What Are We Really Here For?
Have you ever sincerely asked, “What are we doing here in this life of ours”? or “What’s the real purpose of our daily existence?” I used to think it was for things like growing-up, getting an education, gaining financial security, finding the perfect partner and raising kids. While all these things have their place in life, I grew to realize that they were not of themselves the reason for my existence; and that all they really were was a means by which I gained a ‘sense of self’. Not aware of this at the time, I thought that this ‘sense of self’ was in fact my real and only self. And I also believed that my life and all my relationships were just as real. Isn’t that what most of us believe?
An unquenchable thirst for love and meaning led me onto the New Age trail in an attempt to find happiness, abundance, healing and love. After years of crystals, Native American healing, therapy, books, and workshops, I finally discovered that none of these would or could deliver the depth and permanence of what I was looking for. And why not? Because I, like so many spiritual seekers, didn’t even know what I was looking for! I thought I knew however the ‘I’ that was making all my decisions was the ego. That was my familiar identity, the one with a personal history; she was a mother, a wife and a business woman. This ‘me’ took things personally and really believed she knew her own best interests as well as what would be good for others. She loved helping people but didn’t know how to draw healthy boundaries, so she inevitably became a victim. What I wanted was to find happiness and love yet I wasn’t aware that the false-self (ego) can never attain real love or happiness. I still believed that if my partner could be more loving, my mother less critical, my job less stressful and my finances more abundant then finally I’d be happier. I’d gain more faith and I’d be a prime example of spiritual empowerment. While I’d been many years on my spiritual journey, I hadn’t yet taken the first-step to spiritual freedom, because I still believed the world and everyone in it existed independently of my own mind. I saw reality as outside me, especially mean people and bad situations. My happiness depended on people and circumstances being to my egos liking. My faith increased when things went well while it disappeared in the face of conflict or struggle.
When you begin to awaken, you really want to improve your life; you want more love, connection, happiness, abundance, etc. And it never occurs to you to question just ‘who’s’ doing all this seeking and desiring. You just believe the ‘you’ that you think you are: a) is your True Self and b) actually knows it’s own best interests. Yet it’s not until later that you begin to question the ego and discern between Truth and ego.
As we evolve we come to realize that while our life may seem to be improving, there’s still an emptiness lurking and our times of peace are invariably spattered with moments of dread, guilt, anger and frustration. Unfortunately, it’s not until we experience some type of crisis such as a relationship break-up, accident, breakdown, career set-back or death, that the next and necessary step to ‘awakening’ occurs. “But why the painful way?”, you might ask. “I asked to grow through joy, not pain!” The fact is that while we still have our false-self (ego) in tact, it means that this identity is our major decision maker. It can’t recognize love, joy or true healing, so it will always lead us away from what will really heal us and bring joy. That’s its nature… it loves pain and drama and wants to retain autonomy to keep you from discovering just ‘who’ you really are. If you experience adversity it’s always a call for ego-surrender in some way. Nothing ever occurs without some beneficial lesson attached. The ego hangs on to dysfunctional things, habits, relationships and circumstances all the while convincing you that it’s OK. So much of what we automatically think makes us feel safe, loved or secure, is actually detrimental to us and when we initiate true spiritual growth the Universal Inspiration wastes no time in bringing positive change. Unfortunately, the ego resists these changes, insisting that loss and sacrifice will follow. The advanced student who has experienced these necessary changes, sees that we needed to un-learn the ego’s value system and embrace what we’ve been searching so deeply for; Love, Joy and Peace. Everyone on the spiritual journey is searching for Infinite Love and the initial conflict we endure is caused by our inability to recognize Real Love and we the ego, are therefore fearful of it.
The next step in awakening is to take responsibility for everything we create (without guilt!) and that includes our collective world dramas. As A Course in Miracles teaches, God is all loving and being so, would never condone pain, death and conflict. Adversity is not a part of God Consciousness; in fact this entire world of birth and death is not a creation of God, but of the ego. The only parts of this world that are real are expressions of love; all else is illusion. As the Course explains, we dreamt that we separated from God and the ego-self made up a world so we could escape from our massive guilt and God’s imagined wrath. Humanity appears as separate beings yet in truth we are ONE. Your Unified Self within is the same Unified Self in everyone.
As we wake-up, we also realize that the fastest way to real Love, Joy and Peace is to recognize others as ‘who’ they really are, the Unified Self. Their ego will always reveal a mirror of whatever needs recognition and healing within us. We just have to observe our reaction to the egos of others. That’s why our greatest teachers are those in our lives who really press our buttons. We all have them. Our greatest challenge individually and collectively is to heal the mountain of submerged guilt we all carry from the separation. This guilt is so huge as to be projected outside our minds onto others, so we can offload our unconscious guilt by judging others.
Quantum forgiveness of self and others is the fundamental key to ‘awakening’ and enlightenment; recognizing that any perceived transgression is always a product of the ego and ego is the illusory aspect of a real person. Overlook the illusory ego-error and see the Unified Self beneath. This Miracle heals your own unconscious guilt and illuminates your life. Conventional forgiveness cannot heal, because it insists that the ego error, the person’s ego and your own ego (only the ego can take offence) are all real. The insane ego cycle is never broken apart from one person seeing Truth beneath the illusion.
As we evolve we come to recognize that all the roles we play in life are not the purpose of life. Waking-up, we see that our true purpose is to undo the ego dream and we’re all blessed with just the right people and situations to press our buttons, giving us the fastest ticket Home. How? By offering us an abundance of ‘forgiveness lessons’!
By Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Vieira, authors of the soon to be released book, 'Take Me to Truth, Undoing the Ego’.
Contact Nouk and Tomas at: info@takemetotruth.com