Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
– Rumi
Millions of years of evolution have programed Homo Sapiens for success. The success of staying alive long enough to find a mate and raise a family. It is built deeply into our brains and our minds, which are tools whose purpose is to facilitate this biological success. They do this by learning what helps us survive and what doesn’t. They do this by judgement, backed up by emotional charges on all our experiences.
As social beings we have developed collective experience, collective judgement; still encoded emotionally in the brain, still aimed at being successful. The definitions of success have evolved as we have. As our social roles have specialized so have the definitions. On top of basic survival there are now many other layers and options about what success means. But there are still definitions, and we are still programed to follow these, to be successful in some way.
With awareness and hard work you may have let go of the definitions of family, of school, of the other layers of society. But it is likely that the machinery of judgement and definition has not gone to sleep. If you have ever been in a new situation, or one that is not unfolding the way you had expected you may have felt the part of your mind that is looking for a new definition of success. It really doesn’t care what it is, as long as there is one, so it can feel good about itself and what you are doing or not doing. So we take up spiritual definitions. The process hasn’t really changed, the mind is still following its basic program to be successful. These may be personal, or even religious or spiritual, but the mind will have its definitions.
So like the mystics we come to the question: how do we find the place where the issue is never raised at all? That deep place of the Soul that is beyond the human mind with its conditioning and programing, where the Self is always OK. There is no goal that needs to be attained, no purpose that must be fulfilled, no test that must be passed, and the Self is so present and the world so full that the mental machinery has no place.
Once you have found this place in yourself, you can come back to worldly activities, or not. You can take up tasks which have standards, and complete them well. But you are not saddled by the internal judgments and doubts. The tasks of your life are not what define your worth as a soul. That is an absolute given. The divine loves you unconditionally, and when you can find that place yourself, the world changes and success is no longer an issue that torments or drives you. You will find out how much energy has gone into this process, how much life force you can reclaim. You can be happy “just because”, not having to earn it first.
Out beyond the need for success there is a field of peace and joy. Let’s meet there soon.
(© 10/2011)
