Spiritual Birth
To be born spiritually means to awaken from the dream of death.
To see as a perfectly obvious reality, that you are eternal spirit, the essence of everything. This physical world, universe in fact, is a place of constant change, decay; it is bound in time and bound by the laws of nature. A quantum physicist may describe the universe, from the largest mass to the smallest drop, as a soup of sub-atomic particles. I find it useful to imagine all of that quantum soup of re-cycling energy, including my own body, as being inside a large box. The box representing the physical dimension. Though as spiritual beings, we play our roles inside this box, as constant, eternal, non-physical beings, we essentially don’t belong to the box. We truly belong to the dimension of spirit, which is beyond space, time, sound, movement, the eternal now. Again I find it helpful to imagine that dimension as been a limitless world, like a sky of light, outside of the box. Although it could also be seen as a parallel dimension. What is vital to realize, is that, all of the ‘stuff; you see inside the box, despite its endlessly intricate manifestations, from oceans, stars, planets and trees, to the paper you hold in your hands and your hands, all of it is formed from this quantum soup of matter. And matter, though we find it endlessly fascinating and beautiful, itself, in its most basic form, is not spirit. And therefore the stars, the oceans, the trees and your hand do not contain the essence of spirit, which is love, peace, bliss. Many people will argue that they experience profound peace in the presence of trees, oceans, nature, or through the vibrations of certain sounds or colours. But all of that beauty, love, bliss that you are experiencing is actually, not in the music, the scenery, the profound words, it is in you. And that is the only place it has ever been. Places of nature, often allow us the stillness of mind, to move beyond fast and superficial thoughts, and to touch the essence within. And as the beautiful feelings emerge, we often externalize it, saying, oh this place is so beautiful, or makes me feel beautiful. However that place, which is ultimately beautiful is your mind, especially if that mind is in touch with your inner core.
When I first heard the concept of being an eternal spirit, separate to matter, it was like a spiritual birth for me. I felt like a bird being released from a cage after a long time. I felt light and free. It wasn’t so much freedom from the physical body or from the illusion of death, it was freedom from identifying with anything that wasn’t my true self, from the ego. Things that had previously concerned me, my appearance, others opinions of my personality and my talents, getting ahead, or getting more stuff – in the ‘box’ just seemed to melt away in the presence of this powerful true awareness. I had everything I needed, and it was within me, more so, it was me. As an eternal spirit, we are neither born, nor do we die, but if anything could be described as a spiritual birth, it would be that beautiful moment of awakening to reality. What is interesting, is that, this beautiful awakening of awareness didn’t continue in the same manner. After some time it faded and previous ego fear-based thought patterns returned. However a seed of truth once planted does continue to grow. And once you have been born or awakened spiritually, you never really forget. It’s like the world, the ‘box’ which previously had seemed a multi-coloured reality, has faded into a black and white dream, and the world of the soul, seems more real and more colourful. This process of turning gradually more inwards, can feel like dying and can be confusing. Because for real spiritual re-birth, one needs to completely die to the old ways of thinking. Just a physical birth is quite a dramatic event for the soul, spiritual birth is also dramatic. For myself, I went from being totally interested in the world of drama, art and music, to being totally not interested. It was as if it was totally tasteless and meaningless. This can lead to confusion, as you begin to think, ‘who am I, if my tastes and preferences can so easily be changed’. There can also be a crisis of purpose, where you may feel your job and life and all your previous ambitions have no meaning, and you have no interest in people, or work. It can sometimes feel as if you are moving backwards and you wonder what will become of you, if you don’t find something to motivate you to get more involved in life inside the box. Sometimes people react to this period of confusion by turning spirituality into a role, and seeing their purpose as enlightening others to their new found wisdom. Thus returning to the box, just wearing a new mask. This period dying or disinterest, may best be treated as a period of healing. If you feel you have already had your moment of spiritual awakening, but are in the process of dying to the old, try not to resist it, or let the ego whip you into a frenzy of fear based action. Just as you lose your appetite when you are ill, in the same manner, this lose of appetite to the world, isn’t a bad thing. It is necessary for us to detox from our addiction to the box, or the thought patterns of the ego. Let yourself be alone, meditate a lot, look after your body, sleep well, be gentle on yourself. At some point you will feel a raising of your energy and enthusiasm, you will begin to get some inspirations, and you will regain your interest in life within the box. However, it will have a very different flavour to before. Before spiritual birth, asleep to ourselves as the source of all experience, we move from object to object, person to person, situation to situation, ever seeking to create the feelings of love, peace and bliss. After spiritual birth, we experience the box, not as the source of our happiness, but rather an expression of it. When one is ‘in’ love, the whole world seems a more beautiful place, in the same way, when you are spiritually born, you know and experience yourself as a being love, and therefore your eyes become loving, you see people as essentially innocent and lovable. You see nature as generous and benevolent. You see the world as you are.
The period of dying, is essentially the dying of the ego. Ego is the mistaken belief that you are anything outside yourself. Yourself being the core spiritual being. Therefore the ego can attach itself to your body image, your talents, your relationships, your life story, your beliefs and opinions, your emotions, and your personality. How we can know that the ego is operating within our soul, is by our inner experience. Ego thoughts, which are false thoughts create a disturbance in our consciousness, which we experiences as e-motions – ‘energy in motion’. These emotions simultaneously create chemicals in the body, therefore emotions can be physiologically and psychologically addictive. When we are operating from the ‘in the box’ consciousness we are essentially spiritually dead and the ego is alive and controlling us. It is like being possessed by an outer influence. And the sign of this, is becoming emotionally disturbed by the changes happening in the ‘box’. Even excitement is emotion, caused by the illusion that you ‘won’ or will gain something. The spiritual alive person knows there is nothing to win or lose and therefore doesn’t get excited over the changing scenes in the box. This is why someone who has been spiritually born and is spiritually awake, will generally face life with a calm, balanced demeanor. To the emotionally addicted person, such people may appear dull and boring. However, they are actually truly alive. When we stop living in the world of ego based emotions, and see clearly the illusive nature of the world of matter, our mind becomes calm, and in that calmness we travel inwards. And in that inner dimension we touch the heart, the core, the essence, the source of all life, all love, all peace, all bliss. And those essential spiritual qualities then flood into our minds. These are what we call feelings. So the process of spirit birth, is the process of finishing the ego and the emotions which the ego creates, and connecting to the soul and therefore living in the world of beautiful feelings. And as we know from the teachings of the law of attraction, if our inner world is full of beautiful feelings, sooner or later, the outside world will begin to reflect that. So together as more and more of us begin to be spiritually ‘born’, and die to the ways of the ego, the world ego will also begin to the die and a new world will also begin to take birth.
