Taking the Easy Road

Is spiritual awakening easy? There's plenty of spiritual teachers out there who will tell you it's totally effortless. You just do this, and this, and this, and BAM, you're awakened! So why doesn't it actually work that way for the vast majority of people? For most, spiritual progress is quite difficult. It's not the magic cure-all they may have expected, in fact, it often makes people lives even more challenging.

For someone who's already in the Flow, life is effortless. If you haven't quite found that Natural Flow yet or if you keep going in and out of the Flow, life can be very difficult. For a person like this, it's much easier to go along with a society that resists Source. It takes less effort to walk the heavily trodden paths that the vast majority of society is currently walking. You're life is largely preplanned, what could be easier? And you're surrounded by people who encourage you to keep walking that path. Ultimately though, it's an unfulfilling and empty life filled with distractions from suffering, with actual healing and growth coming few and far between.

I'm not going to lie to you and say it's easy to break out of that. It can be the most difficult thing you've ever done. I still recommended doing it, but I wouldn't approach the Path back to God believing everything in your life is going to suddenly and magically fix itself. It may be quite the opposite, it may be that your whole life falls apart first. If you don't see the bigger picture, this can be very painful. Sometimes that's what it takes though to shake you free from your attachments. Your illusionary life breaks down so you can build something much grander.

You might get fired from your job. You might become homeless. You might travel great distances. You might get arrested. You may break up with your spouse. You might disconnect from your friends. You might grow distant from your own family. You may be shunned by society. All of these things are possible, though none of them are certain. You also may find people who accept you for who you are. You may find much more loving relationships. You may find beauty, wonder and adventure. You may find Yourself. The payoff is worth the risk, for those willing to go the distance.

Often, what is difficult is what's worth doing the most. Challenging yourself can bring the fastest growth. Repeating the same patterns is usually what's easiest, but chances are if you're reading this, you're someone who wants to break out of the old patterns. Only doing what's easy is usually just laziness, though I would also be careful about working yourself to hard too. You need to go beyond those dualistic paradigms to find balance, and really connect with Source.

Ultimately, God is the "easy road" but getting there can be very difficult at first. The mountain is difficult to climb for the inexperienced, but it does get easier and easier and easier until it finally does become effortless. It just takes some effort to get there.