Walking the Spiritual Path May 4

The unconscious drive behind the ego is the need to stand out, be special, be in control, the need for power, for attention for more; the need to feel a sense of separation, need for opposition, enemies; always a hidden agenda, always a sense of ‘not enough yet’, of insufficiency and lack that needs to be filled; the underlying emotion that governs all the activity of the ego is fear. The fear of being nobody, the fear of nonexistence, the fear of death. All of its activities are ultimately made to eliminate this fear, but the most the ego can ever do is cover it up temporarily… Illusion will never satisfy you. Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free. Eckhart Tolle

Cleaning out the spiritual closet, and getting rid of the junk we are carrying around means facing up to lots of uncomfortable truths. We know what we are supposed to say. We know what is the right answer to be a spiritual being, and we know what the wrong one is. But telling ourselves and others, “I’m not doing that” or “No, that’s not me” doesn’t work. If it did, we would be where we want to be.

Facing up to ugly reality that ego and conscious mind patterns are still alive and well is the first step. The second step is to admit what exactly is still being held onto. Exposing to the light of day the dark, nasty, limiting beliefs, thoughts and feelings of the ego and conscious mind is the only way to deal with it. Then it can no longer hide in the closet or under the bed, waiting to pounce on us in an unguarded moment.

The ego and conscious mind will fight us on this; it needs this garbage to feed off in order to stick around. Keep going. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Through it all, hold onto the truth of who you really are.

Affirmation: I am one with my inner being and true self.