We spend so much time and money building an image that is saturated in delusion.
Imagine for a minute what life would be like without all of your possessions. Would you know who you are?
Waking up from a materialistic delusion is a bit like tripping sideways on our spiritual journey. It does not happen instantaneously and it is not necessarily readily apparent in the process.
Think about how much time we may commit to building up our fortress of (in)security – creating a certain look and label by the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the house we live in, the kind of pet we have or do not have, the kinds of activities we think we should do, etc. The list can really go on and on.
Looks, labels, and false images are prevalent everywhere, even in the “spiritual” community. It can be a hard awakening truth to come out of this fog. If we are not the things we build up in and around our fortress, then what the heck are we? This question and act of detachment from the material world puts us in a very precarious situation.
With that question, we have to face our selves – stripped down. And, that can be a pretty scary adventure to walk. But really, the larger question, if we are not stripping ourselves down metaphorically, then what is the fulfillment and purpose in building a false fortress?
It may feel momentarily safer to walk through life behind the curtain of true embodied living, but the curtain will eventually come down and when it does we have to face ourselves in the rawness of all dimensions of our existence – emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual – and at first, we might experience some pain, well quite likely we will experience some pain, but just on the horizon there is an outstanding beauty to be seen, felt, and experienced without all the temporary trappings of the vita-supersize-me complex.
It may seem easier to create an image of the life we want to live rather than living the life we are meant to live. Touché? What are we meant to be doing anyway? We are meant to live a life where every cell in our body feels alive. Material things just do not foster that kind of living. That kind of life is called living fully with spirit.
So, start tripping sideways a bit. I am not suggesting that you have to fall flat on your face to lose the me image, and that may happen, but all you need to do is start detaching from the material world bit by bit. Start tripping up on your own sand castle building. Stop consuming things that build up the quick sand fortress. Start tuning into the energetic dynamics within and around you.
Once you start doing this, most of the material things around you will begin to lose their draw and meaning. You will be left with just you. And, all that plastic pressure is off. Thank goodness. Now that you started losing the me image on the periphery, you can walk forward with the curtain down and embody the stripped down version of you – the core of your spirit.
As singer/songwriter Gavin Mikhail says, “It all comes down at the end of the day, it’s what you do and say that make you who you are…” So, get busy tripping sideways and get even busier saying and doing from the core of your spirit. It is quite exquisite.
Om Shanti Om ~ Athea
