Defiance

Have you ever been in a situation where you decided to take a stand against an opposing force? Of course you have! Here are a few good examples:

Man to woman:  “You can’t tell me what to do! I’m going to do what I want, when I want and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

A child in the grocery store who falls on the floor, kicking and screaming, because her mother said she couldn’t have the sugary cereal.

A weight-lifter, swearing under his breath to the bar he’s trying to press, “You will NOT get the best of me. I will beat you!”

The down and out person who blames it all on God and asserts, “I don’t need you, anyway.”

Defiance is ego’s way of digging its heels in when it feels threatened and it stems from deep fear.  In the experience of being defiant, one doesn’t see the fear at play because the focus is on the opposing force. But defiance wouldn’t exist without challenge to something that the ego doesn’t want to give up.

It is part of the illusion of choice and control. The personal self believes that it is the one making choices and that its will determines its current and future conditions. But the energy found underneath defiance reveals how tenuous the whole belief truly is. Nothing believed in that results in fear can be real or true, because fear itself is a false state.

In highest Truth, there is nothing to fear. You are perfect and whole, just as the One source…your source…can only beperfect and whole. You have your existence within that source of perfect wholeness, or holiness.

But, you say, I don’t feel perfect and whole. I feel imperfect and disjointed. My life is a mess and everything I try to do to make it better always ends the same way.

And this, my friends, is your reality simply because your consciousness is still identified with the concept of the personal self. This identification is what sits underneath your sense of “you”…your likes/dislikes, your needs/desires, your satisfaction/dissatisfaction.

And it is that false sense of self which has to hold on tightly to its beliefs in order to feel like it has some sense of control. It is obvious that there are greater forces at play on the planet than the will of a human being. If a tidal wave is coming, your personal will cannot stop it from sweeping you away. If your body stops breathing, your personal will alone will not bring it back to life.

Humans, as self-aware beings, have forgotten, or have chosen to ignore, that there is a force greater than them. There is a force that makes the winds blow and the earth rotate on its axis. And this same force is what breathes you, or stops breathing you.  And yes, terrifying as it may be, that force could stop breathing you at any time…regardless of your desires or attempts to stop it.

That’s reality. It’s time to succumb to reality.

The reality is that you are nothing in and of yourself…on the level of the ego.

The reality is that you are everything within yourself…on the level of Spirit.

You are Spirit believing itself to be a person. Believing that life should be this way or that, that this is right and that is wrong, and that you can and will control your place in all of it. And this is precisely why it never works out for you. You have forgotten that the Source which made it all and runs it all has a plan for itself, as you, that the insignificant ego could never orchestrate.

Stop stomping your feet and shaking your fists toward the heavens. Stop judging yourself and judging the story of your life. Yield to that which is greater. The trickster that is defiance will only bring you more of the same undesirable results from the past.

It is time to get out of your own way. Pay attention to the world around you and follow the subtle inner promptings you receive from that higher aspect of yourself which is always present. It won’t make sense to the lower mind, but it doesn’t have to. Do it anyway. And in doing so, you will begin to witness the synchronicity and magic of a Spirit-led life.

It will put up a fight, and a strong one at that. But in the Light of Truth, defiance doesn’t stand a chance against what is real. All expressions of separation are destined to ultimately dissolve away. The question to ask yourself is this:

Is the temporary feeling of self-satisfaction resulting from your acts of defiance worth the perpetuation of your suffering?

Shusara