Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness
One of the main things we hear about enlightenment is that desire can hinder our spiritual evolution by causing us to focus more on external things than our inner journey. Materialistic desires can cause us to drain our sense of spirit by giving ourselves over to the external world, and only when we’re focused on love and Source can we explore our consciousness in an uninhibited way.
The idea is that the external world is a distraction from our inner world, and the more we focus on the external, the more we distance ourselves from the spiritual. We could lose ourselves in materiality by constantly feeding an appetite that can never be satisfied, but instead, the devoted spiritual seeker focuses purely on Source and spiritual evolution.
It’s no secret that if we continuously explore our consciousness and stay away from things we know will hinder us (without avoiding them, which would cause us to cultivate resistance), we’ll experience the fruit of our labor in the form of a permanently expanded spiritual perception.
We just have to give as much attention to our inner perception as we do the external world, and we can experience the material without being consumed by it if we keep our connection with Source intact and keep our inner love flowing.
If we’re rooted too deeply in desire to keep our connection strong, we’ll naturally drift away from Source and we might wonder why we can’t seem to feel the love or wholeness we once did.
It’s usually because we distanced ourselves from our own spirituality without realizing it, and as soon as we realize an error’s been made, we can fix it by practicing meditation or another form of spiritual attunement.
Sri Krishna tells us that focusing on desire will keep us from inner peace.
“The man who stirs up his own lusts
“Can never know peace.” (1)
Regardless of our level of awareness, he tells us, we’re susceptible to straying off the path.
“Even a mind that knows the path
“Can be dragged from the path:
“The senses are so unruly.
“But he controls the senses
“And recollects the mind
“And fixes it on me.
“I call him illumined.” (2)
Focusing on Source is the best way to realign with our true nature, but it comes with its share of challenges. We’ll be confronted by all kinds of desires at first, but if we can stay focused and aligned with Source, we’ll realize that they’re easy to transcend.
They amount to nothing when compared to Source’s exalted love and bliss, and all we have to do to permanently find this bliss is empty ourselves of any distortions and let our creator express itself through us. We’ll be rewarded many times over for our effort and dedication, and the reward will come in the form of a blissful state of consciousness.
Sri Krishna poetically explains how some people are driven away from the path.
“The wind turns a ship
“From its course upon the waters:
“The wandering winds of the senses
“Cast man’s mind adrift
“And turn his better judgment from its course.” (3)
Failure to open the mind and let the love and spirit flow can cause us to drift away from our essence, and all we need to do to return there is open the mind back up and rebuild our spiritual perception.
We can let the universe speak through us if we open up and get desire out of the way, but if we’re unwilling to believe we can genuinely connect with All That Is, we’ll stop ourselves from maintaining a clear connection.
There are a lot of obstacles on the journey back to Source, but none of them can hold us back unless we let them. We have to stay diligent in some cases, and in all things, we have to remember to keep our universal connection strong.
The things we can achieve when we’re focused on love and spirit are far more focused than the achievements we make from a perceptually limited point of view, so let’s stay dedicated to the enlightenment path and openheartedly serve others.
We’ll eventually enable the rest of the world to transcend desire and open up to spirit, and more we stay focused now, the easier it’ll be for everyone else to awaken when the time comes.
Footnotes:
- Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., Bhagavad-Gita. The Song of God. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1972; c1944, 43-4.
- Ibid., 42.
- Ibid., 43.
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I’m a twenty-one year old writer, blogger, and channel for the creative expression of the Universe, and I created The Culture of Awareness daily news site.
The Culture of Awareness features daily spiritual and alternative news, articles I’ve written, and more. Its purpose is to awaken and uplift by providing material about the fall of the planetary elite and a new paradigm of unity and spirituality.
I’ve contributed to a few different spiritual websites including The Master Shift, Waking Times, Golden Age of Gaia, Wake Up World and Expanded Consciousness. I can also be found on Facebook (Wes Annac and The Culture of Awareness) and Twitter, and I write a paid weekly newsletter that you can subscribe to for $11.11 a month here.
Lethargic Gemini 