The Choices We Make

We all make choices. Sometimes we choose love and sometimes we choose 'not-love'. Sometimes we manifest God's conscious presence in this world and sometimes we do not.

It's not a question about every single choice that we make in our lives but the question of where those choices are born. Are they born out of Spirit or out of our small ego? The world would be a much better place if we all lived out of our ego, our psychological identity, but were conditioned in more positive ways. If our cultural values supported and encouraged generosity, compassion, respect, etc., then even if we were all just living out of our ego the world would just function better. Less suffering, to some extent.

But that's not enough.

It's certainly true that positive cultural changes - such as greater support and affirmation of gender and racial equality - have occurred throughout history without everyone being really 'enlightened' or spiritually transformed. Nevertheless, these kinds of positive changes seem to be ignited by individuals who have gone a step further in their own development and have become more conscious of the choices they, and those around them, are making. Not only that, they've decided that they want their choices, and the culture around them, to reflect higher ideals that aren't yet a reality in the world.

I think that's pretty cool.

Most of us, most of the time, are not very aware of the decisions we make. We are obviously cognitively aware of them but seldom at a much deeper level, the place where our choices are conceived. Learning to become aware of this place and to dwell there is a significant part of spiritual growth and transformation. Buddhists would call it 'mindfulness'. That seems like as good a term as any. It means going deep enough that we become aware of our 'primary' choice - the choice to manifest infinite Spirit or limited ego. The rest of our existence pours out of that.

It means, in any given moment, we are either a vessel of God or a vessel of our individual and cultural conditioning. Our lives are made up of a swirling sea of gray as we navigate this fundamental choice in every moment of our existence, whether consciously or not.

Who we are in this world is an expression of that fundamental choice and yet, ultimately, our deepest Self is the Self of God. This Self wants to be expressed in the world consciously through us. What a huge gift and responsibility! God isn't interested in a world full of nicer, happier people who all get along, God is interested in being born into this world in a unique way through each of us, who just happen to be (seemingly) the only branch of this tree of life that has the ability to be aware of this desire and the ability to manifest it. Of course, God living consciously through us would be a far 'nicer' and 'happier' world, though those may not be the greatest adjectives to use...

The end of famine and war and disease and suffering would not, by itself, be heaven. Heaven on earth means God incarnate in us all. It means God's creative Spirit being expressed through our willful choices - and that only happens when we are committed to becoming aware of our own deepest dimension of who we all already are, the place where Spirit lives. To become aware in this way goes beyond our rational mind. In fact, it means being aware even of our rational mind itself and recognizing that who we are goes deeper than all of our thoughts and feelings.

Most of the time we're just not aware enough to choose well. That's why spiritual practice is so very important because it creates the space to enter into this awareness more and more, if that is our intention. We can meditate or pray or chant or dance - whatever - until the end of time and it won't be truly transformational unless we intend it to be, unless we really want to create that kind of space for awareness to blossom. But if that's what we want then that's what we'll get, however long it takes.

Through this awareness, when all is said and done, this means we become able to take complete responsibility for our actions. That's a frightening thought to the ego, who wants to blame everyone and everything else for its failures. It means we can no longer hide behind any excuses, whether that be traumatic experiences or social and cultural pressures, because we realize and accept that we have the choice to 'be' something other than an expression of all that conditioning.

That's pretty huge. It's immense.

It's more responsibility than I ever feel like taking and yet if I truly believe that the reason I'm alive is to be a manifestation of Spirit-in-action then I must, without question, accept responsibility for every choice that I make.

The beautiful thing is that the more we own our choices the easier it becomes to do so and the more space that is created for our own awareness to grow. And the more that awareness grows, the more we become able to consciously choose Spirit. And it is only when we choose Spirit that our soul finds life and begins to unashamedly pour love into this world.

That is how the world is transformed.

That is heaven coming to earth.