By Howard Peiper
Everybody wants to become enlightened, but nobody wants to change.
This is the simple, daunting truth that has been staring back at us for eons. The question arises, “Are we ready to change now”? Then it is usually followed by a strange and surreal moment of ambiguity, confusion, and backpedaling.
It is a very rare moment indeed when the evolutionary impulse—that mysterious urge toward unbounded freedom and our own potential for radical transformation in this life—arises in awareness, unimpeded by the endless fears and desires of the separate ego. But it is infinitely rarer that, when that impulse arises, there is a bold and fearless response that says yes and only yes, now and forever.
The price of radical transformation is always the same—we have to let go of fear and attachment.
In letting go, we discover a completely different perspective on what it means to be alive. It is these two tasks: transcending fear and attachment and being willing to embrace a new way of seeing that most seekers find so challenging. When the spiritual experience sweeps through our entire being—spontaneously emptying us of fear and attachment and opening us to a higher level of perception— there is nothing to let go of. Temporarily, we are lifted out of our unconsciousness, and the way we perceive reality and our place in it shifts dramatically. So it appears that a real transformation has occurred, that maybe we have indeed changed. But when the higher state of consciousness begins to recede, when the intensity of the spiritual experience becomes the simplicity of life as it is, when we discover that we have not changed as much as we thought we had, how profound is our interest in the miracle and mystery of the revelation that just descended upon us? Indeed, how much do we really want to change, even now that we have seen the “light?” Are we willing to pay the price of permanent transformation, when it demands everything from us?
More often than not, the spiritual experience, the taste of enlightened consciousness, merely gives us a glimpse of the possible. In other words, the spiritual experience is rarely the end of the path. But if we are sincere in our aspiration for genuine transformation, it can be the real beginning. The beginning of a compleetly different life, one that is free from fear and attachment and informed by revelation and an inspiration that comes from an unknown source beyond the mind. But for this to be the case, we have to WANT TO CHANGE NOW. When? NOW! Why? Because the genuine willingness to change now is itself the letting go of fear and attachment that reveals a completely different perspective. Now.
Dr. Howard Peiper, N.D., nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, has written several best-selling books on nutrition and natural health. His website is: www.walkthetalkproductions.com