The reason why an unconscious mind craves a defined “structure” is because it’s afraid of being open to the depth of life. Following a conventional, society-defined, structure gives it a false sense of security, status, and even self-worth, which allows it to feel that it has “fitted in” and thus it keeps trying to hold on to it. A lot of people blindly buy into the structure meted out by the society as the way to live their life and feel inadequate if they somehow don’t fit in to it, never allowing themselves to think independently – this is what unconscious living is all about. When you unconsciously follow a structure, you become dead to your own inner guidance.
The more awareness you develop about life, the more available you are to see beyond the narrow perspectives fed to you by the society you were brought up in. How many people judge themselves negatively for not being able to retain a conventional 9 to 5 job? It’s such a narrow way of looking at yourself. When you broaden your perspective you may realize that, may be, doing a strident job is not your calling at all, may be you are born to indulge in more creative pursuits. It requires some amount of courage to be willing to be free of the rigid structures placed on your mind by the conventional society conditioning – it’s important to understand that most societies have been deeply unconscious for so many years, and subscribing to its structures blindly is like accepting an unconscious way of living. Stop living for societal approval and let go of trying to fit in, so that you can start living in alignment with your own calling.
Looking outside the lens of narrow conditioning
When “awareness” starts growing in your physical being, you have the choice to see beyond narrow conditioning. Life is far more than just living out a society defined structure, it’s has far greater depth which you can experience if you can just stop wearing the blinkers put on your eyes by the rigid conditioning. What you might imagine as your desires may easily be just some conditioned thoughts fed to you by the society, in which case it’s not really your desire rather it’s what you think you should desire. Like a person who keeps forcing himself to “desire” a 9 to 5 job, when in his heart he has no real inclination to do a 9 to 5 job, and the only reason he’s intending it is because all his friends have a 9 to 5 job. The society also trains you to look at everything from the perspective of how much money you can make rather than how compatible you are with that vocation or job – you see youngsters taking up college courses less for their interest/inclination and more out of the capacity it has to buy them a future status or some “narrow” life-style.
You can’t even know what your true calling is until you are first willing to step out of looking from narrow conditioning of the society. It’s possible that your deal is to be in a 9 to 5 job, but be fearless enough to find out if that’s really the case by delving into your heart instead on living on surface of your mind. Another example of unconscious subjugation would be a girl who imagines that she needs to marry a guy who her parents/relatives approve of, or who seems to “fit in” with the societal model (prestigious job and status et al), rather than marrying a guy who she finds compatibility with. It’s a huge indication of mis-alignment within, when our decisions are based more on impressing others, and finding societal acceptance, rather than following our heart.
If you are always trying to place it safe, by never thinking independently but living to “fit in” with others, it won’t be long before you end up in a rut of living a dead life where it feels as if you are living more as a machine than an alive being. Be willing to step out of just thinking from your narrow conditioning and look at life with your heart – it’s not just about eating great food, traveling to cool places, getting laid or bagging a promotion, though all of these are some means of enjoying physicality. You need to let your awareness go deeper than just these surface-level aspects of physicality, or else you end up becoming a very shallow person who has no real depth in his/her outlook towards life. As a grown up you have the capacity to be more aware of the depth of life instead of having the same mindset as a teenager who is hung up about losing his/her virginity.
Aligning with the totality of life
You are not just an individual existence, you are connected to the whole. The more you try to separate yourself from the whole, the more narrow/shallow you become in your perception of life. You can start first by letting go of attaching yourself to strident identities of your culture, country or family, and see yourself more as a child of this universe. The intention in life-stream that created the circumstances for the birth of your body is connected to the totality, and hence you can only truly realize your own inner calling when you see yourself from the perspective of totality rather than seeing yourself from some narrow identities or stories of your mind.
The question is if you are willing to connect yourself with the movement of your life-stream that’s connected with totality, and hence is far higher than just your individual vision (which automatically get taken care of once you stop focusing on the trivialities of it). As long as your focus is primarily on your personal problems defined by your mind’s narrow vision – like stressing over a relationship, anxiety about a job (which you don’t even like), worrying about money, feeling jealous about your neighbor etc – it just makes you see life in a totally narrow perspective. But the moment you are willing to surrender yourself to your life-stream, your personal problems are soon taken care of (mostly because you are no longer fueling them with your attention) and you seem to become more connected with a wholistic movement (a movement in totality) rather than just an individual movement.
Becoming conscious is an invitation to have a broader vision
If you are becoming “conscious” it’s basically a call to start letting go of your narrow pre-occupation with some conditioned way of thinking and start merging with the wholistic movement of your life-stream, aligning with your true calling, which is always in sync with totality – it’s not an individual movement but a movement in sync with the well-being of the collective. Of course, your personal life automatically gets well taken care of when you are aligned with the calling of your life-stream.
When you are highly “unconscious”, or when you have a low level of awareness, it’s normal to be totally lost in a narrow way of living, usually defining food, shopping, status and sex as the end all and be all of life. But as you become more aware, you start seeing beyond a surface-level way of living, and start integrating yourself with the guidance of your life-stream, in one sense it almost becomes “impersonal” because you realize that this is a movement of totality rather than just an individual movement, you sense a connection with the whole rather than just being focused on some narrow “conditioned” mind-created personal issues.
