“Spirituality is an expression of our ego.”
To Wake…Per Chance to Awaken:
Humanity may be “awake,” but has it awakened? And to what? Spirituality is the new religion. Its enchantment places the power of enlightenment in the hands of gurus, shamans and teachers. Droves of willing initiates emerge from the shadows of contemporary knowledge, perception, reality and understanding to enroll in classes, healings, lectures, readings and weekend workshops. Most of us seek destiny, meaning, power and vision. Yet, deep down we are terrified to accept and apply these qualities to our daily lives. It is an idealistic dance with elusive partners at the cost of our ambition, awareness, energy, intention and well-being.
Soul Distinction:
Since the dawn of the human race, authentic faith has been, is and will always be a solitary engagement. No other person(s) could or should direct, guide, influence or mediate another’s spiritual experience. Doing so would be the antithesis of personal illumination for all parties. Vital elements of one’s evolution are found in the creation, discovery, distinction, expression and purpose of one’s chosen path. There is no greater empowerment or inspiration one may have then choosing, claiming and walking their destiny. However challenging, impossible or intimidating this may seem, it is the only true way to fulfillment.
The Divided Self:
The most powerful force in our contemporary society is the ego. The more we believe we have control of our ego, the more dominion it has over us. We do not express the essential awareness, commitment, focus and intention to successfully manage its incessantly diabolical tendencies. As our “spirituality” grows, so does our ego. Left to its own covert devices, our “divided self” coils around our virtues like a weed to a flower. It feeds upon the energy of our discoveries, insights, opportunities, possibilities and transformation. Our divided self is as a neglected child. It craves our attention, control, importance and power.
Kingdom Come:
Contemporary spirituality has become a mutation of human invention. The fusion of religion with spirituality has produced a myriad of dogmas, practices and wisdoms all promising the keys to illumination, yet never delivering. Thousands of articles, books, lectures, online events and workshops seek to entice the masses toward commercialized enlightenment. Those of us who have not established a relationship with our soul eagerly dive headfirst into the sea of manufactured mystery. We rarely see how truly shallow it can be. The human race has been deceived into searching without for what can only be found within.
A Pocketful of Gurus:
Spirituality is rife with gurus. Most adopt the title with very little commitment, understanding and even less experience. When we are empowered, excited and inspired by new insights, opportunities and possibilities, our initial response is to share our vision. Yet, this is not the best way to nurture the manifestation of our true expression. Our sub-conscious reaction is to pride ourselves with our innovative epiphanies by proselytizing our personal wisdom. We allow our ego to suppress our spirit. This diminishes the experiences of others. We overlook the essential truth that our insights are meant for us alone and have little or no value to others.
“Superiority walks hand-in-hand with Spirituality.”
Hierarchy of the Soul:
Society is built upon a foundation of pyramid schemes. Whether commercial, educational, financial, political, religious or scientific, there are far fewer people at the top than there are at the bottom. In the modern age of spirituality, it is no different. Regardless of the modality one may practice, there is always one or a small group of people that hold dominion over the many. We enable patterns of sanctimonious conviction with the attention and energy we sacrifice to find our soul in a forest of human perception. We willingly give away our own personal power to avoid the fear of claiming it for ourselves.
The Mind’s Eye:
Our interpretation of spirituality has a tendency to compromise our authenticity, empathy and integrity. Our possibility for transformation vanishes in an attempt to funnel a multi-dimensional experience into a two-dimensional perception. Words are the language of the ego. When we attempt to communicate what we encounter as an expression of being, we instantly sever the relationship we have with our soul. We abolish our personal power when we endorse our own authority and significance. Once we break our connection with eternity, we inevitably diminish our empathy, intuition, perspective and vision.
Spiritual High:
Our multi-dimensional experiences produce a remarkable rush of energy that flows through every element of our being. In these moments we are present to and related with all. Our soul craves these experiences. It is the electromagnetic synthesis between our body, mind, heart and spirit. We become the embodiment of life. Our ego hacks this beautiful tapestry of being and manipulates it into an illusion of grandeur. It siphons it through a filter of instinct and intellect for the purposes of vanity and supremacy. As human beings, we become addicted to this mystical buzz in a doomed quest to satisfy our soul with the language of our ego.
Custom Consciousness:
The only true power we have is our consciousness. This extraordinary expression of our being transcends the ego. Where our ego attempts to prove itself and impose its influence, our spirit emanates consciousness to transform our experience. When the lines between truth and reality are blurred, our deficient awareness falls prey to the violent desire and desperation of our ego. Many of us wear a mask to conceal our inadequacies, insecurities and vulnerabilities. Yet, it is our self-delusion of these apparent weaknesses that hinders our ability to observe them as our greatest strengths. Only in our consciousness will we experience our truth.
