In my last post: “The De-glamoured View,”  I said that at a certain point in our journey to enlightenment most of us need to undergo  a gigantic ”humbling” - although, to be honest, we usually experience lesser humblings prior to this, as if to soften us up for the big, painful one! In today’s post,  I thought I would elaborate on this very important aspect of our spiritual/soul  journey, which can be, if we allow it to be, a major turning point in how we live our life.

 The Purpose of Our “Humblings.”

 All humbling experiences are intended to strip us of our arrogance,  and one of our greatest arrogances is our tendency to believe we have the ability to manage our life successfully, and often the lives of other people,  as well.   To believe we have this power to control most of what happens  in our own and other people’s lives,  is both an illusion and an arrogance, and our “humblings,”  are  attempts by our soul to cure us of this hubristic attitude.  

Quite simply, our soul attracts  a humbling experience  to us so that the size of our ego can be reduced. In  plain language:  so that we can be firmly put in our place and shown that we are most certainly not the captain of our own ship -  our own life. Neither are we capable of being the captain of other people’s ships, or lives.   This is a very important lesson  we all have to learn in life and we discount it to our cost. Incidentally, I’m using the term “ego” in this sense, to mean our sense of individual self, IE. the little “me” or “I,” that we perceive ourselves to be. 

The Real Power. 

There is a guiding and ruling force, deep within our soul that is the real captain of our ship. It is this divine light, this guiding spirit,  that is always in the driving seat of our lives, and this is true for everyone.  It is this spirit, which is linked to the Universal Consciousness, to All-That-Is, that holds the real power over what happens to us, or doesn’t happen to us. 

Once we accept this fact, and learn to work with this greater guide and power that lies embedded within our soul, we can start to live our lives more consciously and purposefully,  as co-creators with the Divine,  rather than being in opposition or competition, as it were.  Once we do surrender complete control, our life can unfold in a more harmonious and  joyful way, simply because we’re cooperating with,  rather than struggling against,  this greater, higher,  power, which is always, if we but knew it, trying to teach us how to create heaven on earth. 

 The Divine Plan

The spirit within us is always pushing and pulling us towards experiences which serve both the Divine plan, and the whole of humanity, which is that All-That-Is  will become fully manifest in the world through us, as we link our individual consciousness to the Universal, or Divine  Consciousness. In this way, we become unified with all of Creation as the Divine reunites with us and the circle is complete. This is our ultimate destiny.

Our attachment to the idea that we alone, as an individual, “little self,”  or ego,  is in control, and has complete power over our own life, and are completely  responsible therefore for what we achieve or accomplish, or don’t achieve or accomplish,   is a huge hindrance to the Divine plan, which requires that we learn to  co-operate and be guided by the spirit within,   becoming co-creators,  and  active, willing  participants in the higher plan.  

  As long as we insist on believing that we, as individual egos,’  are the greatest power, as it were, and insist on focusing on our personal, individual concerns and interests, we have to endure ”humblings,” and painful soul lessons, until we finally get it, and humbly surrender to this wiser, more powerful,  guiding force.

Unfortunately, it’s often only when we realize we’ve failed miserably at something,  or become disillusioned with the suffering that we, or our loved ones, have had to endure,  that we’re ready to  give up the idea that we’re doing ok. on our own. Then,  often when we’re at our lowest point,  are we ready to consider that there might in fact be a better way to live our life than we have been taught.  When this happens, we have reached an important  turning point, and are free to choose to consciously align with the higher, Divine plan, instead of going our own way, pursuing our own, strictly personal, interests and goals.