longer.blue

You can try too hard to be enlightened. You can force yourself to remain peaceful. Force yourself to feel grateful. Force yourself to accept everything. Force yourself to maintain the perfect spiritual state every second of the day. But that is not enlightenment. That is anxiety wearing spiritual clothing. Now you’re monitoring every emotion: “Was that thought enlightened?” “Why did that upset me?” “Am I losing my state?” “Why can’t I let go?” “Am I still spiritually evolved?” You turn enlightenment into another performance—another impossible standard you must maintain to prove that you are good enough. The ego survives by making enlightenment its newest identity. It says, “I must become the most peaceful person. I must have the highest frequency. Nothing can ever disturb me.” Now you’re not free. You’re terrified of being human. You’re afraid to feel anger, sadness, fear, confusion or disappointment because those emotions threaten the enlightened identity you worked so hard to construct. So let that identity die. Let go of the need to be enlightened. Let yourself feel whatever is actually here without immediately trying to correct it, transcend it or transform it into something spiritual. If you are angry, feel the anger. If you are hurt, feel the hurt. If you are confused, admit that you are confused. Stop trying to escape yourself by reaching for a higher state. Real enlightenment is not maintaining a perfect emotion forever. It is becoming so free that you no longer need any emotion—including joy or peace—to prove who you are. The final spiritual attachment may be the attachment to enlightenment itself. Let that go too.