Analysis and Interpretation ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

Please visit the Katie Davis Website at www.KatieDavis.org

Katie Davis is author of Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment and spontaneously awakened in 1986. She has been offering talks in spiritual gatherings since 1999. Awake Joy was directly encouraged by Eckhart Tolle.

Analysis and Interpretation by Katie Davis

Analysis and interpretation are excellent tools for balancing the checkbook, determining probabilities and all sorts of likelihoods. However, in any analysis, if the primary assumption is wrong in the first place, no amount of analyzing or interpreting will bring us, even mathematically, to the right answer.

The only essential question on the spiritual quest is, "Who am I?" We were taught and therefore assumed that the word "I" is pointing to the body. This is the primary delusion that casts us into apparent separation and is the cause of all misery and sorrow.

If we are misidentified with the dreaming "I" or what I call the ego, the mind-made self, or the "I am the body idea," no amount of analysis or interpretation will bring us to Self-discovery. They simply are the wrong tools, because the primary assumption is false. The "I" thought points to the body of course, but infinitely more.

Analysis and interpretation are very good tools for the mind. Tools of the mind just cannot remove the mind. Now, I am not suggesting that the mind is a bad thing. Hardly true! Thought is an extraordinary power. It is just that when we mistake thought for who we are, thought uses us and we suffer.

The opportunity of spiritual awakening, enlightenment and Self-realization is that what we call mind is stilled. Since we are no longer misidentified with thought as our true identity, thought (ego) can no longer use us. The ego and its push and pull strategies are finished. Instead, the altered state of consciousness that is ego, dissolves into the pure consciousness that it genuinely is. The mind then becomes the willing hand-maiden to Truth; the Heart of unconditional love and perfect peace.

Further, analysis and interpretation are always based on the known. What is known is always past. Since I am suggesting that we may not yet realize who we are as our essence, that is, beyond our given name and form, we must consider the unknown.

When we analyze and focus on our conditioning, such as why we feel the way that we do or what we are worried about in the future, we may indeed come to a clearer understanding of the conditioning and how it is functioning, but it cannot take us beyond that which is free of all conditioning.

Let's take two examples. First, you are feeling angry and you do not really know why. The analyzing mind will go to the past and reflect upon what has happened that made you feel angry. Perhaps you will remember the past incident, but it will not remove the fact that you feel angry. Another example, you are feeling anxious. In this case, the analyzing mind is likely to shift to the future. You may discover what you are worried about, but it will not change the anxiety.

In both of these examples, we are dealing with time fixations. Our first step is therefore to step out of time. We can become aware of our breathing or what the body is sensing and we will suddenly find ourselves aware of the present moment.

Once we are present and free of time, we have the tools of self-observation and witnessing. Whatever past conditioning we are holding will arise in the present moment as discontentment or unease. If we are observing, we become conscious of how the ego is functioning. We become conscious of its structure and how it operates within us. What was previously unconscious is transformed into consciousness. This surrender of the false happens by itself when you are willing to be the consistent watcher.

Wisdom's tool is Self-inquiry and it is the Direct Approach to enlightenment and Self-realization. Self-inquiry instantly removes the ego that resides as a thought in the head and brings us home to the Heart.

To review Self-Inquiry, please refer to one of Katie's earlier posts by clicking:

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