Inasmuch as I consider myself self-aware I also know that I don’t know what I don’t yet know.

Becoming an expert means having studied and/or practiced something for 10,000 hours so I must be a human-nature/psychology/midlife-crisis/messed-up/self-help guru by now.

Yet, here I am—stumped.

I have moments and sometimes days of “people weariness” and wonder what the fix is. Some are consciously aware, observant as opposed to judgmental, but many live in an un-awakened state. Un-awakened is to say they don’t know the suffering they cause themselves, the earth and others. (Hypocrisy noted.)

If we’re to agree with the idea that all energy is tangible and we manifest the goings on in our lives then we must be responsible for attracting—or being attracted to—those that are still in slumber.

I read somewhere that we attract our emotional equal. If this is true, then that explains why some of us keep jumping back on this merry-go-wrong. We know better consciously but still surrounded ourselves with less ‘enlightened’ beings. Are we simply outnumbered by the out-of-touch?

I abash my own seeming self-righteousness in writing this but let me propose that I hold no smugness, only curiosity—I’m as messed up as the next sentient being. I’m just highly aware of it—though wholly no better (or worse) than anyone who isn’t as “spiritually enlightened”. (Then again, I could be delusional. Refer back to do not know what we do not know.)

Awareness and consciousness don’t automatically assume spiritual illumination. Knowledge is only one step in the process. Just because we’re aware of our ego doesn’t mean we’ve tamed it.

Is life a test? What are we supposed to learn? To be quiet? To be accepting? To just ‘be’?

Even in a community as progressively expansive as elephantjournal, there is the unconscious collective—those with a glimmer of awareness, but in practical terms also dipping their tentative toes at the edge of the love-is-the-answer lake. I often see angry, chastising comments that lack awareness/consciousness never mind love or acceptance or even respect at times.

Eckhart Tolle talks about our ego and the “painbody”, what I think of as our I’m Taking This Personally reactions. (I’ll take my lumps for engaging both though I’m quicker to recover these days.)

Eckhart, Chopra, the Dali Llama, Don Miguel Ruiz—our spiritual leaders make loving practice seem so facile and fluid. If unconsciousness is based in innocent ignorance and often (author’s supposition) negativity derived from fear, and consciousness is love, does this mean that those who have arrived at that level are hiding out—which is to say they are simply being? Without need of others?

“Hell is other people.” ~ John-Paule Sartre (1905-1980.)

Every book I’ve read on the topic tells us that communication and connection with others is vital to our well-being. Yet if and when we ‘get there’ there won’t be much left to talk about. If we were all to transcend, the world could become a rather quiet place. Perhaps we would un-evolve and go back to foraging for food and fornicating. (Doesn’t sound that bad to me.)

If we eliminate everything opposite to love there would be no war, no money, no status, no competition, no unnecessary consumables. (No fashion, no cars, no Frito-lays.) Not sure I’m ready for that.

If love is the answer how do we rise above one of our basic human requisites—others? How do we transcend the need to accept (seek out?) companionship even in its meager memes? We can’t all share quiet space with Tolle.

Complainers are drainers, Negative Nellies are a nuisance and the close-minded require too much mindfulness. It’s exhausting. It also seems unproductive and ineffective. Are three fingers pointing back at me in projection? There must be.

“You’ll see it when you believe it.” ~ Wayne Dyer.

We create our own perceptions and vibrate under a certain frequency that manifests more of what matches that wavelength.

In my ego and arrogance there has been a strong compulsion to want to ‘educate’ and ‘inspire’ wayward souls. In my arrogance I mean well but to survive and thrive in this life surrounded by unconsciousness, love remains the answer. Everything must stem from that and there is no place for ego’s “helping others evolve”.

We must—I must—start the ripple in the pond. The current flows—it’s a collective pond after all.

How to see in this sea of unconsciousness is to choose to see the best in others, to see our interconnectedness, to see the love we each exude. And to be the Light that silently inspires.

When we light the darkness, the path of illumination is automatically lit for others.

Namaste.

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: Photo: Sweet Buttermilk / Deviantart