spiritual inflation

it's easy to start getting inflated once we make some kind of recognizable progress in spiritual life. we get the feeling that now we've really accomplished something, and convince ourselves that we're way closer to the truth than the average individual.

but anything that makes us feel more separate as opposed to more connected - no matter what the excuse - is taking us down a wrong path. a good barometer for judging whether we've taken an unproductive detour is to test how comfortable we feel in the presence of others, particularly people who aren't explicitly interested in spiritual matters.

if in the midst of such company there's a little voice in our head that says "i don't belong here" and we have a hard time interacting naturally and with sincerity, it means we've set ourselves apart from "the common herd" in our minds as special people deserving of special circumstances. this is quite obviously an effort by the ego to distinguish itself and accrue status - and there couldn't be a more common activity than that.

we are, always have been, and always will be an intimate part of all those who surround us. they need us and we need them; that's part of human life. we belong together because we are together. if we're using spirituality as a means to avoid some of life's most basic aspects, we're simply turning it into a game designed to make us feel comfortable as we neglect our responsibilities.

the danger always exists that spirituality will turn into yet another ploy by the ego to label ourselves as superior and brush off our basic human duties with spiritual concepts such as "it's all an illusion anyway," conveniently distorted to provide an excuse for our negligence. since spirituality seems so otherworldly at times, we forget that human spiritual development depends upon a good human foundation. spirituality is not an excuse to ignore our personal challenges and get off the hook from worldly responsibilities.

when we truly begin to integrate spiritual lessons, to learn them from the inside out, we feel increasingly comfortable around people (no matter what their personal interests) because we know how much we have in common with them. perhaps paradoxically, the more we leave our egos behind and in so doing become a deviation from the human norm, the more we identify ourselves as exactly like everyone else and rejoice in this fact.