I feel just as you feel - my experience, internally - the same as yours. It is the flesh - therefore, arrogantly oppressing, that separates the connection to our inner worlds. We all know of evil, a blanket of darkness that becomes all-consuming - a departure from commonality - pursuing a temporary high, so blinding and tempting. We chase that which is fleeting, searching for security in the material desires of this world; holding fast to selfish ambition and vain conceit - pitting humanity against one another to survive. Violently we grasp at power, a piece of comfort, apathetic to the death that surrounds us; entitled to our isolated beliefs, loyal to an idea of impermanent physicalness - a constructed identity of the ego.
What is it, the ties that hold us together, the collective experience of living and dying on this planet - the thread that runs between us? Joy and love - our connection to this creation and each other - the universe that spreads throughout our conscious spirit.
I came to the world, trying to prove my toughness, rather than my love; imprisoned by personal desires, slick coverings designed to mask and numb, to hide from the vulnerabilities deemed unworthy of care. Fearful to talk of the pain, the grief found in death, betrayal, the loss of identity; exposed wholly for the first time, naked and afraid; understanding there was nothing in the external to begin with, an empty shell built upon a faulty house of cards. It is hard to have faith in goodness when heaviness surrounds you.
It is here, however, in this liminal space between light and dark, where our pain can be seen in unity, that our pain is not our own, but rather a collective experience. Our suffering, held and shared becomes an act of love and grace - transforming into sacred wounds, a way through to a deeper understanding; a greater more intimate connection, of faith and consciousness. It is in the breaking of the ego that the Lord speaks.
They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 2 Peter 2:19
