That Which Tastes Like Poison at First

Do you know people who sabotage themselves at times? Who knows, perhaps it was  a father lashing out at his son telling him that he is a  good-for-nothing, or a nasty remark of a relative telling a little girl that she is ugly at an impregnable age. Unfortunately these words can burn themselves like vicious memes into our subconscious and we take them for granted like God commands without the ability of our intellect to overwrite them when we are older.  The good news is, just as these irrational programs can get installed you can uninstall them with the help of targeted symbolic acts. Please read Alejandro Jodorowsky's excellent book Psychomagic for many case-specific examples.

So when we talk about the subconscious mind we really talk about two different things, a mindless computer that can work for or against you, as well as a divine source of wisdom and guidance. Every spiritual traveler will have felt this wisdom,  sometimes even heard a guiding Voice deep inside. Sometimes we receive divine messages from our environment. We call this external communication channel the Tao. You get step-by-step instructions to help you understand who you truly are and encouragement to tackle your mission in life.

A spiritual path is really a cleaning up with all these subconscious programs that hurt your Self-discovery, while at the same time learning to get in touch with your inborn Self-connection. One fine day you discover the red carpet the Tao has always laid out for you and from therein all you have to do is to follow it. Still, despite this divine touch,  you are not any different from all the others. You too have to tackle insecurities, overcome fears and deal with confusion. Sometimes the divine Voice will tell you to cut out stuff that seems like fun to you, but it will be explained to you  why this particular activity would stand in the Way. So in a sense a spiritual path is like an ongoing therapy course. Every resistance along the Way is yet another sign to reposition your self in order to connect with your Self.

The psychologist/mystic Gurdjieff once said that if you follow a spiritual path you manage to avoid living like a pig and dying like a dog. This sounds a little extreme, but I am sure every spiritual path traveler understands the truth behind it. If you experience your Self while living, it is hard to get carried away by life's fickle temptations, just as you have little to be afraid of when you die.

The Bhagavad Gita puts this theme in the following way:
That which tastes like poison at first, but tastes like nectar in the end, this is the joy of a mind at peace with itself. Pleasure of the senses seems like nectar at first, but is bitter as poison in the end.

 Follow the signs of the Tao and you already are reunited with the Source. Life becomes an ongoing feedback mechanism and your subconscious understands that you are completely taken care of. All life demands of you is to stay away from the poison and enjoy the nectar instead. That is not hard to do, is it?