HERE IS A VARIETY OF QUESTIONS AND MESSAGES I’VE RECEIVED IN RECENT WEEKS, which I’ve concatenated into a single paragraph, since they all dovetail into each other. (Then please see my reply below). Here are the questions and messages: “It’s all hopeless, man! The world is totally cracked! Everything has gone crazy — so crazy that I can’t even recognise the world anymore as a place that I want to be in. I’d rather disappear in a puff of smoke forever. It’s just not worth writing anything anymore. I try to talk to people about what’s really going on in the world — the manipulation, lies and stupidity — but they just treat me as if I’m mad. The level of people’s gullibility right now (especially in the countdown to the pretended US election) is STAGGERING! There is so much virtue-signalling and hypocritical posturing by folks wanting to big themselves up. Ugggh! Your lyrics and poems are very beautiful and noble and all that stuff. But what is the point of writing them? Seriously Alan, why bother? Hardly anyone looks at them and those who are interested in them already understand what you are saying, so what’s the point? All genuine artists are simply wasting their time. They’re banging their heads on a brick wall. Do something else in life and benefit yourself. Go back to Tenerife and bathe in the sun and sea, while writing an occasional candy-floss sonnet to titillate the masses. Any serious message today will be almost completely ignored, while anything irrational, superficial or nonsensical will flourish hugely. If I was to photograph my cat or my tattoos, or criticize Donald Trump, I would be inundated with hundreds of “likes” and ridiculously flattering comments. But when I’ve tried to start a profound discussion about the essence of true spirituality, there is a wall of silence. It just makes me want to give up on everything. What’s the point of anything? What is the world coming to?”

TO ALL OF THE ABOVE, I REPLY AS FOLLOWS: Please do not be downcast or disheartened! Everything is unfolding exactly as it has to. There is a process at work which cannot be comprehended by mere world-watching. The world is slowly but surely coming to a climax of evil and darkness which will make even the present time seem like a Boy Scout’s Garden Party. Much of this darkness is already here but it is masquerading as light and most of the human species is fooled by it. Human society across the world today is one vast lunatic asylum in which the lunatics are both the inmates AND those who run it. Deception is rife everywhere. The lie is celebrated. That which truly challenges is shunned and most only seek that with which they are familiar rather than recalibrating themselves for the welcome shock of the new. The human ego in all its naked ugliness is wallowed in unashamedly like hippos in a mud bath. A huge increase in the cult of celebrity numbs the mind and distracts the soul with its banal glamour and cringing sycophancy. Truth is either reduced to a relativistic soup or stood on its head like an inverted crucifix. Wherever it is written or spoken it will be at best ignored or at worst drowned out by a wall of wilfully ignorant shouting and boorishness. Almost the whole world is amusing itself to death with trite entertainment and stupefaction. This is simply the way that it is today. For now.

However, to those who say “everything is hopeless”, the message that I want to convey here is this: Just because everything *appears* to be hopeless doesn’t mean that it actually IS hopeless. When Saint-Éxupery’s Little Prince said: “That which is essential is invisible to the eye”, the scope of that essential invisibility is vast. If one merely looks at the external features of this world in its increasing madness and stupidity, then one will be thrown into a state of despair. But those things which can be seen are not the true barometer of reality, because that which is essential is not visible to the eye. THE TRUE BAROMETER OF REALITY IS THE VULNERABILITY OF DARKNESS TO LIGHT. Take a moment to let that sink in. Think about it very carefully for it is the foundation of encouragement. The light has to shine into the darkness in order that it should be exposed. Thus, those of us who identify with light and reflect it into the world are a vital presence in that world. To be a lightbearer is to see beyond that which can be seen merely by the eyes. We are not here to be confused and cast down by darkness but rather to expose it BY SHINING IN THE MIDST OF IT! This is not a burden but a glorious responsibility by which we should be inspired and encouraged! Therefore, even in the utter depths of darkness, the presence of just the tiniest shaft of light is a matter for rejoicing rather than despair. In time (sooner rather than later), vast cataclysms across the earth will utterly disrupt the darkness and permanently neutralise its advocates. Then the light will outshine the darkness and that darkness (which is a mere temporary vehicle for the establishment of light) will subsequently have no more place in this world. But this is a vast process involving countless elements and it will not happen overnight. If ever there was a time in which we need to rediscover the lost art of patience, it is now!

