Everything tries to sell you by telling you that you are lacking. Not sexy enough, not social enough, not rich enough, not smart enough. But if you buy this then BAM! You’ve got what you needed…for now. Until they just hook and reel you in using another insecurity.
People love to blame corporations, advertisers, and media for brainwashing us into the consumer society that we are. But while that may be so, if we weren’t looking for the right things in all the wrong places then we wouldn’t be so easily exploited and manipulated. Sexiness, social connection, success, intelligence, you should be able to realize and experience all of these things if you so desire. But without paying to be willingly enslaved.
The spiritual path has this single selling point: you have everything you need. While consumerism tells you that you are lacking, spiritualism shows you that there is nothing to lack.
Feel free to try and obtain anything your heart desires. But until you understand why you have those desires then you will simply be a slave to your longing. The objects of your desire are harmless. It is the desire itself that deludes your sanity.
Religion, as it is commonly regarded today, also provides a consumerist paradigm. Religion tells you that you are not in accord with the Divine, you are not walking in the Grace of God, unless you believe this. Unless you do that. Religion conditions you to think that you are lacking God. That God can only be found in churches and temples and ceremonies and hymns.
Spirituality isn’t the opposite of religion. There are many people who have brought their religion to life because they had Spirit. But spirituality helps the seeker to stand on his or her own two feet. The spiritual path puts you in direct contact, in direct communion, with the Divinity that is within you and all things. There are no priests, no middlemen to go through. There are only teachers to help us remember what they have remembered: your own Being.
The spiritual paths cannot be consumed. In fact, when you try to consume a spiritual path, the path ends up consuming you. And that is exactly what happened to me. I became consumed.
It is tempting to live in a way that is at odds with our society, to place blame on The Man and power systems. This is not to say such things are blameless. But no true and lasting outer change can and will occur until we have established our own inner freedom and peace and unity.
izzy806
blakekathryn
vaporwave
tangentwithtanner
jacobvanloon
