Evil is Live spelt backwards

Evil is irrevocably at cross-purposes with love, life, freedom, and creation.

(Gerald May)

Evil is "live" spelt backwards. I tend to be pretty good-natured, and must have done something right in my previous lives; evil rarely shows its ugly face in my life. But the concept of evil is more than just bad intentions and actions, it is everything that stands in the way of life. It turns out that I know something about the he escape from freedom; the conscious or subconscious turning away from life. There are times when a dark cloud descends on me. I cannot write, read, and don't really want to interact with anyone when I am stuck in this low energy mode. In the olden days I would have visited sexual chat rooms and would have been sucked into a negative energy spiral that was hard to emerge from. Today, I just kill my time listening to music, or spend my time playing mind numbing video games against a computer that somehow always wins. I just while away time until the dark clouds lifts and my life energy returns; this is always bound to happen after a day or two as long as I don't do anything stupid.

The neurologists have a biological explanation for addiction and compulsive behavior. Something along the lines that our happiness neurons are pulled like a bungee cords when we stimulate ourselves with that orgasmic high, but every additional stimulus has to be more potent, and ever more extreme, otherwise the payback arrives in form of a pain body descending on us. 

Neurology and brain chemistry is the hardware that simulates life for us, but spirituality and the symbols of life are the software. There is a spiritual element to every addiction. The ego tells us how pleasurable an activity is, while beneath the surface he is crying murder about it. The sex addict is accused of throwing dirt on love; the video addict accused of wasting his time and numbing his brain, while the alcoholic is accused of ruining his health and giving up on life more generally. A not-so-merry-go-around starts that has our ruin as a destination unless we step up to the challenge.

What is the solution to the problem statement? Gerald May put it well in his book "Addiction and Grace", falling in love with life is the only way to beat it. God has a Plan for us that gets the happiness neurons dancing in a self-sustaining way. Every addiction is an escape from freedom; a highway to hell while the spiritual path points into the opposite direction, towards life and Heaven. Writes Gerald May, "For the power of addiction to be overcome, human will must act in concert with divine will. The human spirit must flow with the Holy Spirit. Personal power must be aligned with the power of grace."

Every compulsive behavior or addiction is nothing but a message to ourselves that we have run into a wall somewhere. That's ok really; life shakes us up from time to time, and our instinctive reaction is to shy away from it. It takes courage and love to climb all the obstacles that life puts in our way. The good news is that every addiction sends us the wake-up call to try harder next time. The first step is hard - we are facing a dark tunnel and we are scared. But what choice do we have but to proceed? Fall in love with life again. Let the spiritual path lead you towards the light. Along a spiritual path life becomes a thrill; an adventure full of fun and meaning. Discover your divine calling. Live again!

Be Ye as Little Children

The greatest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don't have to remember what you said.

(Anonymous)

I saw a fascinating documentary the other day. It pointed out that lying can be discovered neurally. When you lie all kinds of areas in your brain light up. Apparently you have to use lots of mental energy to overwrite what you know is true. Well, it turns out being a spiritual traveler gives you a big energy advantage since discovering and telling the truth is our mission. 

When I saw that documentary I was wondering, what happens then when we fool ourself with something that we subconsciously know is not true? Does our system lose energy in this state as well? I would think so. I have discovered often - even in myself - when we say something but our body language is telling the opposite. That must cut into our energy supply. Actually, I would be surprised if we spiritual folks fare any better than others in that dimension. While we certainly aspire to tell the truth, we probably also wear rose-colored glasses at times. We aspire to be truthful, enlightened, peaceful, loving and happy while our body language and the events point to the contrary.

Being on a spiritual journey is a process. It may take a while until we have aligned all parts of our being, but eventually we are getting there. We accept who we are, we accept what comes our way, and we speak the truth to the best of our abilities. Sure we fool ourselves on occasion but when reality stacks up against what we believe we change course as well. After all, going after the truth is what this journey is all about. We humans are multi-dimensional and conflicted on many levels but when our mission is a sound one we can line up subconscious, conscious and the spiritual as the years go by. Eventually all the neural paths line up in the same direction, in unison will all subconscious programs and our spiritual belief sets. With little baggage to carry, with clear thinking and a straight-forward purpose, we spiritual travelers have a big energy advantage over others.

Jesus often emphasized that a spiritual journey is all about regaining our lost innocence. "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). A spiritual path is all about decluttering our life - "not this, not that" becomes our mantra. We face our life and live our mission until we have squared the circle with a little divine help. Keep the faith my friend, the going might be tough at times but your face, your heart, your neural pathways and your energy level will thank you for it.

Sitting this Dance Out

Neurology had a remarkable insight that few of us are willing to discuss. Brain-imaging shows that when we make a decision, before we have consciously decided, there actually is a light going off inside our head signaling that a decision has been made. So some institution deep inside of you knows what the "I" is bound to do in a few microseconds? Does this mean we are just sitting somewhere on a couch and dream what we think we are going through? Does this mean we have no free choice?

Well, that doesn't quite sound right. Pretty much everyone in the spiritual community agrees that there must be a free choice.  I honestly have to profess that I have no answer on this question. There is a different insight I want to share with you though. This institution, call it the "system" for the lack of a better word, knows exactly what is bound to happen to you. Maybe not over the next seven years or so, but definitely on shorter time horizon.

 I see symbols that often prepare me for what is about to happen. In the past I was eager to anticipate what lies ahead based on these signals, whereas today I just accept whatever it is that comes my way. Sure, I adjust my behavior a little accordingly, like deliberately toning it down a little when the ego would have run amok in earlier years, or drinking a little extra coffee when I know the going is likely to get a little tougher.

The problem with all spiritual powers is that we want to make use of it. When you manage to keep your ego in check and develop some spiritual powers in the process, the ego immediately wants to run with them. No, the journey home came be best described by
dancing to some music. Sometimes you follow, sometimes you lead, but always according to the beat. And when the music pauses, so will you. If you really want to return home understand that there is actually little to do. Just let the yin and yang of life do its thing. When you don't react to the demands of your ego, when you just let the pendulum swing back and forth without giving additional power to it, the movement will naturally run out of steam. Yes, I will dance when the Tao asks me to, but unless asked, I will sit out this one out.

Groovy

Sri Ramana Maharshi once remarked that you need to watch your "pernicious habits" because the mind is a little like a potent garden, it is open to everything, the seed of a beautiful flower can be grown, but so can weed. This remark was made many decades ago, but modern neurological research would verify this insight. Thoughts, actions and habits literally form grooves in your brain, the more power to give to it, the harder it will be to overwrite them at a later stage.

You don't really need any spiritual or cultural taboos to foster right-minded thinking and living. All you need is your common sense and the sensitivity to the reactions of your soul sisters and brothers. You will recognize when you are moving in the wrong direction yourself, like the gardener cannot help noticing when weeds grows. Your spiritual path is your destination and every u-turn on that road has to be corrected with yet another u-turn as God repeatedly reminds us in Neale Walsch's "Conversations with God". Or to go back to the garden analogy, once you had to rip out the weed yourself, you will put down twice as much mulch when the next planting season starts.

Spiritual and cultural taboos may be necessary to table certain dark tendencies for a while, but ultimately you will have to face them head-on, otherwise you would always fear that somebody opens Pandora's box.