Alone Together:
Each one of us has our own crucial and unique purpose to fulfill. We must walk this path alone. We cannot realize our calling when we are focused on the experiences of others. This is simply a clever way for us to avoid being authentically present to and interactive with our own in a vain pursuit to present ourselves as important and superior. Instead of assuming the role of a guru, shaman or teacher, we can support each other in the manifestation of our purpose. It is possible for us to be true to our own experience as a community without sacrificing our own destiny. When we all live the lives we were destined, we become this together.
“Spirituality is an illusion of being.”
The Art of Being:
Spirituality has mystified us into a matrix of history, knowledge, narcissism, ritual and tradition. It is a cult to which we subscribe due to our lack of faith in ourselves. Our freedom is found in our commitment to be and how we personify it in our daily lives. Spirituality is a compass of how we choose to live our lives. Yet, it is simply a stepping stone on the path toward fulfillment. When we become present to our ego’s agenda and its manipulation of what enlightenment may be, we transform our experience from one of emulation to one of being. Our destiny is defined only by our courage, passion and willingness to become all our soul can imagine.
Iam Saums 
A great article, Iam.
Sri Aurobindo spoke of our journey into Individual Divinity as being certain, and I sense that is true. But as you so rightly point out: ‘our interpretation of spirituality has a tendency to compromise our authenticity, empathy and integrity.’ What a wonderful truth, nine times out of ten that is exactly what happens – a predator take over. The worst thing is, that is exactly what religions/cults of any kind are designed to be: Mind traps of distraction fuelled by narcissism.
Perhaps it is time to listen to the quiet voice within that directs us to service of the Whole. Rather than the puffed up, ego centred, manipulative, hierarchical ‘spiritual people’ who can’t wait to tell you how powerful they are.
Blue sun hugs….
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Thanks Elva!
Such important distinctions most “spiritual” people fail to acknowledge about themselves but definitely do in others.
Spirituality is the new religion.
So fortunate I have had so many great people in my life to remind me the importance of being.
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Good. Walk the Inner Path alone, that is the only way. The rest is hypocrisy.
But we are never truly alone, are we?
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Mick,
That’s the beauty of it. We all have our own paths upon which we must walk, yet we can all do this together. Simply just a shift in our experience.
😉
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From Briefing for a Descent into Hell by Doris Lessing, pp124:
…it is not all a question of your arriving on Planet Earth as you leave here. You will lose nearly all your memory of your past existence. You will each of you come to yourselves, perhaps alone, perhaps in company of each other, but only with a vague feeling of recognition, and probably disassociated, disorientated, ill, discouraged, and unable to believe, when you are told, what your task really is. You will wake up, as it were, but there will be a period while you are waking which will be like the recovery from an illness, or like the emergence into good air from a poisoned one. Some of you may not choose to wake, for the waking will be so painful, and the knowledge of your condition and Earth’s condition so agonizing, you will be like drug addicts: you may continue to breathe in oblivion. And when you are in the process of awakening, that you have something to get done, you will have absorbed enough of the characteristics of Earthmen to be distrustful, surly, grudging, suspicious. You will be like a drowning person who drowns his rescuer, so violently will you struggle in your panic terror… the drowning person wants to be rescued, but can’t prevent himself struggling.
The Lady Lessing was always insightful.
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Mick,
Brilliant passage!
Sounds like something that spiritual intercessors would say to souls entering into this world.
Great stuff!
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At the risk of posting too much, I will add this comment by Swami Lakshmanjoo:
“The true sense of bondage is non-discrimination. The bondage of the soul is merely verbal. Bondage resides in the mind and not in the soul — it is merely a reflection, like the redness of [pellucid] crystal [when a red rose is near it]. [Ignorance of delusion] can be removed by nothing short of direct intuitive perception! The origination of the diversified [world of sense] is that from which has no difference. The subtle body consists of light. The soul abandons the idea of its being Nature [Prakriti]. Live alone! Emancipation is not a manifestation of Joy! Paradise is no security against transmigration. Moksha Liberation is not achieved by a counsel of heavenly people. The body is a site for experience. The subtle body attends the soul even during the periodic annihilations of the world.”
He says exactly as you and what I have felt for a long time 🙂
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Thanks Mick!
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Oh well, I may as well add Susan Ferguson’s commentary as time is short:
Throughout the four Cycles of Time we all have recognizable differences in the way we perceive life. Our holograms are not identical, as I am sure you have noticed. Thus when any one of us goes traveling into the inner worlds of our one Soul, we all come up with our own filtered versions of how the universe is constructed and manifested. None of which are any more real than the temporal illusory hologram itself – and none of which is any more real than another. However some do have a higher consciousness and are more useful than others, meaning they may guide us Home.
