We are accustomed to think that the spiritual experience is something rarified and just out of reach most of the time, something that is somehow higher and better. It’s the nature of the human mind to calculate, compare, analyze, contrast – it looks for difference; higher and lower, bigger and smaller, less and more. When we use the mind in our spiritual practice and study we apply those comparisons to ourselves as well as to others and life. We think the spiritual experience is higher and better. But in reality we know that can’t be true. The simple truth is that nothing can be better or worse, lower or higher, bad or good.
The spiritual experience is actually more ordinary than non-spiritual experience. In other words, the spiritual experience is the basis of life, the source of life, the experience of life – it is life. What we call life is just an idea in our minds and has no basis in reality. We see life as suffering, struggle, hard work, pain and loss, up and down, big and small, better and worse. And yet, that which is the source of life, all of life, knows no such ideas.
It does not make us better people to be spiritual. It does not mean we have failed or not. It does not mean we are good, wrong, bad or right. But it certainly impacts the quality of our experience, not as a good or bad thing, but the quality of depth and richness. It is important to understand that being spiritual is not better and being non-spiritual is not worse. We use that judgment against ourselves.
The identity has learned very well how good it makes us feel about ourselves to say we are spiritual seekers. There is hope that we will be better and our life will be better if we are spiritual enough. But it is inevitable when something is good, something must be bad. So we judge ourselves, failing to meet that good standard. It is happening in every moment, the judgment of failing to meet the standards of high spirituality, good spirituality. And this is how we stay distracted.
For at the same time we are so obsessed about the spiritual search or our spiritual betterment, the simple truth is that all that is true is true in this moment. Nothing has changed from the beginning of time in terms of what is true and what isn’t. Nothing has changed since before the beginning of time. Truth remains the same; it is absolute, timeless, spaceless – it is everything.
It is a good idea for us to give up becoming spiritual, being spiritual, and just be what we are. We are already a perfect expression of perfect power, of a perfect source. Our true spiritual journey is to come to complete agreement with that statement. So that we may then let go of our need for control, judgment, duality, and simply trust and enjoy what is already real, what is truly authentic. In this moment right now, we can choose to believe the universe can be trusted. There is nothing but a perfect power, perfect unity.
We can accept that we have been conditioned and acculturated to the point that to trust in a bigger power is a bigger task, but its not impossible. This is not a moral process. It has nothing to do with good or bad, right or wrong – it is simply a state of being that is connected with reality. We are not going to make the world perfect; it already is. We are not going to make ourselves better; we are already perfect. We don’t think that and don’t believe that on many levels; that does not matter. Don’t fight it – accept it. It’s only temporary. It can only last as long as we allow it to.
The creative power of the universe is at work in you, through you, around you. It is the only power there is. Everything else we think is true is simply a thought – it’s not a power, it’s not reality. You can allow yourself to become present in this moment to what is truly real and stop the judgment, the effort, the resistance, and just pay attention to this moment. We are so afraid if we give up our control it will be the end in some way, as if we were making the world happen right now.
The intelligence that is creating this world right now is far greater than ours, so how can we insist that we know what is best? We only know what is best to keep ourselves scared and in control. We don’t seem to know what’s best to live a creative, flourishing, nourishing life. At least its so it appears. The more we open, give up and trust, the more the greater intelligence guides us. We can feel that in this moment. We can experience the presence of that supreme intelligence and love. It is here right now.