waking up from the dream

We have been told by those who have reached profound states of spiritual awareness, that there is no (egoic) self, only the image that we have created in our mind.  "The older we get, the more dense the sense of a separate self gets...(It gets) more contracted...solidified...real.  The more real it feels, the more we feel that it needs to be protected, that it needs to get its way." (Falling into Grace, p. 30).  We think we need to control our environment and others to get our way.  Adya talks about how seeing ourselves this way creates a sense that life and others are threatening to us. 

He goes on to say that "To find liberation, we must wake up from this dream that our mind creates, that we're something separate than everything around us.  This is the only way we can begin to find a way out of suffering." (Falling into Grace, p. 33)

From what we have read in The Untethered Soul we know that we can let go of our attachment to this self through the path of unconditional happiness, the path of non-resistance, the middle way, contemplating death and the loving eyes of  God. 

"As you let go and willingly release the physical, emotional, and mental aspects of your being, Spirit becomes your state. (T.U.S., p. 175).  

In my church community this week there has been the tragic loss of a young man who was very much loved and appreciated.  It is heart-wrenching to see his family suffer, and, to grapple with the idea of how and why this could have happened.  I have been allowing the pain to surface and watching my thoughts about the situation.  I am choosing to accept my feelings and let them be, and to let go of any attachment to what this means or how it could have happened.  I believe that God turns every situation to good but that as I long as I remain attached to the self, I will block myself from the miracle.

In Reality we are all ONE, at one with each other and with life.  I believe that we are here to wake up.  Although we cannot control that process we can do our part by releasing the blocks and letting Spirit guide us.   Whether the issues that you are dealing with are big or small, know that God is in the picture...and that the absence of suffering is on the other side of the walls built by your psyche.