The reason why so many people are lost in their personal problems, and self-esteem issues, is because they are not willing to see beyond it towards their universal connection. They are so acutely focused on their own self-absorbing problems that they keep attracting the same narrow issues over and over again making a life out of it. This is one way of living life, but it’s a very limited way of living and it disconnects you from experiencing life in a far deeper and wholistic way, and it prevents your wholistic expression. The desires your mind has in this place are usually very narrow and mostly just a lackful way of thinking – like trying to show off to your neighbor (so basically they are not really desires but a part of negative thinking).
Realize that you are a creation of universal intent, you are far more than just an individual existence, you are connected to the whole and your purpose (the intent of your creation) is also connected to the whole. Allow yourself to see beyond your petty personal issues, no matter how big they seem to your mind in its narrow+conditioned vision, and start connecting more with your inner calling. Open up to allowing yourself to be moved by life, surrender yourself to your life-stream, and you will see how your narrow personal issues/fears are erased quite easily and your expression becomes in tune with your true calling. The broader desires, or thoughts of creation, you have in this place of connection have a sense of wholeness to them, which seems to be coming more from totality than just an individual perspective.
Sen another beautiful article. I want your personal opinion on something.
Hypothetically speaking if everyone were to have achieved this “awakening” do you think that our civilization would be as advanced as it is today with all this amazing technology and extremely efficient methods of doing things? I mean these are things that just a few yeas ago we as a people were not even able to conceive as possible and yet now we are fully enjoying them. Invention after invention that have been major catalysts in helping our society progress..
I would dare to say that the reason many, if not all the inventions that we have today can be owed to the fact that the person that did it, did so for their own personal glory to feed their ego, to win nobel peace prizes and entrepreneurship awards etc . etc..
If we crush the ego into oblivion doesn’t the motivation for self improvement go out the window? Wouldn’t this have a devastating by product as society will ultimately come to a halt.
Rafael, in the absence of an inner balance your personal reality will never feel harmonious no matter what you end up achieving, more over there will be a severe lack of wisdom in your movement. The power of “awareness” (which is what awakening is) leads to the presence of wisdom and a broader vision of life, it does not “crush” the ego rather it stops you from being lost in it, it allows for a harmonious expression of the ego. I am not sure what gave you the understanding that being conscious will stop you from being “creative”, on the contrary when you are conscious you are more creative and vibrant in your expression, along with the presence of wisdom. I’ve mentioned it in many posts that being conscious allows your “natural expression” to unfold with ease in the presence of a field of balance/wisdom, allowing you to be creative and to bring forth your ideas/inspirations into this world. Awakening does not make you a vegetable, it makes you a conscious human being who can align with an inner balance while allowing his/her creative expression to unfold. When you are conscious you are not limited by the negativity of the mind, you are not taken in by the unreasonable fears and limiting conditioning of the mind, it allows you to express more freely, it makes your mind more mature and wise, it allows you be in sync with the totality of life so that you work is not bringing a disharmony to the collective or to yourself.
Your reasoning that people made inventions to feed their ego is quite baseless, it’s the other way round. The inventions they made came from their natural expression, their inherent ability and their life’s purpose, if they were unconscious they used their natural ability to feel superior or they just became so lost in their expression that they became imbalanced in their personal life – usually ending up with some unhealthy conditions. This is a good example of what happens when one is not conscious, or awakened to the space of awareness, one just become imbalanced in some way. There are people who may be aligned with their natural expression, and inventing or creating realities, but become so lost in their expression that they become imbalanced in their body to the point of fatigue and decadence. In the absence of consciousness, there is a lack of harmony and wisdom. When you are conscious, you can align with your natural expression while also being balanced in your approach to life.
Awakening has nothing to do with crushing the ego into oblivion, it’s all about become free of imbalances and negativity, to live a wholesome life and express your creativity/potential in a harmonious manner. The more aware, awakened, humans there are, the more balance and well-being you see in the world around you, unconsciousness is the root cause of all negativity.
Thank for your insight much appreciated
I’m amazed at how your posts touch me. Thank you.
simply beautiful:)
Sen-
That was a great article and reply, it makes perfect sense. This is off topic but my question is.
I am self-employed and feel the need to let go and allow but worry at the same time that if I only take inspired action and not do any basic grunt work that I will not earn enough money to live on.
