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A Spiritual Hoodwink

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‘Once you discover who you are, you’re home.’
‘Just keeping looking in this direction and you’ll discover your true self.’

There are so many spiritual ideas and concepts around that help distract us from the experience of being human. Yet those distractions, as compelling as they seem, can imprison us in a pseudo-spiritual search for a freedom in which we already live.

You don’t need to look in any direction to feel good. You don’t need to know who you are, what you are, from where you came, where you’re going, where is spiritual home, that you’re love, the universe, God, oneness or one, a spiritual being having a human experience, not your thoughts or ego, that you’re consciousness, or the all being, stardust or moon shadow.

You don’t need to know anything.

You need not listen to other people’s ideas and concepts of where to look, ideas that once you discover who you are you will also find some kind of knowing that brings peace and love.

That’s just yet another idea, one that many chase.

You can NEVER know who you are, and anyone suggesting you look in this direction is suggesting you look for something that cannot be found.

At best, you may discover a feeling, a very nice one too, something that looks beyond all feelings you had before, something beyond words, a feeling of home, a knowing, the poetry of Love.

It’s like Kool-Aid or spiritual cocaine. And once I’ve had my hit I’m gonna preach and sell it to you too…

But you wont have found you or who you are. The suggestion that you will is one of the greatest hoodwinks ever. It’s fooled most of even the most redeemed spiritual teachers, and simply encourages people to look for a reason to feel freedom and peace.

‘Now I get a sense of x’ (who I am) ‘I feel y’ (peace, love, freedom.)
Now I have a deep and meaningful reason to feel something.

What if you relinquish this quest to know who you are? What if you don’t need to know? What if peace, love, freedom, connection, unity, trust, creativity, and any other sales benefit listed in discovering who you are, are available to you right now without you needing to find, discover or understand anything?

What if there’s absolutely no need to discover anything to feel happy? And furthermore, what if it’s completely okay to not feel happy? What if it’s completely okay to not have a fucking clue about anything? What if we won’t find out who we are, who or what God, or love is until some indeterminate time later, maybe after this lifetime? Maybe never.

What if it really doesn’t matter and these are all just nice ideas?

What if all this searching, looking in a direction and preaching is distracting you from the one single thing you are here to do - life your life as a fallible, emotional-farting human being. Perhaps one who is not constantly trying to get in touch with whatever you are beyond that humanness?

What if you’re here to live life without knowing and understanding?

What if you’re here to feel good and bad, happy and sad, separate and ‘one’, lost and found, confused and clear, peace and anger, zen and, er, whatever is the opposite of zen, (which apparently is also zen...)?

Namaste Bitch!

What if you can feel all of that stuff without it meaning anything at all about who you truly are, without any of it being an invitation to embark on an endless quest for some kind of understanding?

What if it really doesn’t matter who or what you are, you’re just here to live and have all the experiences that life offers you?

What if you were not afraid of your experiences, and then, sometimes you were?

What if, instead of your quest for discovery of who or what you are and your searching and striving for a feeling, you were simply human, having very little clue about anything, had no idea who or what you are, and it just doesn’t matter?

That looks like true freedom to me.

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Photo by Jaroslav Devia on Unsplash
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