Love-letter from September 2022
September has been quite a busy month for me and as an act of survival, I had to become more fluid and cooperative with all that has been going on for me and around me. This made me ponder on how well I am able to be in the flow or what are the ways in which I resist life.
To resist there has to be a force against which we can apply another force in the opposite direction. It is not difficult to see that the “force” we can talk about here is the purpose of life. If life would have zero purpose then the unfoldment of the events would be random and hence any of our actions would simply direct those events in some way and there would not be any difference in which way we would choose to act.
You have probably heard the term “being in a flow”. This also presumes that you can also not be in a flow and hence the series of actions that you are taking requires more effort on your part to be able to achieve your desired results. In most cases when the so-called flow state is mentioned it mostly means that my day or life flows with less effort in my desired direction. We might say that we feel supported by our environment and relationships.
Notice the order of cause and effect - we feel supported by life as opposed to we are supporting life. Clearly, the whole world out there is for us to get what we want the way we want! If we do get it then we are supported and in the flow. It rarely occurs to us that perhaps it is the other way around - we are supporting life when our life seems to unfold with relative ease. But then again this is a statement that life should have a purpose that we can support.
From a human point of view, when we choose to accomplish something, for example, build a home, then this becomes our purpose for the time being. We are not able to perceive the purpose of life and hence a logical conclusion is that we must be the masters of life on Earth if not in the entire universe. We can set our purpose while life for sure has none. Isn't this a bit arrogant view on the mystery of life?
One of the reasons why it seems that we can have life on our own terms is because we seem to have a lot of freedom. I can wake up an hour earlier or later, go to work by bus or car, pick this shirt or the other shirt, etc. However, notice that all this freedom we have is in the visible physical world. That gives us the hint that perhaps life is not mainly about the physical world. It is more about the beings that inhabit this physical plane or if you would look more carefully, about all beings that make up this world.
Purpose and awareness
If you think about purpose then this presumes awareness. Humans have awareness and hence they can set the purpose of their actions. If we say that life has a purpose then this also means that there must be a greater awareness in the universe that can make decisions in its own way. It is also only logical that greater awareness can create or should include lesser awareness and not the other way around.
As we are all interconnected and interdependent and interrelated then our evolution of awareness is linked to the universal evolution of awareness. How could we measure the growth of awareness? If we think about humans then what can we tell about our evolution of awareness based on physical things that we have created? Definitely, we can tell something based on this. We can tell how capable we are of handling the physical world. What is more difficult to see are the qualities of awareness the person is capable of using. For example, is this person persistent in his actions or does he keep commitments?
Our qualities of awareness are not invented by humans. They come from life itself. As greater awareness encompasses all the lesser ones inside it then becomes visible that the greater evolutions of awareness are dependent on the progress of its smaller components. Hence we are the units of evolving greater awareness through our daily use of our own awareness.
Life is aware of itself and has chosen goals as we do in our little lives. Its purpose is to evolve its own awareness in chosen directions and in chosen order. This sets the scene for us as smaller units of awareness. In this context if you feel supported by life in the direction you have set yourself and hence feel being in the flow then it means that you are aligned with the priorities of the greater awareness.
Coming back to resisting means that we have set our own priorities in a different direction and hence go against the flow of life, like swimming against the current. We resist acknowledging that we should be following life in the greater scheme of things.
Life does not care whether you want to build a house or chop the wood for your fireplace but it does care what aspects of awareness you are evolving doing those things. It is how we do things rather than what are those things that we materialize. Once again we see that it is the journey that matters and not if we are successful or not with our outcomes.
Needs vs wants
You have perhaps heard of Maslow’s pyramid of human needs. It is interesting to note that the lower end of the pyramid is more related to the physical world and the higher is more about experiencing and expressing our awareness. However, even when you are fighting for survival and need to find food for yourself the importance of how is still there.
If you want to solve this challenge by aggression and simply take the food from others by force then depending on what is the evolutionary priority of your development in awareness, you will either succeed without any significant drawbacks or you will create more suffering for yourself through such a choice of behavior.
If you are supposed to evolve the quality of humility then using domineering behaviors will be resisting life and hence you will be brought face to face with other difficult situations until you start to cooperate with the need of your greater part within yourself.