Do I need to just trust in the Universe now or do what I need to do until I reach the point of phase 4 (I feel like I am in phase 2)
Stephon, the problem lies with your belief which you can see is quite rooted in patterns of lackful thinking. Since your external reality is purely a reflection of your mind, your lackful thinking gets reflected in your external reality as less opportunities, less luck, low payments and uninspiring projects inspite of your talent and intelligence. Unless you shift your belief by letting go of believing in the negativity (lackful thinking) of the mind, you can’t see any big positive shifts in your reality. The principle of creation in this universe is based on “attraction”, it’s not based on “action” – just imagine how much action (man hours) would be required to construct something like the sun, or a star, or even a flower, these things are created out of “thought” and focus of consciousness on its thoughts of creation. Only unconscious human beings delve into blind, struggle-oriented, action (what you call appropriately as grunt work) in order to achieve their desire reality. When you are conscious, you start working on your mind, on your inner space, and start bringing it into alignment with what you desire, once you bring your inner space into alignment you will amazed to see the smooth shifts that start happening in your external reality – your actions start coming from a place of flow and you enjoy your waking hours through your creative expression, and savoring life experience, all in a balance.
It’s easy to just jump into blind action without taking the time to resolve the inner conflicts and resistances, but it will just give you very mediocre results, plus it will give you a negative experience of life. But when you take a little time to align within, and let go of your resistance, you open up to allowing your life-stream to flow freely through you and start experiencing a positive experience and reality. You are in the phase of understanding the principle of creation in life, and understanding your mind, and so in that sense you are in phase 2 but just allowing this understanding to sink in and allowing yourself to let go of some negative beliefs is enough to get you into phase 3 which will show you some positive shifts in reality, as you carry on letting go of inner resistance you will soon reach a place of inner-alignment which is what phase 4 living is all about.
Wow, fantastic thank you.
Sound advice. Needs to be sincerely practiced. Gool
Hi Sen,
This topic is entirely new to me and this is so brilliantly explained.
If we turn our vision away from the petty personal issues and if look at the totality of life which is beyond the issues, then there won’t be any depression or sorrow. But what will happen when we are aligned with the life stream? What difference we can feel when we are aligned? Please explain about universal intent of creation.
Thanks a lot
When you are aligned with your life stream you live out your natural expression, or the aspects of intention that you were born in. You also come to an inner place of wholeness because you are not longer focused on the narrow egoic negativity. If you’ve been living in a disconnected way, you cannot know what your natural expression feels like until you actually start letting go of identification with the pull of fear-based mind and allow yourself to connect with your inner guidance.
Sen,
Im a plumber/gasfitter (2 years in, so only 2 yrs left before I am fully certified). I got into this because its a really good way to make a (financial) success of myself fairly quickly. Only problem is that I hate it… But I now feel like I have to finish it because it’s a bit of a waste to quit now that I have put in two years, but I still have two years to go! I know it’s not what I want to do but it pays the bills and it feels like my only option at this point. What I really want to do is make music for a living, but it’s just to difficult to make any money off of it( for now at least)… So basically my question is, even with all these physical limitations, is it my own lack driven beliefs that is the cause of me doing what I hate? Is there a way out, with the law of attraction?
Thank you so much
Luka, the more you start letting go of fear-based thinking, the more resistance-free you become to the pull of your life-stream. Struggle is not a requirement in life, it’s just a choice a lot of people make in an unconscious way. The more conscious you become the less oriented you are towards struggle. It’s not possible to be conscious/aware and be oriented with struggle at the same time, because awareness brings a field of wisdom and it eventually moves you towards letting go of fear-based patterns which prompt the struggle. For now, instead of trying to figure out the best thing to pursue, just focus on bringing yourself to an inner alignment by letting go of the negative momentum in the mind. Once the negative momentum clears away, there is a lot of clarity in the mind and your vibration is more free of resistance allowing for the right inspirations to come through.
Sen,
Would it then make sense to change nothing (i,e, keep the same tedious job, stay single, not take any self improvement course, no art classes, not pursuing more meaningful friendships) and dedicate time to go within?
In time, trust I will be shown what to do, when to quit, which “physical” actions to take, etc?
I think the challenge is to deal with “what is” while we grow inside.
Reality is always created from inside to outside, so working on the inside is the main requirement for changing your external reality. You don’t have to force change anything on the outside, rather just spend time connecting with your inner space and work on releasing any momentum of resistance/negativity you have going within, as the inner resistance ebbs away the eternal reality starts reflecting state of inner wholeness by unfolding into your desired realities.
Sen ,
I am trying to understand your post above and it seems that aligning myself or connecting myself to the life stream is a solution to lot of issues big or small . I understand from your posts that practicing relaxed awareness is a method to achieve this. Is there any other way in addition to this ?
Also I have a lot of multiple random thoughts not necessarily negative , but random during relaxed awareness practice.is this normal and will thoughts come down as i practice more ?
Thanks
Amit
Amit, the practice of relaxed awareness simply points you to a state of staying open to what arises without resisting or fighting it. This is the only way to allow a release of past negativity, any resistance or suppression of what arises, in the form of negativity, causes you to keep re-cycling it within you and thus delay a release. As the momentum of negativity ebbs away, within you, you become more and more resistance free and thus come in alignment with your own life-stream’s pull which is always towards your natural expression and constant unfoldment towards your desired realities.
With time, the momentum of thoughts come down as does the “intensity” of the negative thoughts, this ensure that your inner space (your body) is not affected by the resistance created by these thoughts.
Thanks Sen………