My counsel is to tell the truth about where you have turned away from the longing for union, so that you can find time for the deep and true call of your heart. Until you allow all the self betrayals to be unveiled in the light, you subconsciously sabotage what you really want. By self betrayal, I mean every place where you have sold out or settled for something less than the deepest truth of your heart.
Be willing to stay true to your deepest longing for truth in the face of all the subconscious pulls that arise from the ocean of mind, as thought waves try to wash you back into the desires of the subconscious.
In the end, the desire for freedom transcends all other desires. It is the only true desire of a human life.
In the past, becoming aware of this desire was rare. But humanity is now entering a new stage. Either we will evolve quickly or we will destroy the earth. The choice is ours. Now is the time for ordinary people to wake up. There is no need to be a great saint. Simply because you are alive and intelligent enough to read this, you are ready for the next evolutionary leap: from the isolated selfishness that is destroying the world to the bliss of union that holds the healing of the earth. Perhaps the only hope for our planet lies in our willingness to end our personal suffering.
Until the desire for truth, freedom, and love arises in a life, everything is pointless. Life is all about "me" and "my story" of "reality." Once the desire for freedom arises, it becomes the ground of being, the central axis that life revolves around. This is the beginning of the end. It signals the end of the search and the birth of realization.
Awakening is the end of wanting and the beginning of discovering.
Spiritual maturity
When you're caught in the enslavement of egoic identification, you're convinced that there is both a me and a world and that you have to do something to manifest the good and to keep away the bad. This "me" seems to be the ground of your being. This "me" has good times, and this "me" has bad times. You would like to hold on to the good times and get rid of the bad times.
As you mature, you realize that the good times always come to an end. Short lived pleasures inevitably carry the aftertaste of long term suffering. Think about it. In examining joys of the past, can you say that your joy ever lasted? In anything you have ever enjoyed, has your joy ever really been enough for you to say you are fulfilled and need nothing more? Circumstances change, and when they do, you lose the emotions and states that were caused by those circumstances. Loved ones die, jobs change, money comes and goes, and with the flow of circumstances, your mind is lifted up and crashed down, over and over again.
Every ego wants to keep the highs and get rid of the lows, but wisdom lies in seeing that you never find true fulfillment, joy, and happiness this way. Causeless joy is unconditional; it is not determined by the ebb and flow of circumstances. Recognizing this is one of the hallmarks of spiritual maturity.
Once you realize the nature of suffering and the possibility of freedom, you become willing to turn away from every idea of who you think you are in order to find the truth. In this truth, you discover the joy that does not fade or change with circumstances.
For most people, "ignorance is bliss." Most are content to have as much pleasure and as little pain as possible. What they are really expressing is the desire to extinguish self consciousness and to return to the life of an animal. This is the desire to pull the covers over your head and try to sleep, ignoring the monster that is in the room with you.
But for the spiritually mature, those who are ripe with the readiness to realize the real and the true, this avoidance no longer works. To the degree that you are mature and ready to end your suffering, to that degree you become aware of your deep and genuine longing for home.
We live in exceptional times. No matter how difficult it may have been in the past to realize the original Self, now is the time. No matter where you come from, whether you lead a holy life or not, it is possible for you, right now, to wake up. Be willing to let go of everything you think you know just for one moment.
For one moment, be still. In this moment, space and time open. This opening is your chance to find the answer to the question, Who am I?
I am here to tell you that if you picked up this book, if you found your way to these words, you are ready to know the answer to the essential question of your heart. You entered this collective dream with one purpose and one purpose only: to wake up and to realize the truth of the situation—that you are formless, timeless, immortal love and that you're already home.
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