In metaphysical oriented writing, there is a tendency for the author (me in this case) to repeat a central message over and over via differing teachings, stories and analogies. One, because the author, or the I, who writes it is changing from one day to the next and two, because the reader can only relate to a message through the lens of their own personal experience. Both must intersect for the deeper message to be understood. All spiritual texts are an exercise in such repetition as a means to “carry the message”. Today I am writing on the idea of “more”. This framework of “more” may not be applicable to everyone but it was certainly applicable to me and many of the people I have worked with that are searching for a greater degree of freedom, peace and happiness in life. I also think on a macro level, it may be a general framework of modern western society.
Obsession-Compulsion
That is the term I keep arriving at when I think of the process of seeking a grasp of the infinite by the pursuit or piling up of the limited. That is the path I found myself on. An effort to obtain the spiritual by means of the material. But of course, at the time I was oblivious to the idea that what I was truly looking for was a connection with the spiritual or the Infinite. I live in a culture that predominantly worships on the altar of productivity or “more”. A culture that implicitly suggests the path to happiness is the material and specifically the accumulation of the material.
But the infinite, is qualitative and spiritual, not additive. It cannot be grasped by adding up any quantity of limited experiences or possessions
So, the greater the thirst and yearning for the Infinite, the greater and more intense becomes the unlimited pursuit of the inherently finite. This attempt to achieve the spiritual by piling up the material can become addictive and yet at the same time it is impossible. In the limit, it will always end in some type of ruin through an insatiable craving for “more”, “again”, “better”, “bigger”, “faster”, etc. It can never be enough because there will always be more.
Addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc. is the limit story within this obsession-compulsion story. That is why the addiction story is so important to understand, as it magnifies an aspect of the general human condition that can keep us all trapped in the bondage of self. The bondage of suffering. The addict loses themselves, and everything they love, in this false pursuit of the infinite though material experience. They rapidly find that “more” becomes self-defeating. In a metaphorical sense, they reach the false summit they were climbing quickly and through Grace, they are awakened to the existence of different paths. I call it the path of the Truth.
The Truth was they had been in denial of the reality of the spiritual. They were searching for something but denied it existed. On a larger scale, perhaps it is a form of collective insanity? But I digress…
The Truth is that everything real is Spirit. Spirit is everything or it is nothing. Happiness, the ultimate human goal, rests within our level of acceptance of this existential Truth. And it has been told to us throughout the ages, six ways to Sunday, that what we are looking for resides within us and not outside of us.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the material or having many material possessions and experiences as long as I remember they are part of the Spiritual. When I surrender to this Truth, I never need more because I always have just enough.
The Way
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