Each is a product of the individual’s consciousness based on his or her state of balance among the three gunas. Prakriti’s guna-maya manifestations are all a part of the illusion of multiplicity – even when they are grand and enlightening illusory thoughts. If it is true, as Abhinavagupta says, that all such theories are “mere suppositions and imaginary concepts of thinkers” then why should we read these wonderfully arcane and often complex metaphysical systems that take great pains to delineate the mechanics of consciousness? Metaphysical systems are the threads in the Labyrinth that lift our consciousness into the higher frequencies, out of the mundane and into the sacred.
The words of these ancient seers are in the higher waveform frequencies that we want to be in. Immersing yourself in their consciousness through reading their thoughts will bring our consciousness closer to theirs. You will still have to ‘experience’ what you read. Just reading or hearing the truth is not enough. You must intuitively perceive, know, and feel these teachings in your deepest being. They must become a part of you – experientially. This is why so many diverse forms of spiritual practices have developed. These practices are the effort that allows you to make Wisdom-Knowledge a reality, the Real that has power to release you from the bondage of delusion.
A huge piece of this ‘bondage of delusion’ is thinking that we are the Doer. However, having immersed our consciousness in Krishna’s sublime liberating wisdom and Samkhya, we now know that, “We are not the Doer!” We are neither as he cajoles Arjuna, blockheads or fools, in Sanskrit durmatis.
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Many great insights Mick!
Keep them coming.
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My comment to the above is that all systems of knowledge promulgated on this Earth are intentional frauds and deceptions: religious, scientific, historical, social and, of course, Theosophical/Kabbalistic. And that includes the ‘awakened’ New Age fancies. It does not preclude their efficacy within this illusion of illusions, but that is all they are – illusions.
This does lead to the question of why do anything at all, but as that illusory Master said: be in this world but not of it.
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Imagine if this was the common conversation for the human race.
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From Shikasta by Doris Lessing pp20-1:
…and all had succumbed to Shikasta, had suffered some failure of purpose and will, and had been expelled back to this place, clustering around the Eastern Gate. They had tried again, some of them, had succumbed again…while others had given up all hope of being strong enough to enter Shikasta and win its prize, which was, by enduring it, to be free of it forever; and hung and drifted, thin miserable ghosts, yearning and hungering for ‘Them’ who would come for them, would lift them out and away from this terrible place as a mother cat takes its kittens to safety…
…He had meant to save himself by the use of the terrors and hazards of Shikasta so that he would crystallize into a substance that could survive and withstand, but when he came to himself he realized he had spent his life again in self-indulgence and weakness and a falling away into forgetfulness…No, he had given up. He was doomed, like all the rest here, to wait and to wait until ‘They’ came to take him away.
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Great stuff Mick!
Thanks for sharing!
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From ‘Ride the Tiger’ by Julius Evola:
We shall now examine the principle of “riding the tiger” as applied
to the external world and the total environment. lts significance can
be stated as follows: when a cycle of civilization is reaching its end, it
is difficult to achieve anything by resisting it and by directly opposing
the forces of motion. The current is too strong; one would be overwhelmed.
The essential thing is not to let oneself be impressed by the
omnipotence and apparent triumph of the forces of the epoch. These
forces, devoid of connection with any higher principle, are in fact on
a short chain. One should not become fixated on the present and on
things at hand, but keep in view the conditions that may come about
in the future. Thus the principle to follow could be that of letting the
forces and processes of this epoch take their own course, while keeping
oneself firm and ready to intervene when “the tiger, which cannot leap
on the person riding it, is tired of running.” The Christian injunction
“Resist not evil” may have a similar meaning, if taken in a very particular
way. One abandons direct action and retreats to a more internal
position.
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Good one Mick!
Thanks for sharing!
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It is possible for us to be true to our own experience as a community without sacrificing our own destiny. When we all live the lives we were destined, we become this together.(like) I appreciate your perspective (mostly in that it aligns with mine). I’ve always felt that our spiritual life is personal…that how I find and relate with God in my life is my business…I chafe when people try to interfere.
And I love that you say that if we are each delving into our soul’s own expression that we can be together spiritually. If in any moment we are following the crumbs of another’s experience then we are far less effective as a spiritual presence to the greater whole.
Thanks for sharing this interesting and logical perspective.
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Tracy,
Well written!
Indeed.
Instead of questioning and imposing the beliefs of others, we should be supporting and celebrating them.
The simple fact that people have found a connection is a good thing, regardless of its source.
Though it may seem easier to follow in the footsteps of others, it is certainly not fulfilling.
Thanks for you comment!
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This, I believe, is the gist of it: “…authentic faith has been, is and will always be a solitary engagement.” There are a lot of very salient observations in this post.
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Thanks Judie!
Glad you enjoyed it!
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