What does it mean to occupy ourselves and engage in a spiritual path or to live a truly non-ordinary life?
As we know, the meaning changes as we change, as we understand ourselves and Reality more deeply.
We have spent some time investigating what motivates us to engage in the Inner Work, to practice awakening and discovering the truth about ourselves and Reality. We have seen that the Work requires effort, dedication and consent, and many are not motivated to practice at all. Most are not inclined to care about the quality of their consxiousness, because they do not think it is a problem, or that it is possible to do anything about it. Their attention is captured outward: others, activities and situations in life, where they think they will find what they are looking for.
These aspects should never be blamed or judged as negative, because everyone is given the opportunity to choose their own life; one aspires to know oneself when the conditions are truly ripe.
At a certain point, an inner turning point occurs and we develop interest in Spiritual Work, the desire to practice arises in us. At the beginning, the motivation is very much centered on the ego and its needs: it is inevitable, because the sense of what we are is still based on it. It is perfectly normal and natural, for everyone. Then, with the development and maturation of the practice, with a greater understanding of Reality, we begin to experience a less and less egocentric motivation. Then the practice begins to express Love, Dignity, Compassion, Kindness, Value, Service, the ability to give and generosity.
These virtues manifest in us because we are increasingly oriented towards
the absence of egoic competitiveness, we are open to a living, true and impersonal state.
Evolving further, the motivation to practice has completely transcended. We no longer need it. This does not mean that Love, Compassion and Service are useless: it means that practice no longer depends on a motivation, it is not subordinated to it, whether it is selfish or altruistic. On the other hand, it is good to consider that “practice is not for Realization, but is Realization”.
This is our challenge to the conventional idea of practicing to become awakened and enlightened beings. If we do it with the intention of achieving Realization, we have a purpose, a goal in mind. We feel motivated to continue, we see a particular result in front of us that invites us to proceed in a certain direction. But understanding that practice is already Realization shows us the folly of thinking that Work is not an end, but a way of Being, a style of Life with which to experience Reality.
Realization here is the impersonal state that every conscious man and woman experiences while consciously participating in Reality, awakening its Creation.
