Level confusion

Somewhere in Africa at the foot of a mountain someone accidentally kicks a stone and perceives a well-familiar sparkle. ‘Hmm’, the passer-by goes, ‘could that be a diamond?’ He shakes the stone, looks at it from all sides and decides to give it to an expert in the city who indeed confirms that this is a diamond in the rough. The expert cleans it, removes some debris surrounding it, grinds the stone into shape and later polishes it. Behold, a beautiful diamond sees the light of the day for the first time.

There is level confusion in the spiritual community and I hope the diamond analogy can shed some light on it. The ‘I’-identity that we perceive and carry around is hardly the enemy. The first steps of a spiritual awakening often include working with our self and even developing it before we are in a position to let go of it. Stumbling on the diamond in the rough is the stage when the seeker gets tired of all the friction he has with his environment and decides to do something about it. Identifying the need for self-development equals the determination to set free a gem in the making. The next stage is transformation of the self where we let go of everything that is not authentic to us. 

The spiritual dimension opens up to us when we discover Oneness; the empath who experiences the feelings of others, the psychic who receives some messages concerning the future, and so forth. The ‘I’-experiencer merges with his environment and becomes One with it. In the diamond analogy this is the realization that the light creates the sparkle. The diamond is a mere medium. The last stage then is the realization that we are outside of the ‘I’-identity altogether. This phenomenon is a dream-like stage and gets increasingly harder to put into words. It is like a scientist telling the owner of the diamond that on the smallest level the hardest material in the world is nothing but energy spinning at mind-numbing speed. It’s factually correct but probably not that useful for the owner who wants to use his diamond as an anniversary gift for his wife.

I have traveled this spiritual journey for 12 years now and have discovered that life encourages us to be the gem we are born to be all the time. The problem of spirituality is often level confusion. Folks rightly feel that they deserve better and they seek advice from the sages who tell them about the bliss, serenity and love that awaits them. Naturally, the spiritual seeker perceives conflict between the life they experience and the world that is promised to them, but then, maybe the remedy to our problem is simply to dance with life instead. How about listening to the advice our perceived adversary has to offer? How about identifying what is truly important to us and doing something concrete to get it? Psychologically, sometimes the seekers are not willing to own up to their true drives and longings because they appear to be in conflict with spirituality. We might not be our body but we can use it to give our partner a mind-blowing spiritual experience. We might get encouraged professionally to become more assertive and find that it is not in conflict with spirituality at all everyone benefits from that transformation and our career takes off. 

The solution to the level confusion is to stop wishing to be ‘there’ where the sages sit and being more willing to explore the here and now. We have to be willing to let life transform us in order to become the gem we are meant to be. Following Awakening, I spent 10 years in the same professional environment before moving on to become a writer and spiritual coach. These were the best years in my career. I observed ‘Oneness’ at work in a fairly competitive environment. I learned to listen to my well-wishers as well as those who appeared to be on a collision course with me. Everyone can discover this magic in real life as long as they are willing to also develop their self and allow life’s frictions to transform them. Glimpses of the ‘I Am That I Am’ experience when the illusionary self disappears came later but they were also not any more magic than the time when Awakening first kicked in. Each phase has its magic, each period has its moments when we are reminded that we are human after all. So don’t miss out on the gem right in front of you in your quest to reach the top of the mountain. Each stage —self-discovery, self-transformation, the stage of being self-less and the no self experience—has magic to it. Whether in the tough or polished. You are that gem always.