Expanding our capacity for Love and Inner Peace are both thoroughly worthy goals whether you think there is a God or not.
After all, Happiness and fulfillment are inner states. We all know beautiful people, talented people, and rich people who are tortured within…unhappy inside.
Funny thing is, once you untwist the twisted human condition, the reality of the our inner Self is right there. It doesn’t require a leap of belief at all, just a resolution of basic human misunderstandings.
God isn’t unavailable, God is just clouded by the pile of crap our ego has stuck to it.
What does that mean?
The basic human misunderstanding is this: We have collected a series of ideas, thoughts, concepts and opinions of ourselves that we believe to be our Identity. We whip this illusion into being with an incessant internal dialog referring to the collective memory of our personal history, our fears, and our projections regarding the future.
Our fears and tenuous self worth power the witch’s brew of insecurity and angst that make up this phantom self.
This mentally created self can never be truly happy for long because it’s just a illusion we assume to be ourselves. It’s a character we created by accident and then adopted as our reality.
When we calm the mind, and remain present in the Here and Now, this phony self fades, and we have moments of peace and ease. The practice of meditation, prayer and everyday mindfulness is to break the habit of clinging to a false identity and acquire a new habit of resting in our Real Self, which is pure, sweet Awareness, always linked to “God,” the Universal Being.
No faith required. The “God” aspect doesn’t need to be acknowledged, worshipped or believed in.
The effort in seeking this inner Peace and Love is never wasted because curing the mind of its dysfunction brings happiness regardless of “God” or “not-God.”
The only drawback is that it requires some sincerity and persistence because our thinking and misidentification is a deeply ingrained lifelong habit that has to be loosened.
Opening to unconditional Love similarly transcends the phony identity and places us in natural harmony with ourselves and others.
Many paths lead to this same discovery and there are certainly “Christian” ways of doing that.
But you can’t get far while holding on to your anger, hatred, and twisted attachment to your ego ideas. (and thinking badly of yourself is just as twisted as thinking yourself to be superior.)
Happiness comes from within.
Peace is experienced within.
This life is the ultimate mystery. Finding Truth is the ultimate “climb.” Whether you think you are on a Path or not, Life is going to churn your experience and show your lessons to you. The question is “Will you take those often challenging opportunities of learning and embrace them for growth and transformation.
Are you going to take the challenge to explore yourself or just ignore it and try to squeeze some shallow pleasure out of life on the short trip to old age and death?
Just some food for thought
Peace and Love
Baba
