spiritual traps
Something very tricky that comes up again and again in spiritual "ways" is a misunderstanding about freedom. Freedom doesn't come from choosing to not be in relationship, or from not having a 9-5 job, or from traveling from place to place and not having one home, or from cutting yourself off from your family. Whenever freedom has conditions or any lack of unconditionality, it is a cage. Freedom is contextual NEVER-percent of the time.
Read MoreIf we listen carefully enough, if we look and look until we're finally truly looking, we see all distinctions fade away. Male, female. Right, wrong. Happiness, sadness. If we just focus enough [...]
Read MoreWhen we are really saying yes to life, we must also say it through our no's. When that's happening, our no's are actually yes's - yes's to [...]
Read More“How can I experience my feelings and emotions and at the same time, be in my divinity, my highest truth? Don’t the two contradict each other?”
The duality this possibility presents can be challenging for many. How can I dive into my feelings in all the rawness of their corners and simultaneously embody my divinity, my deeper truth? Doesn't the act of going into the feelings take me away from the truth, from the stillness, and deeper into duality?
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In the deep dive of feeling, potent treasures of wisdom await. It takes great courage to explore the mysterious, powerful ocean of feeling, and there is much insight to receive. Each emotional experience is there to open you, to clear spaces that are tight, that are in resistance, so they may melt back into receptive spaces for love.
Emotions carry the essence of water, and like water, they move through spaces and push through barriers on their way. Consider it like this: when something happens and a trigger arrives and feelings erupt, it is like a big waving flag that says "dig here." Dig here to see where you are still stuck, where you need more acceptance. It is an invitation to salvation.
The recipe here includes surrender and detachment. You can feel the fullness of what is happening without attaching to it or identifying with it. Letting it flow through you is purity. When the mind comes in, you move into illusion. It is the resistance and analysis that moves you away from truth because then, you are no longer witnessing. Then, you are in identification, fear and scrutiny.
The divinity is in accepting whatever thoughts, feelings, and beliefs may come, without analysis and attachment. It comes when you let the mystery take over, when you let yourself become one with this ocean and allow it show you what it needs to show you. As far as I can know, it is impossible for the mind to reveal spiritual truth. Feeling, however, can trigger the remembrance of truth. It can inspire the awareness that you are to realize or remember truth. So just let the experience be the meditation it is meant to be.
The key to remaining in truth is in watching to make sure you remain out of identification with any stories, beliefs or thoughts that may have brought you to this moment, and with the feelings themselves. The key is in surrender, in letting go, in letting what is coming to come and eventually, to pass. This is the embodiment of divinity: being aware that all in front of you is here for your growth and wisdom, and not denying that which is natural for you, (in this case: an eruption of feeling). You are not these feelings that are passing, (nor are they "yours"), you are simply that which witnesses their song. Feel them with an openness to learn from their poetry. Allow what is coming to come and pass, greet them with your open arms.
When your are resting as the awareness that you are, how could you be anything but the embodiment of divinity? The ultimate "spiritual goal," (if there was one), is not to transcend feelings and emotion or treat them like unmanageable ego-consequences that must go. Imagine how uninspiring life would be! How dead! You, like all the planets, plants and creatures on this Earth, are here to grow and evolve. Emotional experiences are often catalysts for great transformation and on their lighter side, they are sweet songs that caress and delight our souls.
Celebrate your humanness with awareness and patience, and watch everything fall into place as you open evermore, evermore, evermore.
