Moments Along the Way

What does it mean to be a spiritual path traveler? It is a way of seeing and perceiving events and people somewhat differently as you used to. When you see a beautiful girl on the street you have the choice of seeing her body or you can peer into her soul. You can see her as a gem in a beautiful landscape, or you can see as a sex object. When you are work, you can contemplate how to advance professionally at the expense of others, you can worry about how others may intrude into your well-defined professional space, or you can just do what the situation requires without wasting a thought of what this means for you personally.

When you consider yourself spiritual, you can devise little schemes of how to always say yes to God and no to your ego. When you are on the street, you can condition yourself to zoom into the eyes of the girl who walks next to you rather than first looking at her breasts. At work, you can try to look for a profession that is meaningful to you so that all your psychic energy goes into what you love doing rather than fighting for your next promotion. All that is part of self-improvement that you can pursue, and it might well be your mission, but it is still not quite the Way.

A spiritual path is a something much more natural than that; it is a way of being synchronized with life. Self-improvement means that you are doing something consciously; so you will focus and over-write something inside that wants to do the opposite. Along the Way all you have to do is to show up and everything is being done for you. In the divine Now your entire being is carried along, you just have to come along for the ride. So when you meet the before mentioned attractive girl on the street, your eyes naturally meet. For some strange reason her attractive body is just part of a beautiful landscape. At work you fall in love with the yin and yang of energy. You appreciate everything as is without applying any mental filter to it. You realize that scheming is a waste of time since every mental plot is immediately outdated and proven wrong by the unfolding events. Friend and foes are impossible to define. Where the divine Now rules, good and evil melt into nothingness. Every choice becomes instinctive, it is as if a red threat is on the path and all you have to do is to follow it step by step.

If you already have experienced glimpses of the divine Now, know that you have reached the beginning of the end of an ancient journey. You may still practice 'self-improvement' from time to time, but it is with the intent of letting go rather than becoming somebody. You do what you can do to remove whatever obstacle is in the Tao's way. You start understanding who you truly are. Every fear that pops up is sooner or later recognized as just a wave of energy that comes and goes. The same with anger, exuberance, depression, worries, aggression, greed,   envy, lust, etc. You naturally outgrow all these interferences and you learn that by being connected to the Tao, everything becomes a child's play. No matter where, no matter what - wherever you look there is bliss, joy, peace and love.