Spiritual Rope Burn

Ego consciousness can leave us with spiritual rope burn, the suffering caused by attachments to transient concepts, such as beliefs, opinions, perceptions, needs, wants, and desires. The mind can become a matted mess without a process by which to develop enough awareness to learn how to observe its inner workings. Trillions of bits of data stream into the mind every moment of every day, and by default, the brain filters out that which it has been conditioned to ignore. Where there is trauma, the brain focuses on what is most similar to what has caused pain and, thus, becomes hijacked. Learning to stabilize awareness assists with self-actualization, which can lead toward unity consciousness beyond the pursuit of pleasure or the fear of pain. In this episode, Lisa A. Romano explores the potential when one is willing to confront the mind.

Transcript

Today,

We're going to be discussing what it means to experience human rope burn,

Spiritual rope burn,

Vibrational rope burn.

This idea that we hang on and we cling to that which is an illusion.

There is an illusion that most people operate beneath,

Unaware that they are operating from that level of perception.

There's this idea,

And I'm guilty of it myself,

Where things were permanent,

That because I felt this way at 23,

There was this just assumption,

Unconscious assumption,

That that perception was correct and permanent,

That that perception would be forever.

Human life for me,

As I am sure it does for many,

Proved that theory wrong,

That unconscious,

Subconscious theory wrong,

That way of operating my life under the guise that,

Yeah,

Everything's permanent.

This is what I think,

This is what I feel,

And yeah,

This is the way it's supposed to be.

And throughout my lifetime,

The many times where I experienced rope burn,

Where I was clinging to ideas when I should have let go,

But letting go is an art.

Wisdom is an art.

Gaining knowledge along the way is one way to gain wisdom,

But knowledge and wisdom are not one and the same.

Knowledge is gaining data,

Gaining information,

And wisdom is the application of that wisdom.

It is learning that holding on and clinging to things that are impermanent are what causes us emotional and spiritual rope burn.

It's what causes us human suffering.

When I am unable or I refuse or my brain by default refuses through things like denial or repression or trauma,

The response to something that's happening in my experience that conflicts with my internal belief system and my desires.

We all have desires that are operating below the veil of consciousness as well as above the veil of consciousness,

And sometimes they conflict.

Sometimes we want to be loved and we want to be loving,

But we have found ourselves in a situation with someone who is impossible to be vulnerable with,

And there we have a conflict.

If we cling to this idea that I need to be in a loving relationship with this person who is toxic,

Who is abusive,

Then I will suffer.

The unwillingness that we sometimes have to see things as they are and for what they are,

And then above that,

To understand that everything is impermanent.

I can enter into a relationship feeling one way and in six months or six years or 30 years end up feeling or believing or wanting something else.

I can see something in someone in one year and in another year begin to see something else.

This is often the case as we transition,

As we transcend,

We even change the way we view the self.

And this again is okay because everything is transient.

Imagine the liberation that would come if we entered into relationships recognizing that they are supposed to change,

That we are supposed to change,

That our perceptions will change,

That our emotions will change,

That the person that we are in a relationship with is going to change,

Or at least we will change and therefore the way we look at things is going to change.

When we understand that the ego or that part of ourselves that represents the aspect of self that is doing the perceiving,

Doing the managing,

Doing the belief or the believing,

Doing the denial or the projection or the suppression or the repression,

When we think about the ego as that part of ourselves that is sort of like this prism and our level of consciousness is directing light through this prism and even our level of consciousness is impermanent.

So think about the conundrum,

The human conundrum that we find ourselves in as human beings when our states of consciousness are constantly in flux and this information and data is being streamed from one side of the prism and reflecting out the other side.

And imagine the chaos that we experience in our lives because that is an impermanent experience yet the illusion is that it is permanent,

That it forever should be.

I have a friend who has changed her political views over the years as long as I know her and she gets frustrated with herself.

She's like,

Well,

I started off on this side of the party and now I'm on this side of the party and I always encourage her and let her know that that's okay.

It's okay.

It's supposed to be that way.

You don't have to because you started off on one side.

You don't have to stay there forever.

And it's best if you are able to be open-minded.

It's best to be someone who is able to observe their opinions and their perceptions and their desires changing.

It's best to understand ourselves as impermanent or at least the perceiver within us being something or an aspect of us that is supposed to be changing.

As we become enlightened,

The ego goes through these transformational processes.

And what's really happening is that rather than the ego dying or the ego changing,

It is the consciousness that is aware of what is happening in terms of the sensations in the body.

