We often look for smooth sailing on the spiritual path, but true transformation is a violent, necessary process. To be reborn, the old self must die.
The Bursting Seed
Your inner growth requires destruction. Let the seed burst. This means allowing nature to destroy your old identity and fully bear that dryness you feel. This dry, empty feeling is essential, because before the light comes, darkness will surround you.
The time you spend transforming is the most disorienting phase of your life. It is the time when you cannot see yourself and cannot manage yourself. During these moments, you feel your inner struggle more than ever.
Do not resist this necessary chaos. Rather than hating these periods and trying to escape from them, be strong enough to accept that nature as part of the process.
Losing Yourself to Find Yourself
When you are deep within this transformative phase, you won’t feel like you are gaining wisdom; you will feel like you are losing yourself. It feels like dissolution, not growth. But this loss of the old self is the very definition of your potential changing and expanding.
Do not be deceived by the allure of external comfort. You won’t find the answers in beautiful, easy places. Such places are good for shallow companionship (“to meet a group and talk and laugh”), but practical life is an eternal struggle.
The Wisdom of Non-Elimination
The mistake is thinking you must eliminate that struggle. You don’t. The struggle is the friction that creates the fire of consciousness. All that is important is to understand it all.
True Nishtha (devotion or spiritual stability) is not an escape or a departure from life. It is a profound understanding of all the natures of life. It is walking through every challenge with deep, unwavering understanding.
When you cease fighting the struggle and start understanding it, a miracle occurs: Then life becomes easier. The struggle remains, but your inner resistance to it disappears.
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