A-Tension, Destroy the Ego and Krishna Das
May 26, 2024
8 min read
•
Newsletter
{Body}
Attention = no tension
Notice the tension in your shoulders right now. Do you see how they’re subtly hiking up to your ears as you read this?
And now notice how they naturally relax the second you become of how tight they are.
That’s no accident…the opposite of tension is attention.
And do you see the clever wordplay there?
In the same way that the meaning of certain words are negated when “a” is added as its prefix — amoral, asexual, atypical — the opposite of tension is a-tension, or attention.
Coincidence? Probably. Either way, it’s a great tool to remember the next moment you feel stressed out or tight.
Practice
Step-by-step instructions to turn theory into healing.
Scan your body with me.
Start with your face and notice all the little muscles in your forehead dissolve the moment you bring awareness to them. Same with your tongue. Same with your jaw.
Now with your arms. Bring attention to your biceps and triceps; forearms and wrists; palms and fingers. See how they naturally lengthen the your attention is placed on them.
Now to your torso: collarbones, chest, upper abs, lower abs. Let your presence be a wave that flows down the front side of your body. Shoulders, delts, mid-back, low back. Again, watch as energy is unblocked when you truly center your mind on an area.
Now your legs. Hips, glutes, hamstrings, quads. All of the intricate muscles will visibly soften as you sweep your attention across them. Calves, shins, ankles, and feet — feel your body becoming freed of its perpetual constriction.
Practice
Step-by-step instructions to turn theory into healing.
Scan your body with me.
Start with your face and notice all the little muscles in your forehead dissolve the moment you bring awareness to them. Same with your tongue. Same with your jaw.
Now with your arms. Bring attention to your biceps and triceps; forearms and wrists; palms and fingers. See how they naturally lengthen the your attention is placed on them.
Now to your torso: collarbones, chest, upper abs, lower abs. Let your presence be a wave that flows down the front side of your body. Shoulders, delts, mid-back, low back. Again, watch as energy is unblocked when you truly center your mind on an area.
Now your legs. Hips, glutes, hamstrings, quads. All of the intricate muscles will visibly soften as you sweep your attention across them. Calves, shins, ankles, and feet — feel your body becoming freed of its perpetual constriction.
Practice
Step-by-step instructions to turn theory into healing.
Scan your body with me.
Start with your face and notice all the little muscles in your forehead dissolve the moment you bring awareness to them. Same with your tongue. Same with your jaw.
Now with your arms. Bring attention to your biceps and triceps; forearms and wrists; palms and fingers. See how they naturally lengthen the your attention is placed on them.
Now to your torso: collarbones, chest, upper abs, lower abs. Let your presence be a wave that flows down the front side of your body. Shoulders, delts, mid-back, low back. Again, watch as energy is unblocked when you truly center your mind on an area.
Now your legs. Hips, glutes, hamstrings, quads. All of the intricate muscles will visibly soften as you sweep your attention across them. Calves, shins, ankles, and feet — feel your body becoming freed of its perpetual constriction.
{Mind}
Can we really eliminate our ego?
Unless you are already fully enlightened, part of you believes it’s impossible to eliminate all bad habits.
That is, you occasionally think there is a dark seed present at the core of your being that, by its very nature, cannot be uprooted — a speck of “evil” that will always have the potential to germinate.
Because of this subconscious belief, you often give up on disciplining your ego, believing austerity to be too restrictive and ultimately futile against the mighty allure of sense pleasures.
“Oh no…I could never give up all junk food! Life would become so boring!”
Said differently, you let the ego live because you assume it cannot be fully destroyed.
This is a real problem considering the fact that — given the chance — your ego would have no problem fully destroying you.
Think about it: if you had zero discipline and left all decisions up to your ego it would take you on a voracious bender of eating ice cream, doing drugs, having sex, watching YouTube, and spending money.
And if you let that behavior play out day after day — year after year — you would end up incredibly ill and eventually dead.
Your ego wants you to believe that it cannot be completely extinguished. That way, it can continue existing in a corner of your psyche and feeding off your energy.
Don’t listen to it! Starve it! Kill it! Let the strength of Your willpower overcome all of unconscious tendencies, and win the war against your self!
Meditate
Bite-sized audios to help you become the master of your mind.
Audio meditations are available for all {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} posts published after March 9th, 2025. This post predates this implementation. Check out the meditations page for current audios. 🙏🏻
Meditate
Bite-sized audios to help you become the master of your mind.
Audio meditations are available for all {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} posts published after March 9th, 2025. This post predates this implementation. Check out the meditations page for current audios. 🙏🏻
Meditate
Bite-sized audios to help you become the master of your mind.
Audio meditations are available for all {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} posts published after March 9th, 2025. This post predates this implementation. Check out the meditations page for current audios. 🙏🏻
{Soul}
“On the spiritual Path, it’s impossible to know how you’re doing because it’s the judger who is disappearing.” — Krishna Das
“On the spiritual Path, it’s impossible to know how you’re doing because it’s the judger who is disappearing.” — Krishna Das
On a typical road trip, you can look forward to a well-trodden route taking you to a guaranteed destination in a finite amount of time.
“I’m driving from North Carolina to Arizona via I-40, which will take about 3 days.”
On the trip of life, however, none of those assurances are present.
That is: not only are you the first to ever take this path, but you also don’t have a clue where you’re going, nor any idea of how long it’s going to take to get there!
Seems like quite the nerve-racking journey, eh?
Ironically, the good news is that you know you’re headed in the right direction when you end up stressing less about where you are and where you’re going.
How hilarious and comforting this realization truly is! That only by relaxing into being lost will you be found! That only by caring less about how you’re doing will you feel better!
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