It is important what our motivation is, for our motivation (partly) dictates our actions. Does motivation dictate our values? It could well be argued that, on the contrary, our motivation is dictated by what we value. If we value pleasure over pain, if pleasure is “good” and pain “bad,” then our motivation will be to get the most pleasure and avoid the most pain.
If our motivation and morality come from what we value, then from where do our value-priorities come? I think that, ultimately, it’s a choice. We choose what we value, and the rest falls into place. What we value becomes our motivation. And what we value (care about) comes from our conceptual frameworks, what we believe, what we are conditioned to believe, what we believe and cling to out of ignorance, a lack of awareness, especially of the conditioning that controls what we believe and what we do. Most people value morality, and especially their morality. Most people value their beliefs, traditions, and especially their desires.
But, what if our motivation is none of these ego/ignorance-based things? What if our motivation is, rather, awareness? Or, said another way—what if our motivation is the truth that we find in the absence of our egos? Reality.
It is important to point out that I am using “motivation” here not in the sense of what I look to have in the future—like a carrot dangling out in front of me, for that is desire—but what is motivating me from “within.” Most people think of motivation in the sense of “my motivation is that new BMW I’ve had my eye on,” and they do what they do in order to get what they want. That is one way to understand motivation. Another way is that motivation is not something that is outside of us, controlling what we do through the desire to have, but that it is something that comes from within.
That’s why I say that most people’s motivation is desire. They desire the car, and that is their motivation. What if the motivation is not desire? It’s hard for most people to imagine that desire (to have something) not be their motivation. In the absence of ego-self, one’s motivation is the non-dualistic flow of reality, which is truth, is, in fact, what we all actually want and are: love. Love is the absence of ego-self. Not the denial, repression, or sacrifice of ego-self; absence of ego-self.
Love as a motivation can only be accessed in the absence of ego-self. This helps explain why/how people who crave/desire love are actually quite confused, because they are thinking of love within a context of ego-self, craving, attachment, clinging. Love is not craved, or had, or any such things. No, love is the flow of reality that is the absence of dualistic ego-self. This is why people are so confused and alone (though, in their illusory mindset, they might not realize or consciously acknowledge it), because they think that love is about craving and attachment, and having and clinging, when, in fact, such things necessarily preclude love.
It is important to figure out whether your morality dictates your motivation or whether your motivation dictates your morality. And even further, which kind of motivation you are living from—the ego-based kind or the egoless kind. He whose motivation is dictated by his morality is subject to the control of others, for he no longer chooses his value-priorities, but has them chosen for him. His values are are conditioned, not chosen. He might think he’s choosing them, but he really isn’t. This does not only apply to “religious” people. “Secular” people are similarly conditioned to value material wealth, power over others, and other ego-feeding pursuits. These values come from a prescribed dualistic morality of which “way of life” is right and why other ways of life are wrong.
Thus, he is like a marionette, and those who decide his morality decide his actions. This is how organized religions and unenlightened governments work (as crowd-control), and also why they are (ultimately) untenable, for the way things really work is that morality does not dictate motivation and action. If this were the case, then no Christian would kill, or commit adultery.
In the end, we all choose what we value, what we believe in, what is right and wrong, and act accordingly.
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From my personal notes, 8/19/99
