One of the great challenges of the initiate is the balancing of the spiritual aspiration with the necessaries of mundane life. We are constantly forced to maintain life even while we seek to transcend it.
There seem two ways to resolve this issue. The first is to walk out into the world, leaving everything behind. This is indeed tempting, except the world is now owned a million ways, and by 7 billion people. The wild game is vanishing, the waters no longer fit for drinking, the weather variable, and the neighbors unsympathetic (and sometimes downright hostile). It seems the days of the minstrel and the pilgrim are over.
The second is a veritable balancing act.
In the modern world, it seems we must partition our mind, even as we seek to unify it. On the one hand, various roles are necessary as we earn a living. On the other, no act is too unseemly for the scoundrel. For while God will provide for the faithful, yet the unfaithful stir up circumstances to prevent Him. Even if one is somehow able to escape the fates, and transcend the influences pulled at by the lower soul, still the crowd is moved by it. In an unsteady sea, no matter how great your boat, sailing is difficult.
To make time requires discipline and preparedness. It takes courage and dedication. It seems you can be free of this requirement, and have all the time available, in three simple ways:
- Have nothing.
- Have everything.
- Do only what you love.
Most of us must pursue the third category. The problem arises in making what you love to do profitable enough to survive, to move unfettered by the circumstances of the crowd. More often than not, in the modern world, this is attained by some form of sales. Selling art, selling music, selling ideas, selling your time. But one thing is for sure, if you don’t love what you do, you will never do well. Yet the question remains, how can you sell love? How can you prostitute truth? Love only grows when it is given away. Truth is inviolable.
So, here’s my advice. To hit no. 1 become a monk. Become a vagrant. Be willing to be destitute, walk barefoot across an endless landscape of empty tires, plastic bags, and broken bottles. “Tune in, turn on, and drop out.” But the 60s failed.
For no. 2. inherit a fortune, make a billion dollars, conquer the world. This one never seems to work – by virtue of attaining the fortune, or the world, the focus is already lost, and the soul is destitute even amidst the lap of luxury. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.”
No. 3 really is the only option. To find love in everything, to love what you do, labor becomes joy. It takes great courage. How many of us spend the majority of our days in some dull, dead-end job, hoping to find meaning somewhere between the cracks where the cubicles join, or washed up beside the water cooler? To make the great decision means letting go of all false promises. If no one bought a dollar, the bank would go bust. Maybe it’s time to quit that job, and follow your heart. Say goodbye to the house, farewell to the mortgage, trust only in God and strike out after your dream. “Sweep someone’s house. That says enough,” Mother Teresa reminds us.
So what is you dream? What are the three things you most want? Write them down. If they in any way differ, you’re in trouble.