Useful for transformation: A fact of the spiritual life to be 100% sure about


When asked by Tami Simon "what in the spiritual/faith realm are you 100% sure about?", modern day sage and wisdom teacher Caroline Myss replied in a way that resonated with my own experience. 
In my heart I agreed that-"I have been there and done that"--that is, the truth of her comments were validated in my own heart. 
Here's what a very provocative and insightful Meister Caroline had to say:
"What am I 100 percent sure about? Well, I am 100 percent sure that there is an evil in the world. One of the reasons that people have to pray is that evil is real, and we've done the darkness a great service by saying it doesn't exist. That's the best thing that we could do in service of evil, is deny that it's there. Nothing is a greater asset to evil than what we've done and given it, which is to say it doesn't exist. We could not have become a greater ally to the dark side than we have been in these last 30 years, than by denying that it exists. Thus we do not pray, "Keep me safe. Keep me safe. Deliver me from evil. Deliver me from evil. Keep me safe."
People don't realize how darkness operates. It's not demonic ghouls and gargoyles that hover over your home at night. Evil gets you in your pride. It makes you more boastful, it makes you more arrogant, it makes you think that things that happen to everybody else, that you consider an ordinary or common person, can't happen to you, and therefore you make careless, risky, and stupid decisions. You decide that you can get a subprime rate and turn your house over, and that other people (other people!) will have financial problems, but they will never happen to you. Why? Because you're you, and these things just don't happen to you—only to find out they do, and you fell on your own sword.

That's how evil works.

It makes you think you're special when you're not.
It makes you think that the laws of the universe do not apply to you because there's something special about you, and evil counts on your arrogance. As soon as you begin to drink that Kool-Aid, you're in big trouble!

When all of the saints and all of the great mystics write and teach about "You'd better stay humble and get off the radar," that's exactly what they're talking about. Evil thrives on arrogance, and it thrives on the pathological need that people have to be extraordinary, because the very thought of being ordinary makes people sick to their stomachs. "Tell me anything, but don't tell me I'm ordinary! I'll name my child Sunshine Meditation Karma! And then, when you look at my child, you get to say, like I do, 'You're so special!' So I'll put the blessing of specialness on my child so that they're not ordinary. Just don't tell me my child's ordinary, because then ordinary things will happen to my child, and then what will I do? I'll have to cope with the fact that my child's ordinary!"
In this pathological race to be extraordinary, we've created children that have to compete from the age of two so that they'll be extraordinary. Get into preschool (and pre-preschool!), so that by the time they're two-and-a-half, they're competing like little demons. And the parents are in soccer and in this and in that, making their children compete, and competing parents, because they cannot simply have children.
This is darkness, because the real reason they're doing what they're doing is because they're driven by the madness that they can't possibly be ordinary, and that is vanity.That, right there, is how darkness gets in.
Like Jesus and the prophets of old have said: "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble".

Meditate on this. Do you agree with her spiritual insights, or are there holes in this theory? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You can do it! Yes you can.

Image
I claim to be an average man of less than average ability.I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. -Mahatma Gandhi So, are you willing to give it your best? In this transformation of the small i's to the Real I, the essence, are you willing? to do the Work? Resolve to awaken to the inner motivations of the small self within. Observe yourself. Put some separation between you and your small self/ego. Observe your own behavior, thoughts, actions, motivations. Let the Spirit filter the way you respond to stresses from outside. For the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two edged sword, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart-----------your heart! Who is The Living Word? The logos? You know.
Read more

Baylor has need of Christ’s wisdom

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.” We ( Baylor - as a university community which says its follows Christ) have blindly served mammon, with the other schools in Texas…and look where it has taken us. Now money is driving the conference groupings even more than before- in 1995. Where will this lead? Texas—that is the University of Texas at Austin, is the driving force of the ‘we deserve more money’ movement. Fair enough, that is as it probably should be. UT is a dominant force in NCAA athletics. It is a secular school. It has absolutely no ties to the Gospel, other than the Gospel’s influence on our culture. Although far less in influence, the same goes for our militaristic land grant school, and our state’s other outpost, which defies description. But Baylor—why do we follow them? We say we are of Christ . I question that. Especially ...
Read more

Handling God's blessings with care

It is permissible to take life's blessings with both hands provided thou dost know thyself prepared in the opposite event to take them just as gladly. This applies to food and friends and kindred, to anything God gives and takes away. -Meister Eckhart In order to live in freedom, we must learn to accept a temporary disappointment, if necessary, when it is for our permanent well-being. Sometimes, when we want to eat something that appeals to us, or when we want to eat a little more than is necessary, we can't help feeling disappointment as we push away from the table. We cannot help thinking that we could as well have stayed on for five more minutes of pleasure, forgetting that it would probably be followed by five hours of stomachache at night. The right time to get up from the meal is when we want just a little more. This is real artistry, real gourmet judgment: when we find that everything is so good that we would like to have one more helping, we get up and walk away. ~Easwa...
Read more