Most people hope to achieve comfort and security in
this life. To be comfortable and to feel safe are considered desirable. People
work hard to make money in order to try to secure a time when they can either take
a vacation or, in later years, retire “comfortably.” It is assumed that comfort
is a worthy goal.
It is exactly the opposite for the spiritual warrior. The
warrior knows that comfort and complacency are disguised demons that lure and
seduce one away from the flow of love that is the energized momentum of the
soul. This flow may or may not be comfortable. This flow does not designate one
way over the other; it does not distinguish one way as better than another. The
spiritual flow is realized by acceptance of everything. Comfort or discomfort are
accepted equally. The key is for the soul to learn how to accept everything
just as it is, without wanting anything in particular and without resisting any
challenge that may arise.
When the personality chooses comfort and complacency as a
fixed or desirable state of being, the flow is interrupted and stagnation sets
in. This state looks like one thing, but it is really another. From the outer
perspective, comfort looks so desirable and fulfilling. From the inner
perspective, however, when anything becomes fixed, it becomes an obstacle that
stops the flow of love from streaming forth. As soon as one wants to hold onto
anything—comfort, money, position, etc.—the energy gets backed up and the flow
ceases.
Money is a good example of this. People work hard to make money
and then work hard to keep it. The truth is that money is simply an energy. It
is one of the many, infinite resources that, if allowed to flow—with acceptance
as it flows in, and with gratitude
and letting go as it flows out—becomes a natural, stress-free cycle of grace.
If one fixates on money too much, it festers and turns into greed. Greed is a
feeling that says, This is all there is,
or, Someone may take this away from me,
so I have to hold onto as much of it as I can. It might also say, The more money I have, the more power and
control I will have.
Each person chooses, according to his or her own karmic
blueprint, which way to go. The paradox is that if you never want to be
without, then let go and give without strings attached. If you want to be safe and secure, then take risks and live outside your comfort zone. The key
to spiritual flow is exquisitely expressed in the prayer of St. Francis of
Assisi:
Lord, make me an
instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred,
let me sow love,
Where there is injury,
pardon,
Where there is doubt,
faith,
Where there is despair,
hope,
Where there is darkness,
light,
And where there is
sadness joy.
Grant that I might not
so much seek
to be consoled as to
console,
to be understood as to
understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in the giving
that we receive,
It is in the pardoning
that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.