The Flow
For many people life is just one big long struggle. If that’s true then is it the way it was meant to be? Is such a struggle inevitable, even for those who claim to have contact with the Divine Source, the Creator of the whole human show? Are all our ups and downs self-generated or part of the Divine blueprint for our lives. In other words, is all vanity of vanities as the supposedly wise writer of Ecclesiastes claimed.
Well yes and no.
There are certainly levels of frustration experienced within our space-time existence. Yet are they necessary to the extent that we usually experience them? I believe not.
For many of our difficulties arise from our psychological attachments to things, people, and, dare I say it, beliefs. Let me explain.
The psyche-soul, our somewhat dysfunctional interface with the temporal world of form, is a very insecure little beast. Having believed itself to be detached from Divine Source and its Unconditional Love it isn’t a happy bunny. It’s an anxiety junkie that needs a regular fix of pseudo-security, a sense that it is not alone.
To the rescue come along the apparent life savers of material goods, social position, group identity and every so often, ideological belief. The immediate effect is pretty potent as a new sense of safety surrounds us from the nakedness of our internal being. The only trouble though is that in return, such attachments demand our loyalty; once welcomed into our psyche-soul they set up camp for good.
All growth is change and unsurprisingly attachments are not great fans of change. They have taken up a subliminally controlling stake in our sense of well-being and when the issue of letting them go is raised, they fight back with all the fury of a lover spurned. Only when we attempt to move on from our dependency on them do our attachments reveal themselves for what they really are. They are not after all our friends and allies but our masters, those who pull our psychic strings.
The Nazarene talked often of death and dying as a prerequisite to life. Like the Buddha before Him, Yeshua bar Yosef told it like it was. To enter the Queendom of God, that quality of life that we were destined to enjoy, a death was first required, namely the death of our psychological attachments. For the rich young ruler it was his store of cash. For the bed ridden man at the pool of Bethesda it was his paralysis. For the Scribes and Pharisees it was their religious expertise and its accompanying power plays. For Mary it was Yeshua Himself.
The letting go of such attachments is extremely painful but ultimately the greatest break for freedom that we can experience in this maze of psychological props. For on the other side of our screaming ego lies a Self, one designed to live free and secure in the River of Divine Love. Once we have passed through these mini Dark Nights Of The Soul, we discover life in all its fullness and flow.
A new buoyancy floods into the inner tanks of our being, lifting and carrying us through this inherent but ultimately unreal vale of tears. A new ease begins to oil the joints of our existence as we travel through life free of its glittering attachments, and their sure-fire promises of psychological protection.
As we journey through life Divine Love will bring us face to face with each of our secret attachments. One by one we have the opportunity to let go and find a new spiritual surge flood our being. In doing so we shall ditch many of our frustrations and self-created sufferings.
Writer Dylan Morrison 
Yes! This is right on the money, or “spot on” as you Brits would say! One thing I’d add about the man at the pool of Bethesda is that he had to drop his superstitions (i.e. the belief that the “troubled water” would heal him).
thank you friend….. the journey is difficult these days…. breaking through requires every bit of focus….. and my distractions are another’s suffering…. and my greatest loss.
It’s not easy when we see another suffer Tom, especially one we love.
In these dark times, all our attachments are shaken, yet in the Light of Ultimate Reality nothing is being, nor indeed can be shaken, for there there is no pain.
A journey that cuts to the core of our very being, both perceived and real.
Thinking of you both.
Dylan
Thank you Dylan. Now my mother has gone and I am not travelling 165k’s twice a week I feel a little lost. Interestingly I have had love/hate relationship most of my life with her and in the end it was I who cared for her, for ever it feels. I was so attached by duty and her reliance on me, my prayer life was very strong as I required so much guidance and spiritual support. Now I am free (sorry) I am trying to define this freedom and wondering why with no attachment I appear to be struggling with my inner prayer life? Perhaps duty and ego may be on a par?