And it's even better at understanding that who you think you are is a combination of how you feel in the physical body,

What your emotions are,

What your thoughts are,

How you're imagining things or what is your perception of something,

What is your opinion of something,

And of course,

Your level of consciousness.

So when we're thinking about the ego self,

The ego self,

Depending on all of those things,

Will present itself in context or you will see it in a particular way as the observer.

And yet it's an ever-changing thing because the rivers that affect ego are forever changing.

And so this idea of holding on to a thought,

A perception,

A belief,

You can see how difficult that can be for a human being when everything is impermanent.

Those who cling to perceptions are the people at the party that we want to avoid because you can see that they're clinging to a perception,

They have a confirmation bias running,

And they are closed to any other opinion.

People who are clinging to perceptions,

Who are operating below the veil of consciousness,

Who are unaware that everything is transient,

Even this world,

This world is transient.

We will not be here forever.

This life experience is transient.

My emotions are transient.

My perceptions will change over time.

And so when at a party with someone who is clinging to a perception,

Most often this is someone that you want to avoid.

Or if this person's bias aligns with your own,

This is someone that you will want to hang out with.

And again,

We have two people who are locked into a perception,

Who might be angered by anyone suggesting that their perception is false,

And who might be so stone cold in their perception that their mind is under the illusion that what they think and what they feel and the bias by which they are coming to,

That the streams of consciousness responsible for that bias is permanent.

And yet,

If you stand above the conversation,

If you sit on a crescent moon,

And you look down at the situation from the top down,

You be able to understand that the mental faculties that are being used to create these biases are based on things that are impermanent.

And so then you become someone who is respectful of other people's perceptions,

But your ego is not looking to control what it can't control.

You don't go into a party system judging and criticizing because you know,

You know,

Even if that person doesn't know,

That their perception may change,

It may shift.

And the more willing they are to be that person,

To have incoming data,

Rather than push incoming data away that goes against their confirmation bias,

You know that if they remain open,

There's a chance that that person's perception over time will change.

And as we learn to live this way,

As we learn to realize that everything is impermanent,

That for me to cling to a perception,

For me to not be willing to remain objective,

I'm going to suffer.

I'm going to suffer when in any situation,

I'm not willing to observe that everything by which I perceive,

At least while below the veil of consciousness,

That perception is in flux,

Because the information that is flowing,

That is creating my perception,

Is always in flux.

My emotions are always in flux.

Information is always in flux.

I mean,

We want to consider how often we have made decisions based on a lack of information and how we have believed that what we felt in the moment was correct.

And yet with incoming data or another viewpoint,

We realize that that perception we held 30 minutes ago is very different.

You might be going through something like that right now,

Listening to this,

Where your perception is changing,

Maybe of yourself,

Maybe of others.

When we look at people who are stuck,

We're seeing people who are clinging,

Clinging to an old belief system,

And it's not our fault.

Carl Jung talks about the collective consciousness.

Carl Jung discusses this idea that we're all born into a certain particular soup,

And we're all going to have to go through these transitions,

These states of consciousness that allow us to individuate from these aspects or these archetypes of particular states of consciousness.

Women,

For instance,

Have had to go through the transformational process of feeling less than and not even able to vote in America.

They've had to go on through particular states of consciousness.

They've had leaders who have said,

We'd like to shift this perception.

And it took time to have that perception of women shifted to the point where women earned the right to vote.

And so we can see throughout history that everything has been impermanent.

Everything is transient.

And when we consider the self,

We want to understand that our particular perception,

Anything that is subjective,

Represents ego,

Represents dualism,

Me and them,

You and I,

This separation in consciousness.

And so we want to be careful that as we approach life,

And as we go through life,

That we'd be willing to be more objective about our perceptions of self,

Perceptions of our emotions,

Perceptions in general,

Perceptions of others.

We want to be careful.

We want to make sure that we're not resisting what is.

And it becomes easier to become non-resistant to what is when we anchor ourselves in the understanding that all that is is transient.

All that is is impermanent.

And from that perspective,

We don't have to cling.

And it's far easier to let go.

Namaste.

Until next time.

Bye for now.

Reviews

🙏🕊️ many thanks!

You’re the best!

This was an excellent reminder thank you for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate it Namaste.

Namaste 🙏

Transient perception ever flowing.. always learning, changing & being who we are.

🪷💮🏵⚘️🪻🌷🌼🌻🌹🥀🌺🌲🤍

Excellent talk on the validity of impermanence of thoughts, feelings and perceptions....thank you Lisa 🙏💕