The Chinese Finger-Cuff Model of Liberation

First posted to my Zaadz/Gaia blog Feb 23rd, 2007

Chinese Finger Cuffs

Remember These?
In Evelyn’s Zaadzblog for yesterday  (Feb. 22nd) she quotes Lama Surya Das also quoting Trungpa Rinpoche as saying;

”Renunciation means to let go of holding back. Can we let go of holding back? Can we relinquish our fears and defenses?”

Holding back is all the hypnotically enmeshed activity of the Imaginary Self, the entirely mental conflation we have throughout the memory of this, and possibly many, lifetimes assumed to be what we are. Although That which we truly are is infact entirely surrounding and penetrating everything that appears as the content of the mind and senses, we none-the-less feel hemmed in by “reality,” what Eckhart Tolle calls our life situation. We are actually in a chronic posture of clenching onto what is actually and totally a dream.

If you’re of a certain age, perhaps you remember the fairs or carnivals at your school or church, where for a dime or so you could take part in contests requiring questionable skill, for success in which you were gifted with cheezy treasures, prominent among which were the ever-daunting Chinese Finger-cuffs (Dun-Dun-Dun). The thing with these classy little products of some sweatshop in the Far East was that you’d stick a finger from each hand in one end of the little woven tube, and when you’d pull on it hard enough it’d grip the fingers with enough force to dislocate yer dang knuckles. And you could do what you wanted, twist the fingers, shake ’em, whatever, but as long as you kept pulling, you were trapped.

That’s how it is with this clenching that keeps the small self firmly ensconced front and center in our experience. So someone comes along and tells you that you don’t have to stay in states shot through and through with the quality of unsatisfactoriness, which is seemingly ever-recurrent suffering. Or, perhaps they come from a perspective a few notches down and say that the suffering will go away when you meet all your desires (say, through the Law of Attraction(R)…). But whatever catches your attention, the Who-You-Think-You-Are starts out making efforts to get out of your traps in life. There follow the inevitable seminars, workshops, retreats, visualizations, affirmations, yoga intensives, trips to the Spiritual Bookstore, cleansings, rolfings, dietary regimens, and of course lashings of meditations. Still, no matter what you try, the unsatisfactoriness persists relentlessly, in fact seems to increase the harder you try, the more you mind your P’s and Q’s.

With the Finger-Cuffs, the trick was to relax, even push in a little, and then to gently ease out of the suckers. Basically the same thing applies to easing out of the Ego, you just have to let go. I have found this greatly aided by something that Adyashanti’s teacher, Arvis Justi, told him – (hopefully not paraphrasing too much) “Every ego has it’s dance, and it’s just going to dance it out to the end.” Gradually it begins to dawn that there really are no mistakes, every move that presents itself can be followed in the trust that either it’s the right one, or is a brilliant “mistake” that will lead to the perfect, required learning. Things seem to lighten up. People are less threatening, and you’re less inclined to lock horns or hold energy with them. They even kinda seem lovable, not necessarily because you have any liking for them at all.

You may notice that you stop taking yourself so seriously, or not. But one day, the idea that the Imaginary Self is exactly that, an illusion through and through, may become more than theoretical. That which you truly are may, as it is innately suited to do, sees clearly and directly that there was never anybody home.  We find only ease and peacefulness at the center, our heart breaks open with the realization, and we no longer have to hold anything back.

You finessed your way out of the finger-cuffs.

Shanti