Teaching Precocious Son

"Not This, Not This-I Am That!"
By Elizabeth Reninger

It’s one of those days … when things just seem to not be going “right” … I’m feeling unloved, unlovable, lost & lonely; feeling abandoned by friends & foes alike; like a failure; hopeless and without resources. It’s big-time hAla’hala (the poison which arose ~ and subsequently was “stored” in the throat of Shiva ~ when the god & demons churned the milky ocean in an effort to draw forth the amrita that would bestow bliss & immortality). It’s a bone fide “negative-ego” downward spiral ~ wilder than the wildest of amusement-park rides. (Remembering here: the Tibetan yogi Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, describing his habit of going to amusement parks, and finding the scariest rides … as preparation for traveling through the Bardo ~ the passage, after “death,” between this life-time & the next.) And then ~ thankfully ~ recalling a practice first taught to me by Leslie Temple-Thurston, a practice perfect for moments just like this one …

The practice (drawn from the Hindu yoga/meditation tradition) is simply to say ~ in response to all those (internal or external) voices that are shouting, whispering, whimpering or screaming such discouraging, disparaging and really un-helpful things: Netti, Netti …Tat Tsvam Asi!, whose English translation is “Not this, Not this, You are That!” This is a phrase that has its origins, most famously, in the Chandogya Upanishad, and secondly in the Katha Upanishad.