Are you content with and within your life? Is contentment even something you value, much less try to achieve for yourself?
In the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, contentment (santosha) was the second leg of preparing oneself for reunion with the soul. Its essence involves releasing all attachment to desire, whether in this life or beyond.
Such detachment is essentially achieved through a state of acceptance, gratitude and allowance for all things to be as they are created, especially ourselves. In short, the way things are is enough, that they are what they are meant to be.
But life in this world — not to mention the state of the world itself — is not based on being content or at peace with the way things are. Rather, we are driven forward, often in conflict with others or something inside ourselves, to bring about change in order to somehow relieve our discontent.
Yet it is not change in our lives or the outer world that will bring contentment, at least not for long. As soon as its attainment is at hand, our attention soon is drawn to something else for us to be discontent about. For the discontent is not simply with the state of those outer affairs, but with ourselves for being unable to accept what is and deem it enough.
You don’t have to go it alone.
As I wrote in Whispers in the Silence, this is a life of discontent. It brings situations where things aren’t the way we want, creating this gap between the lives we’ve got and the ones we want that demand attention to what is not, filling us with a longing and often an urge to do something about it.
This “gap” is evident in all aspects of self-help, as well as in the social, political and spiritual affairs of human civilization. The desire and effort to close it provide motivation to change ourselves and even change our world, and until we do we can find no peace.
Our discontent eats us alive, making us unhappy, unfulfilled, and unable to fully experience the moment in all its splendor. Thoughts of “if only . . .” fill our minds. So we set about to do what we think will solve the problem. Yet it is never solved, no matter what we get, what we do, or what we become. A new problem springs up to take its place. We want more.
Certainly life doesn’t bring us all we want, and sometimes not even what we need. Preoccupation with that lack causes us to act out to try to get it, sometimes even doing bad things to others as we try.
I come to this issue of contentment through the spiritual path seeking reunion with my soul and the wholeness of all that I am. Yet that seeking is based on a discontent of my own, a sense of incompleteness within this body and inability to know and manifest all that an omnipotent child of the Creator thinks it should.
It has given rise to a tendency to challenge myself at every turn, often leading me to choose the hard way to test my capabilities and make myself better, rather than take the easy way and just enjoy the journey.
It has even led me down this path of trying to empower you to become more, when in truth I know that I love you just as you are, because you are and because I know that one day we will know ourselves as one.
Yet this sense of lack and limitation in me has caused me to make choices that helped to create more of it in my life, forcing me to find a deeper peace in order to accept myself as less than I want to be. But still, no matter how deep my peace in the moment, it is just a facade I erect to trick myself into believing I’m making headway on my journey to Oneness. Because that discontent still dwells inside, waiting until my peace passes and I’m once again caught in the gap that remains unclosed.
What does this mean in real terms?
When our law practice was in full swing, I fought battles and enjoyed successes. I made money, enough to raise a family and live a comfortable life. I even felt good about myself having achieved the respect of my peers and trust of my clients to make things better in their affairs.
But it wasn’t enough. Discontent was never far away, reminding me that there more and calling me to find it, even if I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what that was. And so in my zeal to address that discontent, I embarked on the inner journey that I share with you today, one that eventually took my focus from the outer world to my inner one where I could know and grow myself toward the light of my Creator.
Along the way, I’ve dropped breadcrumbs for others who were called to such a path for themselves. This blog and the many articles within it are part of those drops, hopefully to bring you peace in a life that both advances your journey, and contributes to the world.
But my sharing has created other areas in my life where my discontent has thrived, particularly in my own business and financial affairs Monetization of that path has never been my forte (nor my intent), forcing me to choose over and over again whether to keep giving in service and trust my needs to be manifested in other ways, or to return to the law and fighting for dollars. And service continues to win.
So discontent is a familiar friend. It is not an enemy to be vanquished. It is my ever-present companion when I face the outer world, bringing me choices and guiding me where my soul wants me to go, including whatever it inspires me to share with you. For always service of my Creator remains at the top of the list, a service that starts and ends with light and love and going home, while bringing out our best to meet the challenges that arise along the way.
Frankly, I’m not sure if I could live in this world without it. For discontent is the product of unmet desires, and it is the release of these desires that is both the objective and one of the greatest challenges for the spiritual aspirant. Without desires, embodiment here might not have as much appeal.
Nevertheless, you may not see yourself as a spiritual seeker or feel it has much relevance to your life. Spiritual perspectives might not solve your problems, but they certainly can help you deal with them in a better way.
Moreover, those difficulties might just magically shift or dissolve, perhaps to bring smooth sailing ahead, but more often so new ones can take their place that will better test your expanding consciousness.
Love and money are two such essentials, but neither comes in sufficient quantity for most of us. Instead, we’re too often left needing more and doing whatever we think will bring it. The discontent consumes us and drives us onward, not to mention imposes suffering when we don’t get it.
Contentment, when we achieve it, then becomes a place of rest along our way through life. But that is just a temporary respite extended only by giving gratitude for what is and allowing all things to be as they are. For it requires a point of balance between our inner needs and those of our outer lives, a point that changes from time-to-time requiring continual sensitivity and adjustment. Sometimes that balance cannot be found, bringing discontent squarely into awareness until its trigger is addressed one way or another.
Besides, your discontent serves another purpose. For it’s reminding you that you are part of this world, and your creative energies contribute to the collective consciousness that creates this reality. As such, you bear responsibility to do your part, a part that becomes clear only when you open your heart and mind to the greater possibilities that lie inside and what they have to do with the future of our world.
So changing the world into what it needs to become starts with you, here and now in this moment. It begins in earnest when you realize where you’re going and start down the path to get there. Because soon you’ll be pointed back at where you’ve been and urged to use what you find to do something about it.
Even if you don’t see it that way, you can help lift the tide for all. For by raising your vibrations and reducing negativity and conflict, you can raise the collective frequency of the whole. So don’t let your discontent get in the way.
You have free will. You set the course for your life and choose where you go from here. You decide where to put your attention and how to value that which it focuses upon. You also decide how to process and use what life brings.
But those choices are an illusion. For when you’re on the path, you go where your soul wants you to go and get what it wants you to get.
Discontent is a gift to nudge you forward, the stick that complements the intoxicating whispers of your inner voice. Together they act to lead you to the experiences you’re here to get. Awareness of your spiritual journey and implementation of its principles allow you to make better progress and have a better experience along the way.
Whatever happens, go with love — for yourself, for others, and for the discontent that leads you onward.
God bless you indeed.
You don’t have to go it alone.