People often ask what is the best way to meditate. There are of course many techniques—from counting breaths to subvocal repetition of a mantra to staring at a candle flame—but the only true way to meditate is to die. Of course, biological death is not what is referred to, but death of the ego with its narcissistic chattering mind.

To die while alive is the universal method of spiritual transfiguration. Learning to die was considered the essence of philosophy by no less an exponent than Socrates. Becoming dead as an ego is the method espoused by such great figures in world spirituality as Shankara, Buddha, Christ, and Muhammad, and by such well-known sages in their various traditions as Meister Eckhart, Ibn Arabi, Rumi, and Dogen Zenji. It can be truly said that this is the one universal religion. To die to the ego and be reborn as Spirit (or, using the terminology of other traditions, as Atman, Brahman, Buddha-consciousness, Emptiness, or as Sat-Chit-Ananda—Being-Awareness-Rapture)—this is the one attainment that unites all spiritual paths.

To be dead while alive—in Sanskrit, the term for this ecstatic state of being is Marjiva—means that the mind has stopped dancing around, hopping from past to future, from happiness to sadness, from love to hate. When the ego mind dies into simple presence, life truly begins.

How is this exalted state to be reached? Of course, it can be gradual or sudden. Even when it is sudden, though, there must have been a period of preparation in order for the soul to be ripe for Self-realization.

Spiritual practice is the process of ripening, of deepening, of dissolving the ego little by little. The work can also be seen as a channeling of energies, a maturation of the soul’s inherent powers. It involves a transformation of defense mechanisms, exchanging such tendencies as aggression, inertia, deception, and avoidance, for such qualities as nobility, serenity, wisdom, compassion, generosity, and courage. These attributes are natural to the Real Self, but can only fully emerge with the death of the false self.

The false self dwells in duality. There are internal splits—between ego and superego, good and bad, past and future, et cetera—that prevent the egoic mind from perceiving reality as it is. Models of relationship from the past are projected on the present and thus turn the future into a repetition of the past; value systems are employed for purposes of gaining judgmental superiority; and situations are manipulated to create scenarios of victimhood, in which self-righteous anger and revenge are justified.

All this is done to keep from having to do the one thing that the ego must refrain from doing in order to maintain its illusory existence: love.

To die while alive means to live in love. It means to forgive unconditionally. It means to let go of the past. It means to surrender utterly and forever—mind and body, thoughts, words, and actions—to the One All-Encompassing Power that is the creative force behind, within, and beyond both the soul and the universe. This power manifests as All, as Emptiness, and as the Self. The Supreme One can be felt as the vibratory energy of which both mind and matter are made: Awareness, Love, and Light.

To die into the Supreme Light, like the proverbial moth flying into the Flame—this is the one true act that we can perform. Once the ego has been burned up in the Sacrificial Fire of God’s Love, time morphs into eternity. Body and awareness continue to function, but without the illusion of an egoic agency. A silent mind that is fully present, light-hearted, loving, intuitive, charitable, stable and dependable replaces the now-dead flighty moth-mind of the ego.

Life becomes a field of grace. Once the ego is dead, every moment becomes miraculous. Once freed from the struggle between loss and gain, all events are experienced as blessings.

We are all being led to this state of beatitude, but some of us will only get there kicking and screaming, as a result of unbearable suffering. Every day, all of us die a little. We are killed by the disappointments we are dealt by other egos, by the betrayals of loved ones, the losses of attachment figures, the corruption and fall of role models, the break-up of partnerships, the family battles that erupt over inheritances and other issues.

Every day, we learn more how the war clouds are darkening, the dead are piling up, the blood of whole nations is flowing, the ecological web of life is being destroyed, the glaciers are melting and the seas are rising; we feel the seismic shaking, the monster storms, the tsunamis gathering, the bombs dropping. We know that we are at an end, a catastrophe caused by the collective ego. We know it must die, if life is to survive.

To kill one’s ego now is imperative for all of us, it is the urgent command of God. All the prophets of every land and time have shouted this message down the defiles of history. But now is the moment of apocalyptic revelation. It is time to put away childish things. Let us become very serious about what we are doing to the Earth. Let our healing begin. It requires our conscious premeditated ego-death and our sacred theomorphic rebirth.

All blessings on becoming Marjiva.

Namaste,

Shunyamurti