by Marcy Heller
Dear Courageous Spiritual Champions,
There was a saying attributed to Jesus in, ‘The Gospel of Thomas’, which was written right after his death, it begins with, “The seeker should not stop until he finds. When he does find, he will be disturbed. After being disturbed, he will be astonished. Then he will reign over everything.”
Find what? What are we all looking for? More importantly what are you seeking? The correct and truest answer to what we all desire is to be happy! However, we have been taught to look outside of ourselves and to not stop seeking until we discover that magic bullet! Whether it is more love, power, financial freedom, prosperity, security, health, control, beauty, etc.
In the second line of this quote, the power of this gospel is revealed, “When he does find, he will be disturbed.” Which brings us to where we are now and what the path called ‘Spirituality’ is all about! It’s very nature is to accept whatever comes our way and not resist. Whatever is happening is happening through US! Not to US! Otherwise, how are we going to grow, to learn, to ascend to a higher order of what we desire to do, and at what cost? As Humans, we gravitate to what feels good. However, just because it feels good doesn’t always mean it is Good! Sometimes it’s just familiar. And as the old adage goes “Doing the same thing and expecting different results!” Well, we know how that is! So we have to be willing to be disturbed. We can only heal what we feel!
Adyashanti wrote in his brilliant book, ‘Falling from Grace’ “This line is pointing to why most people don’t find lasting happiness—because most people don’t want to be disturbed. Most of us don’t want to be bothered. We don’t want our search for happiness to have any difficulty in it. What we really want is to be given happiness on a platter. But to find what true happiness is, we must actually be willing to be disturbed, surprised, wrong in our assumptions—and cast into a very deep well of unknowing. What does it mean to be disturbed, and why would we possibly open to this or desire it on any level? To understand this, we must look closely at our own minds, at those things we believe in, at the thoughts onto which we grasp. The challenge is that most of us have no idea how to seek. For most of us, seeking is just another form of grasping and attainment. But this isn’t the kind of seeking that Jesus is referring to here. Jesus is pointing to a way to seek that was revealed long, long ago: to seek within. If we really look at it, anything we can acquire from the outside will eventually fade away. This is the law of impermanence that the Buddha taught about thousands of years ago. Whether it is power, control, money, people, or health, everything that you see around you is in a process of arising and then decaying. Just as your lungs breathe in and then breathe out, it’s necessary for things to fall away so that life can breathe new again. This is one of the laws of the universe: that everything you see, taste, touch, and feel will eventually disappear back into the source from which it came, only to be reborn and appear yet again, receding again back into the source. And the truth is that until reality is seen clearly, as it is, there will be no lasting peace or happiness, so we must first find out what is real, who we are, and what life is at its core.”
Spirituality is about accepting what is. To surrender. Being alright with whatever is happening. That’s why it is disturbing. It’s about being detached and feeling peace with whatever our minds and hearts are doing. It is counter intuitive since we are so programmed to take action, to do something that would make us feel better instead of just accepting what is! Especially, when we are suffering! It’s difficult to understand because we are so used to trying to figure out how to be okay by getting the thing we believe will make us happy! This is how we surrender, instead of trying to control or manipulate, we open to the Grace of allowing whatever comes up and to welcome it with more love and compassion. To find the joy without judgment or criticism, that is Mastery! That’s Amore’! Even if it is painful. To love whatever is happening. This is what the great teachers have been trying to teach as well as show us forever more.
As Adyashanti further wrote, “Beyond even any teaching, though, the aspect of spiritual life that is the most profound is the element of grace. Grace is something that comes to us when we somehow find ourselves completely available, when we become openhearted and open-minded, and are willing to entertain the possibility that we may not know what we think we know. In this gap of not knowing, in the suspension of any conclusion, a whole other element of life and reality can rush in. This is what I call grace. It’s that moment of “ah-ha!”—a moment of recognition when we realize something that previously we never could quite imagine.”
Be willing to align with these precious words from Ram Dass, “Ultimately, you will be able to look at suffering, disease, old age and death and be able to say, ‘Yes, I understand the flow and process and here I am.’ Until you are that clear, that conscious and free, every experience in life is an exercise for getting home, that’s what it’s all about.”
This is the first step. And, certainly not the last nor a negative one. To be willing to start to un-clutter the chaos. To be disturbed means you’re willing to see the truth, you’re willing to see that maybe things aren’t the way you thought they were. Even though it may feel like the carpet has been swept from under us and feeling even more confused, uncertain and much more vulnerable. To be willing to trust! When we begin to wake-up, to become aware and more conscious, to realize how we have deluded ourselves because of what we have held on to and for the most part that has continued to cause us even more stress and suffering. It’s about digging a little deeper into what is really disturbing us. To begin to take responsibility that we may of gotten this all wrong. Your Soul will thank you!
More than ever with everything going on it is essential that we become certain of the relationship we have with our deeper self, since each of us seems to be going through our own personal metamorphosis. This is the most wonderful time to know ourselves, to raise our vibrations and to lift our consciousness and understand like never before the expansive nature of our Being. Staying in the Penthouse isn’t a place, it is the awareness of being able to stay as conscious as possible while life is just happening!
Moreover, for those aligned with the astrological forecast per Astrologer, Lorna Bevan with the Super New Moons on steroids beginning now, she invites us to attune to the incoming Aquarian frequency by: Renewing the architecture of your life in coming weeks and months, recognizing the value of your friendships and social networks and expanding your people landscape, looking for win/win scenarios via collaborative ventures, giving your emotional dramas and soap operas a break!
