She Works Hard To ‘Awaken,’ So You Better Treat Her Right!

The common denominator of the ego’s “reality” is constructed entirely from limit, lack, loss, scarcity or, more to the point, deprivation. Deprivation is the ruling paradigm and why all your moments of “happiness” must dissolve, since loss and deprivation are the FOUNDATION of every experience you have (and why you have NEEDS in the first place.). However, in order to relieve deprivation, the ego-self is committed to a “life” of SACRIFICE, which only further reinforces the experience of deprivation as REAL.

Essentially, your spiritual reality is NO different from your economic reality.  “Awakening,” or “enlightenment,” is a scarce “spiritual” resource and, in terms of resource allocation, experiences of "non-duality” or “enlightenment” are limited, which means that my gain is your loss. My attainment always reflects your lack thereof and keeps the egocentric system of deprivation and needs rolling along smoothly. However, the rule of the game is that “enlightenment” or “awakening” is not legitimate unless you can prove to others that it’s genuine. Thus, we have millions of internet characters seeking to prove to you the legitimacy of their awakened state.

I imagine this may make you angry. Especially if you’ve been sacrificing for years to achieve that coveted “Non-Dual” experience, that whiz-bang “enlightened” state, your “awakening to truth.”

You work hard for enlightenment, so I better treat you right!

We exist in a world conditioned almost entirely on struggle and sacrifice or "no pain, no gain." Happiness is not a precondition or a given. It must be ‘pursued,’ whether that “happiness” is founded on excess ownership or possession, financial accumulation, public power, sexual proclivities, achieving the “American dream,” unique spiritual experiences or some other esoteric variable, one must seek it out and work to procure it, because it does not exist a priori or before experience. You are NOT born with it OR you ARE born with it, but immediately have it extracted out of you in preparation for egocentric competitive existence. Either way, you are grounded in deprivation and need fulfillment, seeking to relieve that experience.

Thus, existentially, YOU are thrown into a ‘world’ with nothing but the primal experience of DEPRIVATION and LACK and your egocentric desire for relief through fulfilling needs keeps it ALL firmly in place.

Like accumulating material wealth, there are only a privileged few that WE collectively allow to HAVE “enlightenment,” as opposed to the majority of us who must remain HAVE NOTs. ALL finite games must conform to the “law of supply and demand.” Nevertheless, keep in mind that, whether we we HAVE or HAVE NOT, we have ALL agreed to the continuation of this fundamental, existential LAW. Furthermore, we also collectively and unanimously believe that in order to reap the rewards we must ‘sacrifice,’ because ALL rewards are finite and limited (which is why they are ‘rewards’ in the first place).

From this primary experience of deprivation you then go about seeking to relieve that experience through what the world teaches as the chief means of seeking relief, which is struggle or sacrifice or, more succinctly, WORK (viable employment = indentured corporate servitude). Now we get into the nitty gritty of the value system, since some work is more valuable than others, and thus, the whole foundation of inequality is neatly and rigidly maintained and supported by a unified collective consciousness of individuals all seeking reward.

Work then becomes the chief component of your self-identity and that is determined by the world's value system. Alas, in seeking relief from this delusional system, you then turn to spiritual pursuits, and all those promised rewards, ignorant of the fact that those belief systems comply with the same paradigm of deprivation you’ve actually been seeking to escape.

This fits nicely with the Christian belief system and the concept of “salvation,” allowed only a privileged few. Every "spiritual" belief system (or dogma) replicates this primal belief through its core teachings. Whether it be Hinduism, Buddhism, Non-Dualism (advaita), or any numerous multiple factions thereof, the theme is the SAME...everything is LIMITED and this includes spiritual truth. Although the masters uniformly report that everyone can HAVE what they themselves claim to POSSESS (the paradigm of proprietary truth) the prerequisite of intense sacrifice must be strictly adhered to, otherwise you’re identified as a fraud.

But why would you think TRUTH conforms to the same paradigms that rule ILLUSION?

Your experience of a ‘world’ has as its foundation, limit, loss and deprivation, since there is only a limited supply of everything, even TRUTH. Therefore, you must constantly ask, are you worthy? Have you sufficiently sacrificed enough? Are you ‘working’ hard enough? Does it hurt?

Remember... no pain, no gain!

Every spiritual system adheres to sacrifice or work. Witness the busy aspirants bustin' they arse to get the coveted spiritual trophy. The system promises that, if your spiritual pursuits adequately conform to the paradigm of sacrifice, you’ll be richly rewarded. Years of meditating and mind control, studying the “great books,” scriptures and sutras, repetitive chanting of the platitudes, the sacrificing of sensual experience, attending the seminars and 'work shops' performed by the “modern mystics, “ colluding and conspiring with the like-minded that support the same sacrifices in pursuit of the same ‘reward’ (seems each sacrificial system has its own experts, books, newsletters and yearly conventions…Ha!)

It's the spiritual law of supply and demand and, as demand grows, fewer will reap the rewards, simply because supply MUST ALWAYS be limited. WE DEMAND IT! Make no mistake, as more claim "awakening," the rules will become more complex and complicated in order to exclude the many from what we demand be limited to only the privileged few. This is NO different from social economics theory and we all perpetuate this belief and have so for centuries. Social Darwinism has completely co-opted your SPIRIT.

Unfortunately, some wish NOT to see this (and have been leaving me some nasty comments all throughout this blog), since their whole identity is contingent on this not being an actuality. The ego makes many compromises with TRUTH in order to perpetuate the rewards of delusional belief. It avoids at all costs, fully recognizing that it’s ALL nothing but a house of cards, ready to fall at any moment. The ego-self (identified package of beliefs) is a very fragile concept...

…and so you’ve come to believe, and have rigidly conformed, to a belief system that demands you sacrifice and struggle to attain the transcendent rewards, limited to only the privileged few.

Although, there does seem to be a small, yet growing, number of infinite players who realize that this is all laughably ridiculous. It seems they have come to realize…

...nothing need be done.

Nothing at all...

Artwork By David Stoupakis - "untitled"