Recognizing your insanity
The tricks of the ego come in many forms. But the two primary ways they show up are fear and wanting. Fear in the sense of worried about the past or future. And wanting comes in the form of wanting something from the future, (material, sexual, or even spiritual - like wanting to be more spiritual).
Whatever the forms maybe, they alway relate to the past or future. In the present moment, this moment, things are okay. In fact, they are always okay. And even if you are experiencing a challenge in the present moment, it is challenge based on clear facts, never a story.
True spirituality is about recognizing that we’ve made our entire life into one big story. The story of Me. And that larger story is made up of many smaller stories that we never come to terms with. When we live in this fake story for a long time, tension builds up. Stress shows up because our story is headed in one direction and we want it to head in another direction. And for for most people, even when they feel there story is headed in a “good” direction, they soon come to realize that it wasn’t “good enough”. The thing that they’ve been looking forward to for such a long time never really panned out the way they hope it would.
Sometimes the story is pleasant, but more often than not, the story is filled with pain or subtle worry. It is estimated that the average person has about 35,000 thoughts a day and the funny thing is that 95% of them are repeat thoughts from the day before. Thoughts of worry and thoughts of anticipation fill the mind, and that’s when life becomes 1) a job and 2) a struggle.
But this is nothing to be depressed about. It is the nature of the human spirit to get lost in this story. Getting lost is part of the process and is needed for our greater evolution. Getting lost creates enough stress that we eventually are forced to ask ourselves, “Why is this happening?”
When we ask ourselves “why”, it is then that an opening is created. Because for the first time in our life we have deep feeling that, “Maybe I don’t have this all figured out.” There is beauty and power in that statement of vulnerability. Now the “goal”, so to speak, is to run with that statement and realize just how crazy our mind really is.
When we begin watching the mind and notice all the drama that it creates, our transformation begins. When we begin to notice that the mind thrives off of drama it is then that we realize just how crazy we really are. We also notice that even though it seems like we want peace, happiness and love, we really wouldn’t even know what to do with those things. Peace, Happiness, and Love are unbound - they have no boundaries. And that really scares the mind. The mind would rather have fear and worry because at least those things are fixed and familiar. The mind is scared of the unknown and like a crack addict it violently resist letting go of its drug of choice - drama.
Any person who’s detoxed from addiction to drugs, food or anything else knows that the journey can be challenging, but the most challenging thing is simply letting go. Breaking free of the boundaries of the mind and its addiction to story, drama and thought are no different. How do you break free? Well, how do you drop a 50lb bag of rocks that you’ve been carrying your whole life? You just do.
Part II - Breaking free (coming next)
