Be
A Spark
“We
are just a tiny flicker of a much larger flame that is Life itself,
Consciousness itself, Being itself, Love itself, God’s very self.”
Richard
Rohr
Most of
us, myself included, walk through our lives with what Richard Rohr calls “egoic
consciousness.” That means we are focused mostly on ourselves—what’s good for
us, what makes us comfortable, and causes us to feel that we are “top feeders”
rather than “bottom feeders.” We want our families to have the good life that
they deserve and, let’s face it, that we have promised them. It’s human to want
the blessings that life has to offer. We make moral trade-offs to have those
blessings—we turn a blind eye to the institutions in place to keep us on top,
and not someone else. This very mindset that strives always for the top rung of
every ladder, that has been engrained in us from birth, is exactly what is causing
the pain we are in right now.
The Dalai
Lama famously says, “Every being just wants to be happy.” We all want
the same thing—the same blessings of life. The problem is that we are wired to
think top-down instead of circle-round. If I want more, and, of course, I need
more, then you get less. If I have everything I need to feel comfortable and
safe, it means that you have to go without, or at least have less. There is no “more”
without “less,” right? We can’t imagine a world where there is a level playing
field—where everyone gets what they need.
If
everything is equal, how will I feel superior? How will we know who to look up
to? Who is in charge? Who is the Top Dog? Because we are trained to expect
there to be a Top Dog. That kind of consciousness is exactly what Jesus taught
against. People wanted him to be Top Dog, and he said, “sell all that you
have and give the money to the poor; then come and follow me.” He told his
disciples, “You feed them.” He said, “Let the little children come
unto me.” He taught that if you want to lead, you must first serve, and then
he got down on his knees and washed their feet. Not a shred of egoic
consciousness there.
I
believe that the golden opportunity of this chaotic time is for more of us to
realize what a trap it is to spend our precious lives climbing that ladder and
trying to be Top Dog. We see what it leads to—not happiness and contentment,
but greed and corruption. If we are but a tiny flicker of a much larger flame,
if we are a spark of Divine nature, we must push our consciousness forward. As
David Steindl-Rast teaches, the spirituality of the future will be a path leading
door to door and not a spire leading up and down. Circle-round, not top-down. Inclusive,
not exclusive. Be that spark today.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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