Dear Self-Improver,

What’s the difference between psychotherapy and spiritual inquiry? One helps heal the mind, emotions, the traumatized ego. The purpose of psychotherapy is to help you, to save or rescue you… from yourself probably… to fix you. It has to do w changing your relationship with your past and your future to improve your present. And it’s fixed in time, isn’t it?

Spiritual self-inquiry has nothing to do with fixing you or rescuing you from anything… not your problems, not your past. In fact part of what must be surrendered is the desire to be saved from yourself and your problems or the urge to fix yourself. Surrender the hope of this. You give up hope that you’ll be saved and in that moment – just before you spiral into hopelessness about that – you discover spaciousness. This is an important thought and I’ll return to it in a moment.

Many people are seeking spiritual growth to fix themselves, to improve upon themselves because they think they need improving. And they think others do to. Most people seek self-realization or enlightenment for the sake of that ultimate validation that one is finally fixed, saved, that one has arrived. They imagine a great relief there from the world’s problems.

Being honest, you will find this idea in you, and I in me. The belief that we are not enough as we are is so deeply engrained that few escape it. It’s a way the ego personalizes the concepts of enlightenment and self-realization. Then it becomes a story of achievement and failure. It becomes a path with steps and rules and measures.

None of this has anything to do with spiritual inquiry.

Spiritual inquiry leads, always and inevitably to what most fully and completely is there. It leads to what is there without exception – through thick and thin. Whether you at your best, or you at your worst, it is still there. The spaciousness. That spaciousness is who you really are.

More best moments of you lie ahead. More worst moments do too. You’ll feel great, bad, lost, confused, elated, blah, angry, peaceful, sad, hurt, betrayed, joyful… all again. These are part of this world we currently live… the world as it is right now. Right here where you are.

This is the essence of phenomena, of matter and the physical world: cycles. Up, down. Around and then around again. Sun, rain, drought, plague, good harvest – it all comes and goes in cycles and seasons. We get so focused on this that we begin to think we are here to make it all stop being that way, to fix it.

Self-inquiry and spirituality are not about getting repaired – though this can be a beneficial side effect. But it is not about this. That can be hard to believe, but it is so. The saving of things and the compulsive fixing of yourself and things and others – and all the time and energy that goes into this – that’s a big part of what must be surrendered.

Now. Self-inquiry may well start as fixing what is wrong in any given moment, true. In self inquiry, you will probably naturally first move thru your psychology… why did I feel that, why am i sick, why am I reacting this way? This is probably where you begin. And it’s a good beginning, it’s useful.

You will even have very worthwhile AHAs as you do this, ones that are a real gift to you. On a spiritual path it’s important to become more intimate with yourself. But do not stop there.

Spiritual inquiry goes deeper. What does that mean? Inquire deeper than this aha, move through those layers each time, past why and the psychology of it. This is the opportunity. Keep going.

Carry on past the why, the aha, move thru the stories, proceed beyond your beliefs and the things you identify with. Don’t get caught up in the thought processes that comes up about them. Make note of them if they serve but don’t linger long there.

Keep going because soon you will break thru all the layers. Not because you have fixed them all, more likely because you realize they are endless, lol. There are more layers and more layers and always forever more layers of the mind in the physical world. Endless layers of psychology, of whys and what’s and aha’s. Recognizing that, you surrender. You finally give them up, you stop that. You surrender.

The Moment of Surrender

You give up hope of being fixed, of reaching perfection. You give up that hope. And in that moment before discouragement overwhelms, before you spiral into hopelessness or despair, into self-judgment – just before that there is a moment where you are free – there if you pause, if you pay attention, there you will find spaciousness.

If instead you feel discouraged about ever being fixed, it means you switched from self-inquiry, spiritual inquiry, to the psychology of inquiry. If you remember you’re in a process of Spiritual Inquiry, you will surrender and pause. And in the moment of that pause – while you are still free from self-doubt or incrimination – the pause will reveal the spaciousness of life, of all that is, the spaciousness of you.

