This Week At St. Matthew's Pampa March 28, 2010

"O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for 'evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen"

ALL STRUCTURES ARE UNSTABLE
"Whatever form it takes, the unconscious drive behind ego is to strengthen the image of who I think I am, the phantom self that came into existence when thought- a great blessing as well as a great curse - began to take over and obscured the simple yet profound joy of connectedness with Being, the Source, God. Whatever behavior the ego manifests, the hidden motivating force is always the same; the need for power, for attention, for more. And, of course, the need to feel a sense of separation, that is to say, the need for opposition, enemies.

The ego always wants something from other people or situations. There is always a hidden agenda, always a sense of 'not enough yet.' of insufficiency and lack that needs to be filled. It uses people and situations to get what it wants, and even when it succeeds, it is never satisfied for long. Often it is thwarted in its aims, and for the most part the gap between 'I want" and 'what is' become a constant source of of upset and anguish. The famous and now classic pop song '(I Can't get no) Satisfaction' is the song of the ego.

The underlying emotion that governs all the activity of the ego is fear.

The fear that of being nobody, the fear of nonexistence, the fear of death. All it's activities are ultimately designed to eliminate this fear, but the most the ego can ever do is cover it up temporarily with an intimate relationship, a new possession, or winning this or that. Illusion will never satisfy you. Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free.

Why fear? Because the ego arises by identification with form, and deep down it knows that no forms are permanent, that they are all fleeting. So there is always a sense of insecurity around the ego even if on the outside it appears confident.
As I was walking with a friend through a beautiful nature reserve near Malibu in California, we came upon the ruins of what had been once a country house, destroyed by fire
several decades ago. As we approached the property, long overgrown with trees and all kinds of magnificent plants, there was a sign by the side of the trail put there by the park authorities. It read: DANGER, ALL STRUCTURES ARE UNSTABLE. I said to my friend, 'that's a profound sutra (sacred scripture).' And we stood there in awe. Once you realize and accept that all structures (forms) are unstable, even the seemingly solid material ones, peace arises within you. This is because the recognition of the impermanence of all forms awakens you to the dimension of the formless within yourself, that which is beyond death. Jesus called it 'eternal life'.

from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle - pp. 80-81