Conscious Living

Sacred or Secular

“We could be more like monks and less like secularists, more like thoughtful men and women who make all of life sacred and less like unconscious citizens who have nothing more at their disposal than ego and instinct.”

Thomas Moore (A Religion of One's Own)

Coming home again has made me want to clear out my house of all that is unnecessary. I saw how painful and exhausting it was for my cousin to pack up all her belongings for the move to a new, smaller house. How difficult to decide what to keep and what to let go. How tiring and vexing to pack and unpack, to take down and put up, to decide what goes where and what will not fit anywhere. And then there's the disposal of all that cardboard and paper—recycling also requires the work of breaking down boxes into flats and hauling them out to the street.

I don't want my children to someday have to do that hard work, so now is the time to decide to live more like a monk, and less like a pack-rat. I don't have to do it all at once like she did, with only a month to close and be out of her house. I can carefully go room to room and make decisions about small amounts rather than tackling an entire houseful at once. I can be conscious about what is truly worth keeping and what is not. Doing so would also help me to clarify what is sacred to me and what is not.

Self-reflection is a critical skill in the spiritual life. One must learn to look honestly at oneself, not with an eye for what is imperfect, for everything is, but to assess the “why” of things. Humans are the only animals with the ability to self-reflect, and we were given this gift so that we can become conscious of our inner life, of our motives, our means, our true reasons for doing the things we do. We are meant to grow beyond ego and instinct, to grow instead toward a higher calling and a deeper life.

                                                        In the Spirit,

                                                           Jane