The Root Of All Human Pain

If you look at the raw reality of your human journey,

Don't you see that in some way you've been on a journey of embracing a deeper authenticity of what you are?

And what you discovered was the immensity of pain that comes with hiding from your own heart,

Which is like saying you are not allowed to be what you are.

You know what it's like comically?

It's like a tree that starts out as a seed and cracks open,

Begins its journey,

And then thinks the whole point of his journey is to be the tallest tree.

And so it's going to be anxious the whole time,

Afraid that it might not be the tallest.

And it's going to exert a tremendous amount of imaginary effort,

Thinking that the most important thing is in the future,

Not realizing that life has simply asked the tree to be a tree.

And see that it's already happening.

See that within the seed is encoded everything that you need to be what you are.

And in being what you are,

Which in a way is to say to be as God made you,

Is all that life or God is asking for.

To be what you are.

Because in the reality of what you are,

The truth of what you are,

Is your purpose that is in service to all that is.

It is your part to play.

Which,

You know,

And maybe a more traditional way is to say be yourself.

Which in another way is to say honor what is deeply sincere and true in your heart.

Do you not see that this is the purpose?

In one way,

It's so subtle,

But it's not.

It's not.

It's profoundly obvious,

But in another way,

It's profoundly terrifying.

Because it also points to the one thing that you're most afraid of.

Which,

In a manner of speaking,

Is to truly be yourself.

Which,

In another way of speaking,

Is to be honest.

And what's kind of funny about this is because if you look at the raw reality of your human journey,

Don't you see that in some way,

In some way,

You've been on a journey of embracing a deeper authenticity of what you are?

And what you discovered was the immensity of pain that comes with hiding from your own heart.

Which is like saying you are not allowed to be what you are.

Do you see that?

I understand if you don't see it,

But if you're here watching this,

It's very likely that you see it.

But I understand the many people who don't see that because we can look at our own experience.

There was a time we didn't see that,

Right?

There was a time we were so convinced that the real prize and purpose was some future version of ourselves that had the whole world's approval.

Some future version of ourselves where we were no longer human,

But special and better than everyone else.

Only to realize that that is not the real prize.

That is not even a real thing.

That is a photoshopped version of a human.

A photoshopped version of a human that will never exist.

That'll never be real.

Which speaks,

Of course,

To the beautiful fear we have of our humanity,

Of our authenticity,

The raw totality of what we are.

In the same way that we might be scared of life's raw totality.

We might look at the lightning or the storm and think that's not lovable.

That shouldn't be allowed.

And so we hide it,

We turn away from it.

We turn away from it and we say,

No,

Not that.

Not that.

You know,

And also speaking to the point of life.

And understand,

Playfully as I say all the time,

I'm just using silly words and I'm making all of this up in an attempt to point to something that is beyond words.

But another pointer that might be helpful as it relates to understanding the fundamental point and purpose of life.

You know,

There's an illustration that I think makes this quite obvious.

Can you see this,

That in your whole human search,

The thing that you crave most is some flavor of what we will call love.

And what I mean by flavor is some extension of love,

Whether it's to be approved of,

Which is to be seen with loving eyes,

Whether it's to not be judged,

Which is to be seen with loving eyes.

To be included,

To not be abandoned,

Which is to be seen with loving eyes.

To find the perfect partner that will embrace you totally,

Which is to be seen with loving eyes.

To be treated kindly and fairly,

To be seen with loving eyes.

Even to have a billion dollars.

Why?

So that I can relax and feel good about myself,

Which is to see myself with loving eyes.

And I imagine for some,

This is easy to see.

And maybe for others,

It's a stretch.

But in a way,

I just want to promise you that that's what's going on.

At the absolute core of what you are,

What you're looking for in this life is love.

Which in a way,

And in a manner of speaking,

Is to say that this whole life thing is about love.

And of course,

We have it from the human perspective,

And we can only see it from that perspective.

But I would also suggest that whether it's another creature or a form of vegetation,

This is still a container that seeks the fulfillment of love.

Albeit in different forms and expressions.

The container itself,

Which we call life,

Is in fact love.

And again,

I understand if that's a stretch,

But I'm just using silly words.

But again,

Pointing to something that's profoundly true.

And of course,

This is what spirituality has tried to say since the beginning.

And my playful attempt is to break it down to see the truth in it,

In our everyday lives.

And not have it remain as some cute spiritual phrase,

But to embrace the reality of this.

That this is the life that you are living.

A life that is only in search for love.

Which is to also say the truth of life.

Which is to also say the truth of what you are.

Because if the truth of life is love,

And all that is in life is an extension of life,

Then the truth of what you are is love.

Which on the other side of this coin,

As it relates to the only thing you want,

And it might look like you want a thousand things,

But underneath it all,

It's just love.

We can look at the only thing you're afraid of,

Which you might think it's a thousand different things,

But it's the same thing.

And it is the fear of not getting the one thing that you want.

It is the fear of love's absence.

If you look at any emotional experience that you have,

Anything we might call a positive emotional experience,

Is some recognition of love's existence.

Some flavor of love.

And every what we might call negative emotional experience is the fear of love's absence.

Some flavor of love.

And what's wild about it is we can tell 10,

000 different stories that say it's not that.

But underneath all of those stories,

That's exactly what it is.

Check out my profile for upcoming retreats,

Live broadcasts,

Courses,

And other opportunities to open up,

Fear less,

And love more.

Your life is sacred.

Don't waste it hiding behind an adorable but imaginary fear.

It's time to show up.