Don't
Be Deluded By Substitutes
Truth: When some moment seems particularly miraculous, open through
it to your deepest truth.
Some people have felt the incomparable ecstasy of achieving their wildest
dreams, winning millions of dollars in a lottery or garnering a Nobel
Prize. Many mothers have held newborn infants to their breasts, overwhelmed
in the bliss of unimaginable love. These kinds of moments are what make
life utterly deluding.
The divine masculine in you is infinite consciousness. When you lose
touch with it, you seek infinity in the confines of your life: your
bank account, your fame, your achievements. Anything that gives you
a whiff of breaking free into unbound no-stress--a touchdown, an ejaculation,
or great professional victory--seems to be a source of almost sacred
bliss.
The divine feminine in you is the force of life, the abundant energy,
or light, of love. When you lose touch with it, you seek blissful fullness
through the portals of your body, your senses, your relationships. Anything
that overwhelms you in love's fullness--from your children, to sex,
to your favorite chocolate--can seem almost divine.
Every moment is an opportunity to open as your true divine nature, which
is infinite consciousness and bountiful love. Most people, however,
lose touch with their deepest openness. Feeling a lack, they become
devotees of the scratch that fulfills their itch. They worship substitutes.
The masculine literally worships achievement, understanding, and success,
while the feminine is often devoted to angelic children, heavenly colors,
luscious textures, flavors, and love-promising relationships.
The addictive quality of minor substitutes such as sports and shopping
can be strong; the deluding power of grand substitutes can be extraordinary.
A devout parent can spend decades cherishing his or her children before
time takes them away. A devoted businessperson can spend the better
part of a lifetime thriving on the juice of freedom's challenge before
motivation wanes and life's flatness stares him or her in the face.
 Grand
substitutes are whatever life-functions you mistake for life's truth:
eating, sexing, raising children, earning money, acquiring possessions,
expressing creative impulses, cultivating relationships. The truth is,
if you think that one or another of these functions is particularly
divine, you are in for great suffering. You can express divine love
and freedom through any of these activities or relationships. But if
you think they are your source of bliss, then you have become like a
drug addict, dependent on a substitute that will inevitably fade.
If you have a more feminine sexual essence, you are built so certain
things are shaped to press your love-button. Don't mistake the thing
for the love. When you hold your infant against you, opened together
in seemingly perfect love, open as this love. Be the immensity of love
your beautiful child evokes. Remember that there are plenty of lonely
women with empty hearts who were once full-blush mothers, overflowing
with bliss amidst their child's laughter.
If you have a more masculine sexual essence, it is easy to spend hours,
days, even years totally engrossed in the tasks at hand. Like a monk
in prayer, your life can become devoted to the image of your salvation:
the discovery, realization, creation, or achievement that will set you
free. But if you ever have attained your goals, you know that the bliss
of achievement passes--however noble your cause--and once again you
look for a way to be more deeply liberated from stressful motivation.
Full as immense love, you can share love's bliss with your children
without strangling them in your craven need. Open as free consciousness,
you can offer your gifts to the world through your mission without stressing
to succeed.
Every act and relationship in your life is an offering. Give yourself
fully. Open as limitless love and boundless freedom. Always give from
the unbound fullness of your open heart. Do not reduce your family or
career into grand substitutes for the bliss that is your very being.
In moments that seem miraculous, don't settle for the glow of interim
fulfillment. Your child's embrace or your career's fruition can, for
a while, seem overwhelmingly sufficient. Even so, practice being abundantly
full and utterly released in every moment, because this is who you are.
You are born to live as unbound love and openness. You are born to live
as the offering of your deepest gifts. Don't burden your children and
vocation with the obligation to delude you for a lifetime.
~Excerpted
from
Naked Buddhism by David Deida
Copyright
©2001 PLEXUS & David Deida. All Rights Reserved.
Visit David Deida's website: www.bluetruth.org
Back
to Top
Back to Sex & Spirit
All
artwork on this page may be purchased from Illusions Gallery.
Click on a painting to view full photo.
|
