Meditation for December 7th
The Spiritual Path is Really Hard
Maybe, looking at a spiritual person, it seems easy to walk down a spiritual path. Perhaps you think it’s just sitting on top of mountains and contemplating clouds and shit. Well, being in a league of my own in the spirit realm, I can tell you that it’s a lot tougher than it looks.
I can never let up on my practice, or I will revert to my natural state, which is a selfish, vicious animal who fights for food, sex, and territory. Every blessed day, I have to act according to a higher calling, not from my mere primal instincts. We believe that we are separate from animals, but instincts are the same, so if we don’t have a spiritual way of life, we succumb to our wildest base, and that is a filthy animal.
I spent many years collecting. I collected comic books, records, books, clothes, and other non-essential items. I also collected ideas, opinions, morals, and philosophies. Now that I grow old, I was born in the fall of 1976, so that makes me in my 74th year, so I now lose the things I collected. I don’t need any of those things anymore. We grow up collecting, and then we slowly die giving those things away so that we are nothing. Spirituality is becoming nothing sooner.
I must remain non-violent. To grow, I must shed the armor and weapons I have collected. That is mainly anger. Anger is violence and escape. I let fear harm other people. How can I allow something I fear to remain on this earth? To walk down a spiritual path, I can’t react to fear. Fear is the dubious luxury of small dogs and old white people watching people of color move in next door.
I must remain truthful. Lying is also a demon-controlled arm of fear. It is a shield. Lies cocoon me in a warm embrace. I need to stay outside that cocoon with my truth. I must stand naked to the world, and while I tell no lie, I can then achieve knowledge and freedom. Clothes are also lies, lies that I want to present to other people, to be honest, honestly, I have to be literally naked, your Honor.
To live a spiritual life, I have to make honesty a commitment. Lying, hiding, omitting, or manipulating the truth only delivers me to the life of a wild dog crawling on my tummy and begging for what isn’t mine. I also must seek honesty. I can’t just allow what is to be what is, but why? I need to find the heart of all things.
My senses must be made moderate. I cannot allow one of my senses to run away with me and my fears. I can’t always be needing more and more, because tomorrow I won’t have any more. I can’t blow my entire paycheck when I get it because I had no money the day before. An animal will eat the whole carcass and then be defenseless while trying to digest it. Eat a little, store the rest. Fear the jackyls, for the scavengrs will take what’s not theirs.
I must eat and sleep like I am a walking temple. I can’t eat fat, sugar, and carbs every meal. I can’t treat food like a source of energy that keeps me from getting hungry. I need food to be part of a spiritual path. Eating should be meditation. Cooking is a real prayer. Eating with intentions and with relish. What does it taste like? How does each bite feel in my mouth? Why is everyone staring at me in this McDonald’s while I moan loudly, eating this Scottish burger?
There are things that I covet. I want more than I have. I like different things from the things I have. I am always looking for a greener pasture. I am always sure that if I had this and that, I would finally be able to be what I want to be. If I keep that kind of materialistic thinking, I will run out of time. I am not what I was supposed to be; instead, I am the guy with potential. Live within my means, if I can. I don’t need a ship with cannons.
Fear is dark and lonely. It can permeate every decision I make. I will sit in the dark on a pile of things, seething at the thought that you have something I don’t have. Fear can make me dishonest and isolated.
Fear is why the world is the way it is.
The only thing that combats fear is love. Not the Matthew McConaughey-and-Kate-Hudson kind of love, but an unconditional love.
Love can guide a person in any situation because it is more predictable than fear. Fear requires a math degree to overcome the odds that something bad will happen to you.
Love is non-violent and honest. Love is truth. I am 110% sure there are no Gods, but if you must have inspiration to get through your day, don’t think of a lake of fire, but think of love.
Love draws you to others. Love allows you to sacrifice yourself for others rather than taking from others.
The whole answer to the world’s problems is love.
The spiritual path is leading me to a place where I can love without hesitation or need for compensation. It isn’t easy. In fact, it is more complicated than most things. Being in a place of constant love is more complex than quitting smoking.
I am a violent, dishonest, fearful animal who keeps making all of his decisions. Asked about fear. This happens less and less as I keep trying to walk down this spiritual path.
Laughter is a great way to warm a person’s heart. If anything comes out of this year of Meditations, I hope that I have made someone laugh. Laughter is love.
Without laughter, the spiritual path would be too hard.
Prayer
Thoth,
Let me be free of the fear,
That to let go of self,
To forget self,
So that I can shed the layers,
Of myself,
Till I am just a soul.
Amen
Craft
Write everything you don’t like about yourself. Then write the opposite of those things. Start doing those things instead.
Goal
The spiritual life is hard and can seem impossible, but why not just try to be a better person?