Although we each believe our thoughts are specific and personal to ourselves, in fact, our thoughts, fears, and desires are normal to all egos and are commonly shared. In this way, it is relatively easy to read the thoughts of most humans with just a few subtle cues. Thoughts tend to run along the same worn tracks leading to the same worn conclusions. Combining this knowledge with an understanding of the types of thoughts that individuals at different levels of consciousness will gravitate towards will, with experience, lead to becoming a most astute mind reader.
Seeing the commonality of human thought helps us to view our ego tendencies in a less personal and more universal way. It relieves guilt and gives lightness to the path by virtue of the collective and general nature of human experience. The ego is a shared human problem and its dissolution is a benefit to all mankind. Human life is inevitably filled with many hurts and injustices. We do not live in a world of enlightened beings, nor are we enlightened ourselves. We live in a world where most people are struggling, unhappy, and having numerous problems of all sorts.
This article is from The Love of Devotion
As students of life, we seek both relief from suffering and growth of happiness. Deeply considering uplifting ideas raises our consciousness from the realm of the material problem into the powerful and harmonious realm of the spiritual. It is what a dedicated spiritual practice is all about. We give up our own ideas, hurts, fears, and grudges and concede to the Greater. We expand and we heal. It becomes apparent that it would be impossible to feel alone as we are intimately connected to a thriving life-force. It is everything, yet, it is nothing. It grows silently and steadily. We are already it and It is already us. We continue to go forward with our spiritual practices and these practices increasingly envelop us in loveliness. We come out the other side as a transparent being; nameless but with the mark of God.
This edition of The Love of Devotion includes quotes, at the end of each chapter, which were in the original edition and were meaningful to me at the time of writing.
