rightful place, not as our identity but, along with our bodies, as an invaluable tool. Then, just as we educate and train our bodies, we refine our minds. A principle strategy of Omnius is to free our minds of distortions by learning how to use consciousness and intention. The techniques for doing this are called Spiritual Empowerment. Omnians are encouraged to learn and practice this sacred technology.

When we recognize our dual minds as the invaluable allies they are, they stop fighting for supremacy. When we free them of distortions, our undifferentiated consciousness can trust the appearance they present to it. This, the perception from Oneness through an undistorted mind, is what I call Original Perception. From Original Perception our true identity as the singular, the essence and the individual center of the All, is self-evident.