Leaving Storyville

One of the most difficult barriers to overcome on the path to spiritual growth is extracting yourself from the tenacious grip of the Ego Story. Unsuspectingly, many people are mesmerized and possessed by this mental illusion. Possessed like some demon possesses a poor, hapless soul. They are ignorant of their ignorance. They do not realize they are separate. They believe that they are the Story.

The robin, on an early spring morning, spies a worm burrowing into the soil. Two creatures - the bird and the worm. One sees the other. Two. One seeing the Other.

Finish this sentence: "I am a ..."

Looking through the robin's eyes - we see the worm. We see our beak, we feel the lust for something to eat, the warmth of the morning sun on our feathers. We experience all that the robin experiences. There are Two. We which see, and the robin's experiences. Two. That which sees and That which is seen.

Did you finish the sentence? "I am a..." If you answered anything, then you too are possessed. You too are under the dark influence of the Story. You too are identifying with what you experience instead of that which is experiencing.

You are not a man or woman. You are what is experiencing the man or woman's life. You are not a worker. You are experiencing the life of a worker. You are not the robin, but that which is experiencing the life of a robin. Two things. The Experiencer and that which is experienced. Two things, that which sees and that which is seen.

The mind often confuses the thoughts with the Self. Concepts become the Identity. I am a man, a writer, a photographer. I am sad and alone. I am content and happy with a full stomach. My mind is deceiving me. My ego is possessing me. Since I can see these things, then I must be that which is doing the seeing.

Look! Look at these words. See the ink on the paper? What is experiencing the seeing? Not your eyes - they are the tools to seeing. Not your mind - it is the tool to interpreting. What is "hearing" the interpretation? What is experiencing this moment? What are you?

When you start to see the Story as something separate from yourself, a cool thing happens - you stop taking life so personally, so seriously. That dent didn't happen to your car, it just happened. All those plans for the weekend didn't get ruined, they were just thoughts in your head. That guy didn't just insult you, he insulted what he thinks is you.

What is behind noise? Can you hear silence? What is behind thoughts? Can you experience nothingness? It can't be seen, yet it is everywhere. It can't be experienced, and yet, it CAN be sensed. From this Emptiness, everything arises. From the Stillness, every moment is born. From the Nothingness, all Life.

As you distance yourself from your Story, you see just how insubstantial that Story is. It exists solely out of memories. It is, in fact, no more real that the story of the Great White Whale in Moby Dick. You can't touch it, you can't see it, and, when your brain goes to sleep, it ceases to exist. It simply isn't any more real than a nagging and persistent thought.

With everything that is seen, there are Two - You and what is seen. With everything that is experienced, there are Two - You and the experience. If You can see it, it can't be You. If You can experience it, it can't be You.

On the path of the Spirit, the farther you travel, the less there is of you. You become less important, less the center of things, less... solid. You start to fade, shrink, melt. And, with persistence, one day you may completely disappear for awhile and paradoxically, when that moment happens, you suddenly leap from this tiny, little speck of a self, to the One and Great Universal Self.

What lies behind your eyes? Where do your thoughts come from? What is feeling the tension in your body? What are you?

Does one apple equal one orange? No, of course not. Does one apple equal one apple? No, there are two different apples. Does zero apples equal zero oranges? Yes, zero apples does equal zero oranges. Zero always equals zero, and zero of you is equal to a zero number of Universes.

Emptiness here is the same as Emptiness over there. Nothing between the atoms of your little finger is the same as the Nothing between the atoms of a star in a distant galaxy. That which sees out my eyes, is the same as That which sees out yours. Zero = Zero = Everything.

There is nothing to take seriously. Nothing to take personally. Nothing that needs doing. Wake up and enjoy the experience. Wake up and enjoy your Self.

Wayne Wirs is the photographer and author of Fading Toward Enlightenment - Life between the Ego and the Ethereal. For more information about Wayne, his writings or his photography, please visit http://fadingtowardenlightenment.com

housekeepers near Buffalo Grove ..

In The News:

China's battery swap technology from CATL lets electric vehicle owners exchange batteries in under two minutes, with plans to expand to 1,000 stations across 31 Chinese cities by 2025.

Analysts at Silent Push have uncovered a widespread scam that uses counterfeit retail websites to steal the credit card information of online shoppers.

Chrome users need to update their browsers immediately as Google addresses a critical vulnerability that hackers are actively exploiting. Additional security measures are recommended.

A study found teens glance at phones for dangerous two-second intervals while driving, using devices primarily for entertainment, texting and navigation despite crash risks.

Security researchers uncovered a flaw in Windows 11 that allows attackers to disable Secure Boot using Microsoft-signed tools, requiring manual updates to protect against bootkits.

Carnegie Mellon's noninvasive brain technology allows users to move robotic fingers by thinking about the motion, offering new possibilities for people with motor impairments.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of protection to your accounts. Instead of relying only on a password, MFA requires you to verify your identity using two or more methods.

Scientists from Duke, Harvard, and the University of Otago have unveiled a game-changing tool called DunedinPACNI. It uses a single AI brain scan to reveal how fast a person is biologically aging.

A disturbing wave of fake agent phone scams is sweeping across the United States, catching people off guard and draining their savings.

Emojis aren't just playful add-ons; they're powerful tools for building stronger connections in our increasingly digital world.

Google has taken a major step toward the future of clean energy by partnering with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), an MIT spin-out working to build one of the world’s first commercial fusion reactors.

If you create and share art online, you might have seen messages warning that Facebook's parent company, Meta, claims the right to use or even sell anything you post, whether it's pictures, poems, or artwork.

Cybercriminals hit Qantas in a major data breach that exposed information from up to six million customers.

Having reliable, loud, and timely emergency alerts on your phone or device is important because when severe weather strikes, every second counts.

Here's how your daily brew is becoming the foundation for greener buildings.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are transforming how we learn. But what does this mean for AI and learning retention?

Modern AI data centers use much more electricity than traditional cloud servers. In many cases, the existing power grid cannot keep up. One innovative solution is gaining traction: repurposed EV batteries for AI data centers.

Microsoft 365 and Outlook users are being targeted by a tactic that injects fake billing alerts directly into their calendars.

Researchers are now showing us that old smartphones as data centers could be the next big thing in sustainable tech.

Scientists have created micro-robots for sinus infection treatment that can enter the nasal cavity, eliminate bacteria directly at the source, and exit without harming surrounding tissue.

Let's examine how your data is collected in everyday life, who is buying and selling it, what happens to it afterward, and, most importantly, what you can do to protect yourself.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. developed small robots called "Pipebots" that can travel inside water pipes to find and potentially repair leaks, all without any excavation.

A groundbreaking new study has uncovered disturbing AI blackmail behavior that many people are unaware of yet.

Four teams of autonomous humanoid robots competed in China's first AI soccer tournament, demonstrating advanced capabilities in ball detection and independent decision-making.

The ID. Buzz autonomous van features self-driving technology with 13 cameras, nine LiDAR units and five radars after Volkswagen partnered with Hamburg and Uber for 2026 deployments.

Leaving Storyville

Spirituality