Shards of The Shattered Ego Reflecting Countless Arms of Compassion
We recently completed another cycle of the Embodying True Nature Retreat, and we feel inspired to share some reflections while they are still fresh in our hearts and minds.
The purpose of the indigenous transformation retreat is not to instantly solve life’s problems for us, but to change our relationship with the situations we consider problematic. By doing so, we can recognize obstacles as essential elements in our lives that hold the key to deeper illumination and sustainable happiness.
The breakdowns that can occur when we confront these struggles head-on become vital moments for significant personal breakthroughs. The retreat itself is a journey into the spirit realm, viewed by the teachers of our lineage as a map of life. It serves as a miniature version of life, presenting familiar stimuli, triggers, reactions, and habitual patterns of our conditioned identity.
Confronting our fragile conditioning in a disciplined manner reveals it to be an illusion of smoke and mirrors, offering a glimpse of the incredible enlightened potential of our true selves beyond egocentric veils. This shift in perspective can profoundly impact our daily existence.
The comfort zone ends here
The difficult, irritating, or "unbearable" situations that inevitably arise during the retreat have the potential to humble the conditioned ego—an essential prerequisite in all ancient traditions for the union-mystica or evolutionary metamorphosis to take place. With this great pressure and spiritual propulsion, enhanced by the alchemical environment of a mountain sanctuary away from home, powerful realizations are possible.
The conditioned ego, responsible for many blockages, can be liberated from the narrow, narcissistic limitation of viewing the whole world as revolving around itself. It stops taking everything that happens so personally, and obstacles that previously held such sway over one’s life dissolve as the heart instantaneously finds an unlimited capacity for openness, forgiveness, love, and compassion.
Usually, however, this does not happen instantly. The ego must first exhaust the projectile blame of personal misery on the outside and, with ever-deepening humbleness, take full responsibility for all the garbage it has accumulated over the years. This garbage—such as emotional baggage, personal hang-ups, and unhealthy habits or patterns of thought—can then gradually compost into the fertile soil from which the maturation of consciousness nurtures the heart flower into full bloom; hence the expression "no mud, no lotus."
Taking full responsibility means that one can no longer dwell in the victim mentality of circumstance. While still experiencing some of that misery, one can start to make peace with it.
It is instrumental to remove the judgment of oneself and others, while simultaneously finding true forgiveness, which creates effortless compassion. By seeing "obstacles" as fertile ground for growth and making peace with one's past, the ego becomes a humble servant to the true nature inherent in all existence. It realizes that it has been living in denial and has actually revolved around the true nature all along. With this recognition, the transformation process truly begins.
It’s natural that life won’t be perfect right away after any retreat, no matter how powerful the insights gained are. However, through intentional, continuous effort to apply newly discovered ways of being, the detrimental momentum of habits that can easily build up over time can finally be reversed. While I resist my misery that arises from a sense of separation I only deepen the suffering for myself and others. As soon as I can admit and make peace with my struggles I develop affinity with all those that feel the same. The sense of separation suddenly becomes the connecting link to relate with others and awaken the heart. This de-conditioning process is the essence of integration.
When the spiritual rite of passage that these indigenous retreats represent is crossed, the lessons learned must be consciously applied in daily life. Ancestral wisdom is not about a quick fix; rather, it offers deep insights into how to live as a human being. Embracing this path requires perseverance and commitment, leading to a lifelong journey with a wondrous destination being the journey itself.
But is all the work really worth it?
There are several common questions that arise in our modern collective. A good example of this might be: is it really worth all this effort? The mind is very stubborn and tends to fall back into its old habits. So if that’s true, what does it actually mean to be liberated from suffering? To maintain the center of love and compassion for all sentient beings under all circumstances? What if all these views are not even true, and after the death of the physical body, everything will not be as we've imagined?
I can only speak from personal experience. What I’ve realized so far in my life is that total liberation entails a continuously deepening understanding that each moment is a manifestation of willpower, aimed at the highest purpose and fulfillment of the most profound heart wishes; a recognition that is so deep, it burns through the marrow of one’s bones.
In this way, the only reality that makes my life worth living is the essence of impartial, unending, and pure love that’s cultivated through inner peace, reconciliation, and acceptance of oneself for the sake of everyone. This can only come from acknowledging one’s life not as a personal possession, but as a gift of Mother Nature to the whole Universe, inside and out.
The fulfillment, gratitude, and joy experienced as a result of this way of being overflow to such a degree that they naturally ripple outward into the world. When I can see the positive effects not only in myself but also in the people in my life, all the work is certainly more than worth it. It is a labor of love that results from the divine mystical union between the complementary of mind and heart, allowing us to be channels of love, immersed in the here and now.
ðŸ’Inspired to make and active step in collaboration with us?
