Our Illusions of Importance
Read the Entire Series – Journey To Knowing
Even as we progress on the journey of self-revelation, casting away, one by one, the old definitions now pretty much useless, we still cling, albeit unconsciously, to our various notions of significance: (a) that we are achieving worthwhile goals, (b) that we are becoming a receptacle better able to serve the needs of humanity,
(c) that our understanding of possibilities is ever deeper and wider, and (d) that our compassion for others is selfless and discerning. And so on. All these are easily recognizable to those on the inner journey as we cover our tracks with careers, families and citizenship.
On this journey we have already become accustomed to casting off the illusions that sustained us as we sleep walked through life. Those cultural, political and religious constructs that were taught to us as children: as they fall off the wagon on the bumpy ride to self-discovery, we see those attachments as anchors that kept us from sailing through open waters. And now that we are, more or less, flying free, we feel empowered, not only to explore further, but to just be ourselves without the cultural restraints we used to think impossible to circumvent.
I have found the pleasures and joys of flying free these past thirty years or so quite incomparable. The bliss of being body and belief system free cannot be matched.
And while I cannot deny that the physical body is a miracle of divine engineering and should always be praised for such, the nightly escape from its clutches is a freedom beyond description. The yacht looks so pretty bobbing in the harbor but the cruise in those windy open waters is where you really want to be.
In this merry-go-round of life, both in and out of the body, day after night after day, we can easily forget the millions of others who may have passed along this route hundreds or maybe thousands of years before, on this or other planets, as they shucked the restrictions implanted by culture and society, to find their true self. Whether they disappeared into some bodiless blissful nirvana or reconstituted themselves as old soul masters and guides, they followed the same paths we are uncovering, arriving at destinations we shall likely recognize.
In envisioning this bigger picture unfold before us we can see ourselves as complex details in some enormous evolutionary game plan, tiny cogs in a very clever wheel. And in doing so, even if only from time to time, we can give up our attachments to significance and importance. We can chuckle at ourselves.
April 5, 2021 @ 10:25 am
“And while I cannot deny that the physical body is a miracle of divine engineering and should always be praised for such, the nightly escape from its clutches is a freedom beyond description. The yacht looks so pretty bobbing in the harbor but the cruise in those windy open waters is where you really want to be.” Love your writing this week, Gordon. This is excellent writing!
April 5, 2021 @ 10:56 am
Thanks! My pleasure!