Hiding From Life

There are so many ways we hide from life, even beyond the the very obvious...

Drug, alcohol and other addictions are obvious ways to hide. Contrary to popular belief it's not necessarily the inebriating element of these things, but the fact that they completely mask our auras in a thick grey fog-like substance that stops us from feeling.

Fanatic dogma approach to life is a way to hide from life. Spiritual discipline was given to us for a reason - it creates a state of consciousness that uplifts us and connects us to the Infinite. It's a gentle connection that opens up the world of deep knowledge, clear intuition and spiritual growth. Fanaticism belies the effects of spiritual discipline. We get so stuck on the how (and then judging whether everyone else is doing it right) that we miss the point completely.

Resistance. Resistance is a huge and far more common way to hide from life that we can probably imagine. It's like a huge, "NO!" to life and then we get stuck in it. Resistance is the quagmire of stuckness, we drag, life becomes such a chore that we stop bothering and on some level we stop living. Worst - because it's so hidden, we often don't notice it. We just stop, bit by bit, having fun, enjoying life, experiencing joy, and engaging in activities that bring us joy. Life becomes joyless and we think it's the world, when really it's our resistance.

Living everywhere but in the moment. Living in the past and in the future are also far more common than we know. We get stuck on a moment in time that we deem "safe" and it becomes the focal point of all of the rest of our life. Either it is some past experience (and sometimes it's one we have painted over and looks alot better now than it really was), or it is some future ideal that we are striving for. All the while missing out on the infinite beauty of this very moment we find ourselves in.

And these are only SOME ways we hide from life - there are endless ways we do it. But there is only one reason and that is fear.

The only antidote to fear is love.

No, love isn't an easy practice, but it is the purest and it will take you the farthest in life. It requires us to drop judgment, to drop that we think we know everything best, to drop expectation and to let go of our own egos enough to embrace what is as the ultimate gift in life. That's not easy, but it is so, so worth it.

Life has so much for us and we have so much for life. Why hide?

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop