Learn to go with the flow of life no matter what comes to challenge you. Keep yourself calm and steady and know that this too shall pass. Attend to everything with equal measure of attention and seriousness, keeping in mind that life’s challenges are your greatest moments to learn, explore, and grow. To go with the flow is to accept but not acquiesce, to accept the challenge but not acquiesce to old behaviors—to accept the challenge to change. For that is life in its essential wholeness, a challenge to change.
Organizing my tools for easy access, I discover eccentric looking wrenches I may have used only once. Truth is, I don’t even remember what for. What to do with these valuable but perhaps once in a lifetime project savers, as well as the countless mini hex wrenches and screwdrivers that accompanied furniture projects to be assembled?
I soberly face the hidden truth of my tool hoarding, and perhaps all hoarding as well: eternal life parks its spirit in the material items of this life. The belief is that someday all items will be used. The someday of hoarding encapsulates infinity, life without end; never throw anything out.
Spirit is eternal life. Spirit is the intent that manifested our physical world to take material journeys with its infinite spirit. The Faustian small print of that agreement is the actual short life of all things material. We crave to live spirit in the flesh, yet spirit as trickster dares us to face our material mortality.
This bipolar human condition is the opposition of infinite spirit and mortal body. When we inflate we momentarily commune with infinity. This is the motive behind all addictions. The spirit to obtain unlimited more—be it the compulsion to pile boundless money, to ingest bottomless drug or food, to collect vast wardrobe and material goods, or to cling to relationship—is the quest to experience infinite spirit in material form.
Deflation and depression are the crash of Icarus: the material world is a world of limitation. Once spirit approaches material limits, it abandons its projected love object. The result is that we deflate into a spiritless morass. That which once glowed with transpersonal union is judged as both human ignorance and failure.
Sobriety is the path that intends acceptance of human limitation while maintaining a relationship with spirit. The shamans of ancient Mexico concluded each introduction of their personal names with the caveat: “…a being who is going to die.” This was their technology of sobriety. By constantly reaffirming their mortality they freed themselves to be fully present and spiritedly alive to every moment of life in human form.
This attitude of ultimate equanimity countered the misguided but powerfully embedded human attitude that we have forever. Hence, we needn’t acknowledge the shadow of death that stalks us all.
Yes, we may have forever in spirit form, but this appears to be our only opportunity to be in the specific human life we are in. If we languish in spirit identification without actualizing in human form, potential fulfillment will have to wait for another time, in another place, in a different life.
Without spirit we could not exist in the flesh. Yet spirit demands we take responsibility for reconciling the fact of our bipolar human condition. Spirit presents us with countless material false god trials onto which it projects itself. The inflations and deflations of human life lead us to stare down the trickster side of spirit and realize the possible in the life we are in.
With this, spirit is enhanced and fulfilled, both in this life and in its ultimate journey beyond.
May all find the fortitude to truly realize their Spirit in the Flesh.
Turn inward to stir up some love in your heart, even in the most trying of times, for love is the means by which to resolve all conflicts. Though you may hold grudges for past wrongs against you, though you may feel you have been neglectful, though you may think you have not done all you could, the truth is that none of it is your fault. Your job in life is to nurture and grow the love inside you. That is enough.
Support your ongoing changing self by remaining committed to change, by holding yourself accountable and responsible for your decisions and for the steps you take in life. Each day is a new day in your journey, a new opportunity that has never been present before. Each day you begin anew. Begin today with your intent strong, your mind calm and your heart open.
If we characterize spiritual advance as reaching the summit of a mountain, being offended is the weight of a leaden backpack we carry as we attempt to climb upwards. The more we feel offended the harder it is to climb. Frequently, the quest becomes like the fate of Sisyphus: repeatedly nearly reaching the top only to tumble back to the start.
The weight of offense is measured by the resentments and entitlements we harbor for the wrongs done to us. These heavy emotions and expectations poison the mood and spirit of everyday life. Though we may have little control over the things that befall us, we have total control over the attitude we assume toward the fact that they happened.
The shamans of ancient Mexico came to the realization that we live in a predatory universe. Objectively speaking, all life feeds upon other life. Even an advanced Yogi who lives through breathing in air alone takes from it and consumes its prana, the subtle ether that sustains the physical body.
Shamans accept the predatory nature of the universe as an energetic fact. They focus on how to navigate life to both survive and advance under these predatory conditions. They see the major hindrance to successful navigation as the human tendency to get caught in affronts to one’s self-importance.
When Jeanne Marie Ketchel was diagnosed with breast cancer, she struggled for years afterwards with resentment. “Why me, I don’t deserve this, I take extraordinary care of myself!” Eventually she came to, “why not me, I’m no more special than anyone else.” This loss of preoccupation with being offended was to free her energy and lead to her spiritual healing and advancement. When she left this world there was no need to fully reincarnate to work through issues of offended self-importance.
Shamans recommend that we use those occasions of feeling offended as opportunities to hone our souls. Though we may be hurt and injured by an attack, we can lighten our pain and sharpen our focus by not being personally offended by an event. The wisdom of martial arts is to never waste any energy at being offended by an attack but instead to have one’s full attention available to prepare the best response.
Shamans suggest we view our interactions with the antagonists in our lives as opportunities for spiritual advancement. This is not about treating our challenges as gifts but simply as necessary opportunities for growth. The task then becomes what we choose to do with our challenges. Our first task is to ruthlessly stare down any self-importance that would compromise our energy and effectiveness.
If we complain, we lose energy. If we get caught in self pity, we lose energy. If we shed offense, pity and judgment, we are free to mold ourselves into any being that would be a step toward ultimate success.
Thus, if I am unfairly treated at work I can allow myself to do grunt work calmly, without wasting energy on being offended, if I see that this will lead to my ultimate advancement. I can feel good that I am honing my energy for spiritual and career advancement by remaining calm while actually being treated unfairly.
Even if I never receive the promotion I deserve, I am significantly lightening the weight of being offended, and lightening my backpack, as I rapidly surmount the summit! That’s the best use of the predatory universe we live in.
Without attachment to outcome, release the weight of offense and you can’t help but spiritually advance.
