From Breakdown to Breakthrough

Like every hero's journey, our journey to spiritual enlightenment is fraught with daunting obstacles that would threaten our success and deter our resolve to continue. Those of us who have been on this path for any length of time have become all too acquainted with the "dragons" on the path.

These seeming enemies of our spiritual progress can take many forms but share an apparent motivation to deny and refute the emerging awareness of our true self.

Our journey of awakening through A New Earth teachings of Eckhart Tolle have consistently reminded us that our true identity has nothing to do with external definitions of human life. Neither gender, family history, social standing, occupation, material possession or dispossession, nor even internal definitions formed by our beliefs, experiences or personal perceptions of life define our true selves. To truly awaken we are consistently asked to drop our identification with all forms, including thought forms, and become conscious of our pure Being-ness; the pure consciousness that stands under and behind all that arises in form.

The greatest dragons we confront in our life are the inner demons of our wounds. Tolle calls these elements of the human experience, the "pain body." He defines the pain body as the "energy field of old but still-very-much-alive emotion that lives in almost every human being---the remnants of pain left behind by every strong negative emotion that is not fully faced, accepted and let go."

Naturally, we would rather take this hero's journey without dealing with these dragons. Yet the truth, discovered by every spiritual master that has gone the distance to self-realization, is that these apparent obstacles take us to the edge of an abyss, to the edge of our false self, where we must surrender to reach the greater awareness that lies beyond.

The pain body is the rant of the false self that screams over the top of our emerging realizations to claim we are not what our Spirit selves would have us know and realize. Yet, this rant must not have the last word if we are to prevail. Despite our very human tendency to shrink and do an end run to avoid the pain body confrontations, wisdom emboldens us to remain present. Just as turning around and facing the monster that pursues us in a dream can neutralize the threat, our willingness to face the pain body that gets in our face, can free us from its menacing hold on us.

This becomes the path to freedom, because our pain body, that collection of highly charged emotions, which would seem able to overtake us, will not withstand the light of consciousness. What is not real, will not survive the Light of Truth. Fight or flight will only make these imposters stronger in our mind and distance us from our true self. This is where heroics comes into play, at this pivot point that leads to greater progress on our spiritual journey or to greater suffering. It is the critical juncture where courage can return us to the path of wholeness. It is the place where a breakdown can become a breakthrough, where we can awaken through pain, and find transformation through suffering.

In community we find the collective resolve to support the growth and beauty that can emerge when we deal with dragons in a life affirming way. Remember as Rev. Michael Beckwith says, "a bad day for the ego is a good day for the soul."