The Spiritual Journey

The spiritual journey is one of the battle between life and death. By death, in this context, I mean the daily, ongoing process of being mired in the illusions as they are produced by the dreaming soul, which projects the material as real and the non-material as non-existant. And by life I mean the awakening process of the soul as it takes living insight into itself and the true fabric of the Universe.

Even if a soul has made the decision to awaken, this battle between shadow and light remains an internal one and at times even a tremendously subtle one.

Therefore it must be said that the soul's decision for awakening in the deepest sense must be rather a daily process of decision, since oblivion and forgetfulness, getting lost in the apppearances of things --- is truly the great enemy of the soul's desire to fly into the sky of liberation and this forgetfulness approaches us daily.

There is within each of us the shadow part that does not want awaken but rather wants to indulge in the play of appearances as a way of establishing externalized expressions that signal value to itself and others, thereby supporting the illusion of separation.

For the soul to step back and correctly perceive and witness the shadow's mechanisms is truly most difficult, to remain victim of the shadow's immense subtleties is a high probability.

It is in view of that great difficulty that Buddhists activate the 3 Gachchamis, wherein they take refuge (ask for help) in the Buddhas, the Sangha and the Dharma. Tibetans in fact have 5, asking for help additionally from the Lama and a protective deity.

To counter the daily subtle influences of our shadow, it is advisable to take refuge and ask for protection and help from the Forces of Light daily.