Letting Go Of Earthly Goals and Illusions

I have been a spiritual seeker for most of my adult life.

I always believed that there is nothing wrong with wanting to make money from my career as an artist, becoming a better person, healing my perceived wounds, finding a man that I love to be with, becoming wealthy, building and owning homes, eating in creative restaurants, traveling and enjoying the pleasures of life, growing up in understanding and helping others along the way.

But there come a time in the life of every sincere spiritual seeker, in which she realizes that earthly dreams, will never truly satisfy her……and that the craving for earthly dreams, never stops….

At this point, I stand looking at the allure of MORE earthly dreams, and truly and honestly evaluate whether or not it is worth pursuing MORE of my time here on earth, looking for goals that do not hold what is real…

Allow me to explain…..

This morning I read an article about an artist in California who enjoys a wonderful art career with exhibitions at the NYC MOMA, and at the Pompidou in Paris.

At first, my mind drifted and I thought that I too, would like to take my own career into the next level and become a much sought after artist…. Playing with multimedia and ideas and having museums and major galleries phone me, asking to exhibit my work.

When I looked deeply into this “earthly career goal ambition,” I recognized that it is not much different from any other earthly goals and worldly ambitions that I aimlessly pursued during my whole life.

I closed my eyes and sat in meditation, seeking the advice of my wise inner guide.

These are the questions that my Higher Self posed to me:

“Will being a majorly successful artist will help you to NEVER get sick?”
To understand the nature of sickness versus well-being and how your beliefs causes and keep manifesting BOTH?….”

“Will it help you never die or understand the energetic nature of the vibrational body, and overcome your persistent belief that the body is a hard, fixed, physical thing?…”

“Will it help you understand why the body ages?… Would it help you understand how your thoughts, ideas and unforgiving beliefs, create all your imbalances, injuries, pain, and all that you wish to let go of?….”

“Will becoming a more successful artist help you understand the making and working of the mind?…..
The essence of life?…”

“Will it help you understand and overcome your identification with your body?…
To comprehend illusions?….”

“Will it help you advance in understanding the inner prison your keep on creating by identifying with your ego…. Or will it serve only to sooth your ego even more and to increase your identification with it?…..”

I sat in the inner meditation and took in the message silently….
I did not need to answer these questions….
It was clear to me that I was wishing for yet ANOTHER meaningless earthly goal…

Some carvings and ambitions that we do not even admit to anyone but ourselves, are very unexamined.

An example comes to my mind, which is very common and not very contemplated by many….. It is the dream of home ownership.

Most people are programmed to believe that owning your OWN home, is a wonderful thing and even a goal worth mortgaging yourself to, for thirty years of your life.

It is seen as a major goal for almost everyone, and one that I too followed for all of my life.

I wanted to own my own lovely designed home on a beautiful piece of land, with a gorgeous scenery, birds, flowers and lots of quiet…. I envisioned myself living there with the man that I love and cherish….

But how did I adopt this dream?….

Not long ago I saw a British TV show about the origin of the ‘Home.’

In it, a history professor followed the history of home ownership, through the last five hundred years.

While watching the show, I had so many insights and realizations coming both from inside me and from attentively listening to the professor, as she eloquently traced the origin of trivial items like the lock and key, and how we came to crave owning our own homes.

As it turned out, home-ownership is a very middle and lower class dream…

Please forgive me for being so blunt, but if you take the judgement value away from this statement, it is literally a true statement…..

There was a time around the world, in which only those who inherited elite titles, the royalty and those close to the ruling families, had the right to even own land or own a house.

Most others lived in rented houses on rented land, and worked their whole lives to pay for their rent, food, taxes and for their living expenses.

The right to own a home, has gone through many phases and evolved alongside the evolution of human rights and personal freedom.

The dream of home ownership became a victory of gender, as women fairly recently were allowed to inherit the family’s wealth and were permitted to own land and title to their own homes.

At a later point, homes were designed to show-off the success and material wealth of the owners, and had become linked with the search for self expression, creative design and even as a retreat to pursue religious and personal freedoms.

Owning a home in modern times, had morphed into a statement of liberty, autonomy, personal power, safety, financial independent, and much more.

A lot of unrelated things got entangled with the concept of home ownership.

After mindlessly craving, wishing and manifesting the dream of home ownership, I am now at a point in my life in which I look at this dream…. and I cannot help but smile at how naive and unenlightened I was…

Houses are not homes… They are walls lined with money, soil and a LOT of maintenance and financial commitment.

Yes, of course a house can be a home, if you imbue it with loving energies and with your own soul… But it is still your own perception that makes the difference and establishes the definition.

Now that I enjoy free roaming the world with a small backpack and a minimal amount of possessions, it seems a bit silly to pay many tens of thousands of dollars per year for houses I spend so little time in…. For insurances, real estate taxes, electricity, phones, Internet, garden maintenance, repairs and upkeep, a mortgage, cars that rarely get used….. and many other expenses related to owning homes and cars…..

Do not get me wrong…. I enjoy my homes very much and do not suggest that I would be HAPPIER if I had none…

It just that now, I can look at this dream of home ownership that I built into my consciousness without even remembering installing it there…. And realize that it holds nothing real….

After coming a full circle, I can say that yes, it is good to have money to enjoy your life and to never feel lack and the stress of debt or needing to work for a living…….. but…… Now I can see that if this dream was not so established in my mind (as I am sure it is in YOUR minds as well)………I could have been just as happy owning or even renting a smaller apartment in a place that I enjoy living in, and using the money to travel often.

I am sure that most of the people who will read this, will disagree with me… And that is OK with me…. I know now that I cannot submit to the messages of my ego, which masks themselves as coming from my true Self….

My ego will ALWAYS be fearful and never grow up….

This is because my ego identifies itself with my body, and perceives itself to be weak, vulnerable to attack, perishable and mortal….

Now that I have come a full circle, I would never truly feel shuddered if something were to happen to my homes, and I cannot bring myself to feel truly sorry for those who cannot afford to buy or own more real estate, cars, boats, hot tubs or planes….

It is in our detachment from our career-identity and in the freedom from attaching those things to our true self worth, that we can find true happiness….

I still believe that there is NOTHING at all wrong in enjoying earthly dreams.

I just do not feel that any of them are worth spending my time running after…. And I no longer believe that they are needed for our happiness and for our well-being, or should be cried over, or take center focus in our hearts and minds…..

Wishing all of you a wonderful illusion-free day!
Tali

P.S.
Today is Thanksgiving day in the USA.
It is a good time for me to express my deepest gratitude to you all, and to the abundance of Mother earth.

May you realize the Mighty “I AM” Magical Presence within your very own being, and ascend to a higher realm of living in which you can know first hand, the unlimited potential of your being.

With love and light,
Tali