You break through and you see that the spaciousness is you and you meet yourself there. This is the purpose and the opportunity of inquiry. So take care not to institutionalize your spiritual inquiry by relating to it as psychotherapy. (more…)

Dear Pac Men and Women,

In early May I felt overwhelmed by the strong eclipse energy as well as what was going on in the world. So I asked for a message during my morning meditation time. It not only reminded me what Im capable of – what we all are – but it also made me smile. I just came across it again, on the way to something else. It seemed the perfect thing to share with you today. I think you’ll appreciate it as much as I did.

Lots of Love,
🌙 Mayet 🌙

PS – isn’t that an amazing image for remembering who your are and what you can do in the world?

From my Morning Musings, May 4th 2023:

A Message From the Heart of Love
Your Banquet is Prepared For You

Me: I feel tired from a restless night and the eclipse energy is so very strong. A message please to add to the wisdom and balance of the day.

Message: Peace be unto you, peace be unto your embodiment, peace be unto your life, beloved one.

The energy is strong now in this eclipse seasons, Yes. And in the moon phases of full and dark. And in the solstice time when it next comes. And the equinoxes are also strong. As are the new levels of incoming Light that stream forth upon you. And the many intensities that face you and your world, for dissension, strife, challenges and concerns abound. So you see what we are saying here – it is a time of many and varied intense energies and it is somewhat constant, true?

Some of these intensities might be judged desirable, some not, but all are felt intensely. Naturally we would say first to you: Find the peace that is always there and let it flow into your physical energy systems, calming cells and organs, balancing atoms, vitalizing organs, hormones, feeding muscle and sinew. We say this because it is ALL an energetic feast prepared for you, a banquet.

All this energy, do not judge it, eat it! You have advanced to this point, the point at which you can eat the energies of the world and benefit – for all energy is just energy. ALL energy is just energy. Good and bad is assigned only by you, and the stories of what good does for you and what bad energy does to you… these are just your own stories too. When you receive all this energy unto yourselves while holding such thoughts and ideas about good and bad, it does wear upon you. But it need not.

Here is a suggestion: think of it all as a Feast instead. It is energy that can be taken in and transformed by the Light you know yourself to be. And when transmuted in this way, what a goodness you do for the world. Feast on this powerful energy that imbalances many of you.

Feast rather than fight it or shy away from it in fear of being overwhelmed, rather than taking it in mindlessly, allow it to process without your existing stories of good and bad.

True it is a reflex of mind and body to shy away or avoid but we suggest instead that you move into it, feasting, as has been suggested. Gobble it cheerfully like the cute little game icon you are familiar with. (This is a reference to Pac Man, at least that’s the image I saw, lol.)

You can actually be made stronger by it. Imagine this! Harmonize with it, raise it to your level using your Light and intention and utilize it all for your benefit and the benefit of all. It is just energy. Integrate it and it will become part of what powers you, well beyond this eclipse portal or any other event. (more…)

Dear little flower,

A tiny blue flower pulled me deep into its world today. A wildflower (a weed to most people here about, I’d guess.) Such a successful ground cover that it fills my back yard most pleasantly and in no time.

The flower blooms near dawn and fades in the heat of the afternoon, turning brown, probably dropping off to seed quickly given how it spreads. It seems to be somewhat drought and heat tolerant but has loved the bogginess of our 10 days of storms and rain.

It’s sturdy of stem and root, yet easy to pull up, relocate, remove. What an adapter, and the flower a small rare beauty. When I bend low and enter in, this seemingly insignificant bloom affords me a long moment of awe.

Bees love it, and – pushing aside the dense foliage – I discover a fecund world of worms and bugs happily at home, generating much for many. Nearly knee-high now, it so thickly mats my small backyard that it can’t be walked thru.

Next year, perhaps I will lay down some boards or pavers for a path, to allow a short meander around the old pecan tree. Growing well in every opportunity – in dead leaves atop concrete by the fence, in cracks in pavement – I have let it grow. In three years it has transformed the poor dense soil in the yard into several inches of rich new topsoil. It’s a little miracle worker weed.

This is a plant, a flower, to learn from about thriving and adapting with style and humility, yet great beauty. It’s in perfect harmony with the elements and with fellow life forms and knows how to offer what is needed.

Observing nature being natural I always learn so much about how to be, don’t you?

🍃 Mayet 🍃