Emergence: A Welcome Change

When you learn to shift your identity from that of the egoic “local self” to the magnificence of your “non-local” Essential Self and then beyond to your Universal Self, the highest frequency of your being, you become fully available to BE the change and become an activation point and catalyst for conscious evolution.- Barbara Marx Hubbard

Like many ambitious men, I spent a good deal of my life trying to achieve my way to success, acquire my way to happiness. I achieved and I acquired but the success was ephemeral and the acquisitions ultimately could not satisfy my deepest hunger.  The American dream morphed into an endless season of discontent. I hit bottom. This was great news to my higher self, the part of me that was waiting patiently in the wings for me to call off the fruitless search, turn the ship around and head home.

I did make that about face a score of years ago and began a search for inner success, an honest appraisal of what mattered most to me in life, and I got in touch with a deeper purpose. In my case, the inward journey lead me to the spiritual path of Unity, and a career in ministry.  It's important for me to emphasize that ministry is only one of a myriad of forms that authentic self-expression can take.  It happens to be mine and it's just another form. 

Form, no matter how much importance you might ascribe to it is still just form. It’s merely an external accessory to who we are, and not of our essence. It has no life of its own.  No meaning. No purpose. No value. A job describes what I do, not what I am.  We can forget that and many of us do lose ourselves in our careers. We also lose ourselves in the roles we assume in life, our socioeconomic conditions, how others see us, etc.  Soon our entire self-concept is invested in a stock that has no intrinsic value. It's only a matter of time before it comes crashing down. Who we thought we were is laid waste, and eventually laid to rest.  It can be the worst and best of times.

To continue the journey home, to deepen understanding of our truest nature we must be willing to abandon form in favor of content.  This can be difficult, painful, and counterintuitive, yet the exfoliation of the false self is the only way to uncover our true essence.  Jesus understood the process, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)

Once the false form dies, the real work begins, but it is fulfilling work. You're not “workin' for the man” anymore - you're working for the soul. It's the hardest job you'll ever love. The way the world measures you may have less, but the heart overflows. You are simultaneously humbled and exalted, at once motivated and surrendered. It's the paradox that Jesus described. You have lost your life, and found new life.

Forms are still interesting and even attractive, but not compelling or defining. The only thing that matters is the feeling that something Great and true and real is coursing through your veins, running your life. You come to agree with the Taoist, Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.

This is emergence that you can truly welcome. This is the change that transforms you at depth and brings healing and wholeness that surpasses any form the world can offer.