(Return to part 1)
Perhaps the confusion lies in believing that by thinking something or saying it out aloud, we have already done it. But there is a long way between saying something and actually doing it. Call it effort!
Apparently, we are motivated by the rush to achieve happiness and imperishable fulfilment, yet at the same time, confused by sensations. Today’s society has replaced the meaning of life by sensations; we are immersed in a constant stimulation of the senses; we are slaves of immediacy, and we flee from silence.
This flight responds to the fear of facing our inner emptiness, the feeling of having lost our way and having no true purpose in life. We look for happiness in the form of a pearl, as if finding it is something that depends on the luck of reaching a perfect condition. We all want the secret recipe. We all want that mantra; those three affirmations and two turns, so that we can achieve fulfilment and stop that inertia that has been feeding us with its force for so many years, maybe even lifetimes.
If we stop to analyze each of our thoughts, we would realize that the vast majority are complaints, and that these are proportional to the fear with which we live our lives, i.e., the more fear, the more we close ourselves off, the less we see, and the more we complain.
It is difficult for us to face this feeling of uncertainty, and we protect ourselves from it by disguising it as victimhood, or looking for an accumulation of sensations that appease the emptiness. We look for noise, for things to happen, because silence brings us closer to ourselves and that can seem like an abyss.
The reality is that the only way out is through an honesty we need to have with ourselves. We must begin by opening our eyes, even if it is sometimes uncomfortable, and letting go of our expectations of ‘how things should be’. We like ‘surprises’, until they don’t live up to our expectations, and then we call them ‘troubles’.
The main difference, and therefore confusion, between the new-age practices and spirituality is that the first makes you feel good, while the latter makes you conscious, and sometimes being conscious doesn’t feel so good.
To be conscious of something means to stop hiding behind the veil of distorted illusions in favor of the ego, and to start taking responsibility for what one is and what one does, with all that this entails. It means delving into the world of causes, and to stop justifying or embellishing their effects.
That is why spiritual development requires commitment, humility, courage, and bravery. We are not able to see the immensity of which we are a part, and sometimes we are placed before tests that force us to break with beliefs, and to recognize our limitations, and although it may not seem like it, that is the first step, because it implies being willing to let go of everything and to open to something new.
(To be continued in part 3)