Relating this to the needs and wants it becomes a good question - do I need a new car or do I want a new car? Is it needing something that increases friction in life or is it wanting? There are two dimensions looking upon this topic. One is related to survival. If my physical existence is dependent on this then definitely we can say that it is a true need of yours. We all need air, water, and food in order to survive. As you see then from this dimension there are not really that many things we need in order to live on Earth. Does everything else then classify as wanting? Not so.
There is another dimension to needing. And that connects to what we have been exploring earlier - what is the quality of awareness life is waiting for us to develop? Is it to be more forceful in our actions and hence learn to use the quality of strength or is it understanding the use of humility?
If I have acquired the behavior of being Mr. Nice Guy all the time then life might indicate to me that now I need to develop another quality in relationships - perhaps becoming more honest. Then we can say that my need is to learn honesty.
Coming back to the example of needing a new car or wanting a new car, we can see that unless we are not going to die without a car then this is not a need from the angle of survival. Can it be a need in the angle of quality of awareness? Of course, it can. To find it out you must ask yourself - if I buy this new car then what quality of mine is going to be increased.
Is it self-respect as my old car looks more like a broken washing machine? Or is it a sense of responsibility as I need to take care of my growing number of family members? Or is it pride as I feel shame when others see me driving in my current car?
If you discovered your answer and let's say it was for self-respect then you can double check this need from the mirrors around you. Scan through your interactions in the last week and see if you noticed others showing signs of lack of self-respect. If you did, then you are on the right track. If you do not see a lack of self-respect in your mirrors then perhaps you need to ponder once more on this motive of yours.
Self-honesty is a must
From the example above you can see easily that unless you have the ability to honestly assess yourself, your motives, and your behavior then you are unable to determine what is your true need. Since we are all inherently dishonest because of our S.I.N. this quality has to be developed over time and hence it becomes easier to identify our true needs.
Have you already got your answer if it is needing or wanting that increases the resistance to life? If you take care of your needs in terms of survival and in terms of developing the needed aspect of yours then clearly this will lead you to be in harmony with the life around you and hence you will experience a state of flow, less resistance. So the rule of thumb is always to follow your needs and the universe will be there to guide you as you are supporting the universe and life always maintains the give and take balance. You give to life and life gives to you.
Does it make wanting a bad thing? Clearly not. Wanting is a really necessary skill of ours. Wanting is developing our will and that is a crucial part of our human being. However, the important aspect is how we are applying this fundamental skill of ours. Are you wanting something that is aligned with your needs or something that goes the opposite direction? It is not difficult to see that the resistance to life is almost always a result of the misalignment between your true needs and your wants.
To be in more harmony with your life and hence in a flow you need to assess your wants from the angle of the qualities of awareness. We may want physical things or all sorts of experiences but unless you assess those things and activities in terms of human qualities you will lack clarity on which degree you are resisting life or flowing with it.
Wanting is tightly related to hunting. If I want a new car then I start taking action to make it a reality hence we can say you are hunting for a new car. If your focus is on the physical thing and you do not really pay attention to your expression of awareness then this can improve your physical life. Depending on your experience with cars you will evolve your awareness either to a smaller or greater degree.
Every experience of ours increases our knowledge, that is our personal power. Therefore if I have bought ten cars already in the past then my knowledge bank in this area of life does not increase significantly. Hence we can say that I am hunting for improved living conditions as opposed to having more personal power. So if I am doing something at which I am already great, new qualities of awareness do not evolve. My normal doing does not add to my personal power bank.
However, you can switch priorities and hunt those experiences with which you are not that familiar with and when you do it from the angle of your true needs then your hunting for better living conditions turns into hunting for more personal power. Your journey upon this planet can become a masterpiece and your interactions with life around and within you will become a love affair.
Our evolving awareness is the food for greater awareness around us. As humans are farming crops and keeping livestock to sustain and enhance our livelihood, so does the greater world. The harvesting time is the time of death for plants and animals, and so it is also with us. We need food at a certain rate and the world needs food at a certain rate.
Because we as humans do not follow our true needs and do not willingly hunt for personal power, we are low-quality food for greater Life. Hence Life needs to increase the livestock and harvest very early compared to our true potential. This It does through the medium of diseases, wars, and accidents.
We can do so much more if we only decrease our resistance to life. What is love if it is not flowing with life, if it is not becoming honest with our true needs, and if it is not wanting to put the needed effort to evolve those parts of ourselves that are so much needed in our current world?
With Love, Rein
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