Have you ever struggled to wake up from a dream? You have a sense that something isn’t right with the scene but you can’t quite put your finger on it. The dream is scary, painful, or confusing and your mind is looking for an escape…but it can’t escape in the dream.
What we call reality, is very much like a dream from which the mind continues to seek an escape. It looks for answers and when it can’t find them, it seeks distraction. The distraction of material things, sensory pleasures, work, hobbies, sports, mind altering substances, or intellectual absorbtion in whatever. But what the mind seeks will never be found in the mind or out there, in the world.
What you seek is actually that which is doing the seeking. It transcends and enfolds the mind. What you are is present both in the sleeping dream and in the waking dream. Discomfort in the waking dream is a sign that we are trapped within it. This discomfort is life’s natural response to inappropriate slumber…shaking us to wake up…to the vast expanse of what we trully are and to the mystery of what is.
For many walking this earth, whether through concerted intention or by complete accident, an awakening to our true nature is occurring. Just as it is completely natural to eventually awaken from a dream, awakening to our true nature is inevitable and normal. Awakening is simply a natural stage of life’s intelligence unfolding in the human organism. What’s abnormal is to do all we can to remain asleep. Using activities, behaviors, and substances to avoid the inner journey might delay it but fortunately, the effectiveness of these strategies and their reward are governed by the law of diminishing returns. In time, we will eventually feel that these strategies are not worth the effort and we will lean toward Surrender.
what is surrender?
Awakening cannot be forced to happen, nor can it be prevented. For some, awakening is sudden. For most, it’s a gradual process. When truth begins to dawn, you may go through a period of days, weeks, months, or even years, where you’re going to feel like a complete misfit. You may feel dysfunctional, just as a newly awake person might feel strange in a land of sleepwalkers.
But don’t despair, this is actually a good sign! The vast majority of humans get up in the morning, inject themselves with healthy doses of java, don their business suits, kiss their spouse and kids goodbye, run off to jobs they hate, and look forward to retirement so that they can begin really living. This is insane. But we call it normal. Suffering is minimized when you stop fighting the process.
As awakening dawns and our old habitual programs start losing steam, emptiness begins to emerge. You may lose motivation to do the things you used to do to “make your life work.” You may lose motivation to do the things you used to love. You may lose motivation to do anything for awhile. This may seem shocking, but it’s completely normal. Like cleaning up an overloaded hard drive, as input reduces and the old programs are released, there is sometimes a period of no thing experienced. This state of emptiness is required in order for something new, something alive, to fill the space. To hang out in this space requires surrender to something greater than the dictates of your old ego-based operating system.
simple steps…
Know that truth is simple. Expressing our simple truth to the best of our ability is curative. Expressing our personal truth allows the wisdom of life to unfold as needed, when needed. We must be willing to jettison the idea of political correctness in service to our personal version of truth, however this looks. If something sounds complicated or doesn’t make sense, it’s not really true. It’s a head trip. How the process unfolds can be extremely complex but always elegant and beyond the mind’s ability to anticipate, navigate, or understand it.
Trust the life’s supreme intelligence. Any issue in the life of an individual or group will find its own best resolution if those involved express their truth and provide the space and time for the solution to unfold. Any efforts to force, cajole, or manipulate what is, impede the natural flow of life.
Be present to facilitate flow. Your inner state affects the larger field we all occupy. Noise in any mind adds noise to the field. Quiet minds clear the field. A clear field makes what’s next self-evident and facilitates the flow of the group’s work.
Stop seeking your purpose. Finding and living our purpose is of growing interest for millions. The thing is, our purpose is not something we can figure out, design, or seek with our minds. Life lives through us on purpose whether we’re onboard or not. It’s only when our ego minds try to fight, argue with, or otherwise resist life’s natural intelligence that we get confused. Resistance to life’s purpose shows up in the form of judgment as we look for a purpose that is bigger, more meaningful, or more favorable in our little mind. Our purpose lives in the present, in our hearts independent of our moralistic judgments about it or ourselves. Getting out of our ego mind gets us out of our own way, clearing the channel through which our life flows, on purpose.
Understand that they are me. “The world” is simply a reflection of our inner state of consciousness. In the dream state, we don’t see that. We project our shadow selves on each other and insulate ourselves from others. When you see someone you don’t like, move closer to them and discover how to love them. They are your wakup call.
Don’t look to society for help. The individual ego and the cultural ego are the same. Both employ strategies to avoid encountering what’s true. Personal egos go to great lengths to distract themselves from their true nature. Cultures are created reflections of collective personal egos and provide a nearly infinite variety of distractions as well. Every aspect of your culture encourages and supports the dream. It’s very survival depends on it. Don’t fight it, but don’t look for its support either.
now what?
If you’ve read this far, perhaps what’s written has resonated with you. If so, I invite you to contact me and share a bit about yourself, your situation, and your desires. I’ll happily provide you feedback and support. If you’d like, we can schedule a coaching session where I’ll help you to take a fresh look at what you see. I look forward to hearing from you.
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