An Alternate Paradigm

By Christopher Goodsell

What I am about to say is not true, but then truth is a whole other topic. This is simply a place to look at life from, an alternate paradigm to check out. This is not new thinking but if it is new to you then all the better.

Consider for a moment that YOU are actually made up of a myriad of different and very distinct parts. Your physical body, your soul or spirit, your emotional body, your energetic body, etc… Now, just as a computer needs an operating system to keep track of and manage its different applications and programs, we also have an operating system. We usually refer to it as the ego. For the most part, we tend to relate to the ego as being the entirety of us just because it is often the loudest component.

The ego has a job to do.
At all costs, it must survive.
It is the driving factor in almost every thought, word and action of every human being on the planet. It is the root cause of all arguments, wars, love affairs and almost every other relationship that you can think of. The machinations of the operating system are the very things that keep us separate from the experience of our essence selves, our soul and our unity and oneness with the universe and spirit.

We keep hearing about the “law of attraction,” “the secret,” the coming “shift in consciousness,” etc. We love all these things and more. Why do we buy in to them so whole-heartedly? It’s purely because all of these things put all the power firmly in the hands of the ego. It loves the fact that it can cause and control the world just by its intention. It loves that there may be a coming “shift in consciousness” because all of these things ensure that the ego will not just survive but thrive in a future where it can control the very molecules of the world around it.

Consider That:
YOU HAVE NO IMPACT OR CONTROL OF ANYTHING.
Your life, the world and everyone in it is all just a play written by God.

As much as I even hate to use this currently fashionable phrase, the real “secret” is that in order to get where we are saying we need and want to go, we need to completely destroy ourselves. The path to spirituality and oneness is not full of fluff, unicorns and fairy dust but rather the total annihilation of everything that you know yourself to be on a daily basis. This is not even a secret. It has been the sub text of every teaching by every realized being and spiritual leader for the last 8000 years.

For one moment, try on the idea that everything you see, hear and interact with is actually an illusionary experience filtered through and perpetuated by the ego, whose only interest is to justify its own existence. Suddenly in this paradigm it becomes clear why we argue, why we strive to evolve and get promoted and why we go to war. It’s all about being right, it’s about justifying a position and opinion that has been created by and held by a group of egos that has gotten together because they believe that there is strength in numbers. There is no experience of oneness or divinity here, in fact that experience is not even a possibility.

The utopian future that we are all so busy talking about cannot be reached by traveling this path. The only way to find this peace and unity that we so desperately pray for is to give up our egos completely and surrender to the inevitability of reality.

Let’s try a little experiment here...
You are about to meet your ego face to face. You’ll recognize it because it will be the voice in your head screaming that everything I am about to say in not only wrong, but impossible and I should probably be shot or locked up for even suggesting such a notion. Ready? Then here we go.

YOU HAVE NO IMPACT OR CONTROL OF ANYTHING.
Your life, the world and everyone in it is all just a play written by God, The Absolute. It is all just unfolding and you are nothing but a character speaking your lines and playing your pre-determined role. The events of your life, what you consider to be good, bad and otherwise are nothing but a series of scenes in this never-ending performance.

OK, now just for a second, stop and listen to the voice in your head that is arguing against this idea.

That would be your ego in full flight. You see your spirit, essence, etc. is eternal and as such has no concern with survival. The ego however is so busy justifying itself that while it is in control you never get to experience the very thing that we all crave.

There are as many paths to your own spiritual realization as there are people on the planet. The one thing they all have in common is that in order to hear and experience “God” YOU (your ego) must be silenced and this, my friends, is the longest short trip that you will ever take.

Christopher Goodsell is a native of England, and a full time student of Metaphysics and Nondualism as well as Creative Director and Editor of Aquarius. Christopher@aquarius-atlanta.com