Q: We’re living in a time where there are no morals, no scruples, no acknowledgement of truth. What does this mean for someone trying to live a spiritual life?
Oddly enough, it’s actually helpful for those on a spiritual path. With no stable systems to lull us into sleepwalking, the only way forward is through presence.
Growth comes from having no stance, no engagement, no resisting what is. Just allowing yourself to witness the moment as it is, without judgment, without agenda. The hope comes in seeing clearly and responding in the present. Not from a reaction of something you read in a newspaper or heard in some online space or from discussions with friends, but truly from this moment. No baggage carried forward.
This requires having a sense of centeredness. And from that centeredness, knowing what to do next becomes self-evident. So, fear doesn’t enter because there are no what-ifs. What-if is born from past fears projected onto the future. In the present moment, neither exists. Only presence remains. In that perfect alignment, What-if also doesn’t exist, and clarity is the state of being.
When there is no longer a rulebook, instead of rushing to create a new one, view it as an opportunity to remain fully centered in the present. From there, understanding arises. The next action or non-action reveals itself naturally.
Whenever you expose yourself to news or culture in any form, you will be pulled off-center. It pulls you back into the “small self.” Not as in something insignificant, but as in the self separate from the All That Is. This small self looks for something to grasp onto, to stabilize itself. And whenever it chooses the small-self option, it has to spiral back into the chaos.
Q: Why have so many people given in to fear?
That is like asking, why has someone given into pneumonia? Why has someone given into measles? Why has someone given into any contagious disease? Fear is a contagious disease. It’s fast-spreading, invisible, and carries nearly 100% infection rate.
To heal, you need to remove yourself from the source of infection.
Q: Is there a vaccine?
Yes. Meditation.
Only by keeping the mind clear and centered, only by remaining connected to the All That Is, does fear begin to lose its grip. At first, it only takes one small breeze to cause a full-blown infection. But when one meditates long enough, it would take a powerful storm to shake you.
Meditation teaches the mind to untangle itself from what isn’t real, from what is culturally driven. But it requires commitment to move from the small self to the greater Self. That’s the only way through. Because the small self is made up of a substance like Velcro, every passing thought or feeling will stick to it. And we believe those stuck bits are ours. But they’re not. They’re just debris carried by the wind, caught on the Velcro of our emotional state, which clings out of habit and reactivity. We think it is ours. We thought it. We felt it. We believe it. Not realizing it has nothing to do with us.
Q: Is there a better way to meditate now? A technique or guided meditation that might be more effective?
There are many techniques and guided meditations. And they all can be effective. That is not the issue. The issue is lack of consistency.
“I don’t feel like meditating tonight, I’ll do it tomorrow.”
“Meditation is too hard, I give up.”
“I’m not seeing any benefit after two days; this is a waste of time.”
That’s the small self talking. Doing everything in its power to discourage you from becoming proficient.
Once you know that’s its game, you can meet it with compassion. It is just a fear reaction, because it knows that by becoming proficient in meditation, the small self loses its power to promote its version of reality.
Think of culture as an addiction. And think of meditation as the detox. But also understand that the small self doesn’t want to let go. It likes clinging to the chaos. To the hand-wringing. To fear. These become its own kind of self-soothing mechanism.
This is why the small self chooses to make meditation difficult. Because one of the effects of meditation is to move us out of the small self state. And that creates an initial rebound effect where the small self experiences the addiction even more keenly and more intensely. And, so, fights even harder to keep control.
Technically, it is not hard to stop. The steps are straightforward. It’s like removing the training wheels from a bike. It takes a little courage, but the large Self already knows how to ride. You just need to get on and give yourself a little push.
Q: What’s awaiting on the other side when you jettison that small self?
The All That Is.
Q: And what’s that like, to be in the All That Is?
When you move beyond fear and cultural conditioning, what remains is peace. Clarity. Kindness. Compassion, Understanding, A sense of fullness. Quiet joy.
You understand that all is. And in the all is, it is all as it is.
You shift from a reactive state to the observer state, to the understanding state, to the acceptance state, to the witness state.
And finally, you come to rest in peace.