Read

May/June 2003 Featured Stories
The Ways We Sabotage Our Enlightenment

by Caroline Myss

Caroline Myss

I have written many times on the subject of power, empowerment, dis-empowerment, the nature of power, power as spirit, and more. Once I wrote that power is the fundamental ingredient of the human experience, and I believe that even more so now. But I will also tell you that finding the right words to describe our relationship to power is enormously difficult. Power is the manifestation of the energy of your spirit. Yet, it has a million manifestations, beginning with what we determine in physical form as having power: money, titles, influence, rulership, success, and stuff…endless stuff. We all go through the stage of believing that to acquire physical power is to be empowered. (I've seen that belief shift in an instant when an individual confronts a disease that all the money in the world cannot heal, but that subject is for another time.)

The Initial Attraction of Becoming Enlightened

No one engages with life feeling in control of any thing. It gets worse as we realize we will never be in control of any thing and still that does not stop us from wanting control of every thing and every one who crosses our path (be that our spiritual path or side walk or any path that crosses our path). We are all control freaks precisely because in our gut we know we have absolutely no control over any thing whatsoever. And from that base of fear, we develop our initial attraction to "enlightenment as the ultimate method of control". Seeking a means - not a path - but a means to outwit the random winds of change is our first attraction to the idea of enlightenment. The misconception is that becoming "enlightened" provides us with a type of intuitive ability that allows us to make decisions that result in permanent conditions of earth-based security. This assumption has deep roots as we come from spiritual and cultural traditions that value goals and results from any endeavors we undertake, enlightenment included. There must be a tangible outcome to our efforts, and if we are going to pour our energies into something, we better have something to show for it. And in keeping with our spiritual and cultural backgrounds, producing results that enhance our physical life is in our grain.

The concept of "enlightenment" as a spiritual path is associated more with Eastern spiritual traditions than it is with Judeo-Christian theology. This is a cultural fact that needs to be appreciated because in many ways, we have approached the process of enlightenment with the fears inherent in a model of theology that has intense ties to economics. The Western traditions are rooted in the separation of Church and State, body and soul, money and God. Poverty of pocket is associated with wealth of the spirit and wealth of the pocket is seen as the fall of the spirit.

This association is so deep that it is easy to deny that it influences you, even slightly, but it probably does and more than you realize. We live in a type of theological-economic schizophrenia that causes people to believe that pursuing an intimate relationship with God will result in an economic crash because poverty and the spiritual path are a team, or so we fear. Nevertheless, once on this path, questions regarding what one should do for an occupation in the world of the "enlightened" emerge. I recall one woman saying to me, "Now that I am on a spiritual path, I have to find something spiritual to do for a living". Not surprisingly, she was considering a future in some area of therapy. Why she thought that was more spiritual than working in a bank is an example of precisely what I am talking about. Underlying her choice of future employment was her belief that in finding a more "spiritual" occupation, her reward would be a greater degree of protection from the nasty side of life. I suggested, incidentally, that she look for a job in a bank or in some corporation as she had superb computer skills and she actually took offense to that. I then said that what she was really looking for was a job that would afford her a means of self-employment, lots of time off, and an income that allowed her to travel to "conscious" places, like Sedona or Mt. Shasta, you know, places where the enlightened live.

And Now to You

So where are you in the midst of this first obstacle? Only you can calculate your place on the scale, but think about your own associations with earth-based security in relationship to spiritual awakening. Do you fear, even slightly, that the tests that the heavens inevitably send to the awakening student might include the experience of an economic collapse? Or has your awakening desire to live a more spiritual path included a need to change your occupation? I have to assume that in some way it has, but underlying that initial change is a deeper process, which is the desire to be of "service" as opposed to just survive through an occupation. This call to be of service is inherent in the spiritual dynamic of awakening, yet "service" is a calling and therein lies the obstacle. When you are "called", do you determine the path or are you "called" to the path that the Divine determines you are most suited? And what if that path is not occupational in manifestation, but one of personal transformation in a more subtle form? Or what if you are required to enter into a type of spiritual make-over that proceeds your new role in life? This is the road block, the place where people pause, filled with a knowing that they cannot go back, and yet they cannot discern where to go from "here".

I hope this information will bring you comfort, especially if you are in the midst of the unknown. I can tell you both from personal experience and from the promised nature of this journey that the place where you are called to be inevitably finds you, like the same promise that is given to the student who discovers the teacher showed up when the moment was right. You cannot get lost and you will not fail. Remember what is being asked of you: trust and surrender.

Let me close this by saying that the crisis occurring within our global village has unleashed a stress that is penetrating all of us. Be mindful that there will be times when the psychic overload of the anxiety of the global soul might run through your own spirit. You might experience feelings of depression and loss of attention, nightmares, and an increase in nervous tension and it may not be coming from your personal life. Be mindful. And may God guide us through these dark days that must be recognized as an essential part of our own spiritual life, for none of us is here at this time by accident. May God bless us all.

Caroline Myss will be in Portland, OR on August 8^th & 9^th. Information at 1-800-395-8445 or www.conferenceworks.com.