Part 3 - Living an Unreasonable Life

One woman told me that she is living in a seemingly endless dark night brought on by her destructive actions toward others. She has since come to see clearly the reasons why she acted as she did; yet that insight, no matter how personally transforming, can do nothing to change the past. Nevertheless, this is the sensation of awakening and the meaning of “the path is best not taken.” Waking up to your power to destroy, a power we celebrate continually in our society – in our athletes, in our soldiers, in any form of competition, in business, in entertainment – is one of the most pivotal choice moments in your life, from which, as this wise teaching of Muktananda continues, there is no going back. Once you consciously realize that you have the power to destroy others and that you consciously use that power, the realization emerges that you also have another and far more profound power within you – the power of love and compassion. I am not referring to the kind of personal love that you feel toward your family and friends. That is a love with which you are already familiar. I mean a level of love that is inherent in your mystical senses, a transcendent force that comes with the soul’s realization of its power of destruction versus its power of creation. This is the awakening to what the mystics call one’s true self, about which Muktananda and other great masters caution their students as they prepare to enter the path of illumination. Great spiritual teachers are not enthusiastic about their students’ walking the spiritual path. They do not turn to them and say, “Wonderful choice. Well done.” True masters warn their students and fill them with caution, because they know all too well that each student is destined to confront the crossroads of their own power of destruction and creation.

And here is a magnificent paradox. You would think – logically – that the more attractive choice, the more compelling and engaging choice would be that of your power to create, but it is not. The more seductive choice for most people is their power of destruction, because your fears would have you believe that it is better to destroy the unknown than to consider it a blessing in disguise. Fear comes long before the power of faith for most people. And, according to the realm of logic and reason, the power of love and compassion is an unreasonable choice, a fool’s choice that has no backbone and no immediate and forceful consequence in this physical world.

Yet, once you truly have an awakening to how destructive you can be, you also awaken to your potential as a channel for love and grace. I could tell you endless stories of the power of love and grace in terms of healing, and the changes that prayer and grace have brought about in the lives of others, but suffice to say at this point that until we truly face our compulsion to destroy, we cannot begin to comprehend our power to change this world through love and grace. For in recognizing how much you can destroy, you can then begin to imagine how much good you can do.

Swami Muktananda says that once you are awakened there is no going back, and that is the truth. Once you engage in the spiritual practice of withholding destruction and substituting compassion, you realize that you are perceiving your life from within. You are no longer relying on the limited scope of your five senses for input, but you have instead awakened the mystical senses from which you constantly draw guidance about meaning and purpose. Once attained, no one leaves that sweet interior Castle. Rather, you grow to count more and more on your mystical senses over the survival skills of your five senses, eventually recognizing that the five senses are for physical safety and your mystical senses for the acquisition of truth and meaning. You need both in order to thrive as a balanced human being.

One could say that giving up your power to destroy is among the most unreasonable choices you will ever make, as if you are turning off an instinct. But that is not so. Your instincts are to survive, not destroy. Recognizing this part of yourself, you are really acknowledging your profound relationship to creation and how that power expresses itself in every one of your actions. For if you have ever felt destroyed by the words or deeds of another person, imagine just for one moment how empowering that exchange could have been for you had those words been filled with love. Then recall words you have said and those on the receiving end of them, whether said in love or rage, and you can, even for one instant, imagine the power you hold within you. That is the force of creation itself in your soul.

1. Reflect on thoughts and actions that have been destructive in your life. What was said and what were the destructive consequences? Now consider just those words as a command of creation and measure the consequences in terms of your whole life. “You will never be able to learn….” and for the rest of your life you have not been able to study. How many people were “re-created” because someone uttered those words?
2. What words were said to you that created you anew?
3. When are you tempted to be destructive toward others and what are your methods?
4. How often do you excuse your own destructive behavior due to fear? Do you expect people to understand you if you use fear as an excuse? If you used anger, would you expect the same type of support?
5. Are you prepared to work with controlling that part of you that destroys when frightened or angry?

Reflect on these questions and consider once again the wise words of Swami Muktananda, “The mystical path is best not taken. But once begun, there is no turning back.”

I suspect most of you have already begun the journey.

Blessings,
Caroline

(Caroline Myss)