Nightclubbing in heaven
Let’s talk a little bit about embodied divinity...and also about the spiritual journey we take to "get there."
Because those two things, (enlightenment, and the journey to get there), don't actually go together, you know, and they never have. Oops, except that they do.
Whut? Yep, it's conundrum/paradox/quandary time.
And it's kind of an important one, because (you've heard this said a thousand times)...Your true divine identity awaits your conscious recognition and acceptance. Because your divine self IS right here, right now, and fully operational. You just haven't been able to access it. But now for the first time, it's starting to actually be within reach.
How exciting! Thanks to the rising frequencies, it is becoming more possible, and more doable, for more of us to gradually realize the mind blowing beauty of who and what we really are. We can call this incremental movement toward true self realization the enlightenment process.
But hang on a minute.
Teachings about enlightenment make it very clear that enlightenment is not a process. It’s not a destination. It’s not something we can go out seeking for and ever hope to "get there." Enlightenment (AKA your true divine identity) is already fully operational right here, and the only time it’s ever happening is right now. We are already it. And of course that’s absolutely true. Every guru would agree.
But here’s the thing. Most of us require some kind of time-based spiritual journey before we can let that ‘right-here-right-now’ realization sink in. So what the gurus are telling us is both eternally true, and experientially not true.
Most of us require some kind of time-based spiritual journey before we can let that realization sink in. So what the gurus are telling us is both eternally true, and experientially not true.
So what are the stumbling blocks to accepting our own true divine identity? And do we really need some kind of inner journey first, or not? The enlightened guru says not. Your own experience might be telling you something distinctly different.
You know me. I like to dive in and clear things up wherever I can. Especially the idea that says you're not "doing it right." The idea that there’s something wrong with you, for being unable to embody your own divinity right here, right now. Newsflash: There’s nothing wrong with you. Or more accurately, there’s nothing wrong with you that isn’t also wrong with the rest of humanity. It's just how we are.
So let’s break it down. What follows is a slightly goofy imaginary scenario, which might help to highlight the process and pitfalls of learning to accept your own divine identity. Maybe this can help clarify that whole enlightenment paradox...and give a clue as to why nearly all of us are likely to require a time-based spiritual journey.
Let’s say there’s a legendary dance club called Heaven.
Everybody’s been talking about it, so I decide I want to go see it for myself.
First I need to research carefully and find out where it is, because the club is located in a warehouse district someplace at the unfamiliar end of town. Not only that, I've been told there’s no sign on the door. Finding the right neighborhood, let alone the right building, will take some doing.
Time passes as I educate myself on Heaven’s general whereabouts. Once I’ve located the club itself, I go there to check it out. There’s a long line of rather beautiful people out front. I am dismayed to note they’re all dressed in shades of white. I’d had no idea there would be a dress code.
Even the (oddly familiar) bouncer at the door, his neck as thick as my thigh, is wearing a bright white tee over his muscled torso, along with a pair of white jeans. He looks up from his clipboard as I approach and shakes his head disapprovingly. I am wearing an outfit made of shame, and my overcoat is the color of self-judgment. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Humiliated, I go home to change.
Some time later, having acquired a much lighter-colored wardrobe, I approach the club again. This time I am confident enough to stand in line with the others. When my turn comes, the bouncer eyes me balefully. My outfit is a creamy pale gray. His critical gaze makes me shaky inside, but I stand my ground and wait for his verdict on whether I’m good enough to get in.
Close enough, he decides grudgingly after an excruciating pause, and consults his clipboard to check the names of invited guests. My heart sinks. (A guest list, I think to myself afterward, with a defeated sigh. I should’ve known. Of course I wouldn’t be on it. I never am.) Chastened, I go home once again, this time to inquire carefully into my beliefs about my own inherent worthiness.
Time passes. After much inner work, I now know I have every right to get into Heaven. I flash my sparkly new all-access pass at the bouncer, having realized he has no true power to stand in my way. I breeze past him. I approach the club and my excitement builds, as I hear the thumpa-thump of the bass notes reverberating through the walls. I stand at the threshold and peek inside.
The place is everything I’ve heard and more. It’s overwhelming. Magnificent. My nervous system can hardly stand it. The super high vibes make every part of me tingle. Not only that, the bass note reverberations send unfamiliar vibrations all the way down into the DNA of my cellular structure. It’s all very disorienting and honestly kind of uncomfortable. I can only stand it for a few minutes, before I need to go home and rest. Afterward it takes me 3 or 4 days to get back to normal.
But what exactly is ‘normal,’ I ask myself later? Normal is not where I want to live anymore. Normal sucks. So I make the conscious decision to acclimate my mind, body and energetic field, as best I can, so that all of me can be a better match with Heaven.
I make lots of short, frequent visits to Heaven over time, to help me get used to the thrillingly electric atmosphere inside the club. It’s a slow process; for the first several visits I stand back against the wall quite near the door, heart pounding, hands shaking, ears buzzing. While I’m there I spend my time quietly observing the wondrous activity all around me.
Gradually my heart rate starts to normalize; I notice I’ve grown calmer, more self assured, and my hands are much steadier than they were when I first started coming here. Now and then I leave my spot near the wall and venture forward timidly to perch on a bar stool to sip a cocktail. Delicious. And that bartender is so nice.
Despite the unbearably charged atmosphere, the attitude of everyone here is genuinely welcoming and inclusive. I begin to truly relax, and smile shyly at everyone I see. They all smile back with such infinite Loving kindness that my apprehension melts.
All my life I’d been hearing whispered rumors that this nightspot is a dangerous place, best avoided. But to my surprise, I begin to realize none of that propaganda is actually true. In fact, the more time I spend here, the more I start to feel remarkably safe and comfortable in this place. I feel like I belong.
Curiosity leads me to move around and explore the rest of the club. I discover for myself that all parts of Heaven are equally welcoming and wonderful. I can finally dismiss all those internal rumors once and for all: Because now I know without a doubt that Heaven is where I want to be. Heaven feels like home.
At some point, the timing of which is not within my control, I will be so comfortably at ease inside every part of this wondrous nightclub that it will occur to me I am the nightclub. I am also the DJ, the bouncer, the barman and all the beautiful people both outside and inside the club. I am the thrillingly electric vibe, and I'm also the insistent, awakening reverberation of the bass notes upon my own DNA. I am all of these things and so much more.
I always was, I just didn’t know it.
And had anyone tried to tell me I was, I wouldn’t have truly believed it—not way deep down. Not down where the DNA dances to its own persistently sleepy tune. No matter how willing I was to look in the direction the gurus were pointing, I just couldn’t connect firsthand with the truth I found there. Too much of my own mental, emotional, energetic and physical baggage had to be released first.
And that’s where the paradox comes in. For most people on a spiritual path, enlightened realization of true inner identity takes time...and a certain amount of preliminary work. Obviously the kinds of work needed are unique to each person. Not everybody owns a wardrobe made out of shame or shyness. Some peoples’ closets are full of other stuff entirely.
Yet the interactions with that inner bouncer seem to be similar for most of us. Back and forth, rejection after rejection, until the all-access pass finally shows up. And once we’re oh so comfortable inside the club, (however long that takes), at some point a lovely realization dawns:
We begin to notice what’s always been right here, right now; breathing our breath, dancing quietly to its own heavenly tune, as it waits patiently for our arrival in the place we’ve always been.