I was thinking how people today (and perhaps for many hundreds or thousands of years) have been stuck in a loop… a sort of merry-go-round that when you look at it with perspective, isn’t so merry.
What is this stuckness? What is this loop? Why are we here? Why are we stuck? Why do we continue to go round and round, doing the same things in every aspect of life - business, relationships, politics, sports, entertainment, culture, religion, etc. - and expecting a different result? Why do we continue to think that the NEXT time, it will be different?
This stickiness couldn’t be more evident than in the unending quest for more going on in the world today…
Be more.
Get more.
Score more.
Win more.
Accelerate more.
Find more.
Learn more.
Be more productive.
Be seen more.
Be accepted by more
Be invited to more.
Make more.
Train more.
Live more.
Explore more.
Do more.
Have more.
We live by the axiom that if whatever we have is good, more must be better.
I just took the trip of a lifetime, it was nice and all, but I can’t wait for the NEXT one.
I just bought my first condo. It’s great. Exciting, even. But I’m already starting to look for something bigger and better.
That promotion I got? That was a nice and all, but I’m still not making enough… I need more money so that I’ll really feel like I can keep up and prove I’m worthy of being in the club.
Sure, hitting my goal of 50k followers on Instagram was great, but definitely not enough. I won’t be satisfied until I get to my real goal of 500k… that’s when I’m a real IG influencer and what I’m really shooting for.
Each time we take a step forward on this path, we forget that that last step we took, just moments before, was a step into more.
It’s like we have amnesia. Never satisfied. It’s what the Buddhist’s refer to as hungry ghosts.
We’re being held here by some invisible force… the force of desire. This force is so powerful and elusive that we don’t see that it’s even present. In fact, it’s so good at it’s game of trickery, that when we’re asked, we deny that it’s holding us captive, and we’d be right, because we don’t even see it. We look out at the world and think, we have all the freedom to choose any way we want to.
But in reality, we don’t. This invisible force has it’s hooks in us and wields incredible power over - like the Nazi prison guards over the Jews at Auschwitz. But its power is even greater, because we don’t realize that it’s holding us here.
Not only does it hold us here, it’s got us convinced that being in this prison, with walls higher, and bars thicker than Leavenworth, is exactly where we WANT to be…. that the quest for more (the prison) is in our best interest… that we’ll finally break out by finding what we’re looking for… by overturning just one more stone… always the next one.
We believe that our desire WILL be satisfied by the next ________ (car, house, job, city, relationship, promotion, win, race medal, trip, etc). And yet, when we get that next ______, we forget almost immediately, re-focusing again on what is still off in the horizon.
But wait a second…
Is all of this to say that having goals is bad? That we shouldn’t want for more? That we shouldn’t set our sights high? That we shouldn’t strive to be better, wealthier, happier? That the answer we’re searching for is to rid ourselves of desire and all the ways we want to make our lives better?
The answer is both yes, and no.
When the predominant view we have of ourselves is that we are, in some way, shape, or form, lacking, and that we come from a place of insecurity, scarcity, or inadequacy, that becomes the medium inside of which we live. And when we live there, we don’t have the ability to see anything other than that. It’s like a fish that is swimming in water… it doesn’t have the ability to see things the way they look outside of water, because they LIVE in that medium.
When we live in this insecure, scarce, and inadequate medium, and we think, feel, see, hear, taste, and smell ourselves that way, which has us feeling crappy, unsatisfied, and less-than. So the ONLY option we’ve got to feel better, happy, or satisfied is to prove to ourselves that we are NOT insecure, scarce, or inadequate. Hence the incessant drive and insatiable desire for more.
However, because we’re still living in that medium, the moment after we prove to ourselves that we are, in fact, not inadequate, we revert back to feeling like we are… and the cycle continues.
The way out?
See the cycle for what it is. Wake up to it by consciously looking for it. Be the witness of your life, your actions, your triggers, and judgments. Create enoughness as a FREQUENCY inside of you. Accept things as they are. Know that there is nowhere to get to, that where you are right now is all there is. Find stability and peace in the present moment and use that as a strong foundation from which to step forward into your created future. And that is where your vision, goals, manifestations, and actions come in… but only after you’ve rooted yourself in a clear and present present.
Simple, yes. Easy, no. But it is doable. It IS the way out (through). And if the world that we live in today has any hope of evolving into higher levels of truth, spirit, and consciousness, it IS the way.
You can do it. I believe in you.
With loving,
Andy
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Great read. No more.
Check out this video "Why you are not happy" by Matthew McCoughaney. Fits right in with this.