Someone in the questions and messages above said that when they try “to start a profound discussion about the essence of true spirituality, there is a wall of silence”. This is hardly surprising because spirituality today has, in large part, been reduced to a trendy religion or pseudo new age cult in which one attains some sort of “enlightenment” and ubercoolness through regularly attending outrageously expensive “workshops” and one-on-one sessions in which the goal is merely some kind of relaxed well-being. But this bliss-chasing spiritual chic — wherein one’s spiritual prestige is supposedly evidenced by the length of one’s dreadlocks, the amount of Reiki certificates one may have received, the number of yoga poses one can assume or the amount of cool one displays — is a phenomenal delusion which could almost have been invented by the powers of darkness themselves in order to fool the more gullible seekers! FOR THE ESSENCE OF SPIRITUALITY IS NOTHING LESS THAN AN INITIATION INTO ONE’S OWN DEATH… before we physically die! This is the stark reality. To follow the spiritual path is like setting out on a vast journey over hugely challenging and unexplored terrain in which the goal is the exposure and destruction of the false selves which we have developed during our lives. There is nothing cool and chic about this at all. Being spiritual is not some cute little game in which we feel kind of stoned, ultra-relaxed or boast of being blissed-out. On the contrary, this journey is only for those who are willing to come face-to-face with themselves — warts and all — and to exorcise the darkness in their own hearts. To put it in a nutshell, SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES ARE MEANINGLESS IF THEY DO NOT STRIP US BARE OF ALL ILLUSION AND THEN MURDER OUR MADNESS UNTIL IT IS NO MORE. So we should not be surprised that if we try “to start a profound discussion about the essence of true spirituality, there is a wall of silence”. The fact is that mostpeople want to be stroked and entertained. They want to feel camaraderie and security and light and bubbly. Therefore, pricey “workshops” which major on creating a sense of togetherness and well-being will always have a huge number of clients, though they bring no one closer to spiritual truth and reality. But the unmistakable call of the soul to become a pilgrim through the valley of the shadow of death will have comparatively few takers. You will not find it in a “workshop”. It cannot be bought. It does not need a “guru” to communicate it. Yet this is the only real pathway to spiritual growth and true self-awareness.

Of course, there is bliss and magical wonderment to be experienced on this pathway, but it is not at the first stop. Getting blissed-out is not the primary aim of the true seeker. S/he knows better than to attempt to linger there. The true seeker is only interested in the shattering of illusion leading to Truth and Reality. Nothing less will do. S/he hangs a sign on her door in the hotel of life saying: “Please disturb!” S/he wants it all and s/he sees beyond what can be seen.

So let us not be thrown into despair by what we see around us. And please do not hold back on creating any works of art simply because mostpeople do not receive them or appreciate them. That would be a terrible mistake. We cannot judge the results or effects of our works or activities by normal worldly standards. We have no idea what ripples our words and works are creating. Our purpose is not to count the number “likes” or other outward responses to our works, for those are merely ego-hooks and distractions. If we shine some light into just one responsive heart alone then that is worth a lifetime of working. It puts things into perspective if we consider that we may have come into this world solely to be a vehicle for light to be communicated to that one other soul! So many are looking to receive multiple positive responses for what they do as a justification for them. Yet just that one seemingly small action could be the only reason why we are alive at all. Yes! This is the cosmic perspective that we need in order to put our egos in their place. Don’t you just love that idea? Who knows what may lie beyond such a seemingly insignificant solo work? Maybe that little communication of light will then lead to vast ripples of light which echo through the ages in unseen but vital ways. This is the sobering and jubilant thought to which we must surrender if we wish to progress spiritually and emotionally in our lives. When we can flip our minds so that we are not fooled by appearances but instead see what is invisible to the eye, then we will find that within ourselves we will have a quiet and unshakeable confidence that somehow everything is moving exactly as it should be doing and that we — if we truly are lightbearers — have a special place in that process.

If we have stepped onto the way of the soul, then we are pilgrims, knights, troubadours, adventurers and spiritual warriors on a mission. Our place is to serve the light and be that light — willingly sacrificing our selfish desires for the needs of the light. If we want to be truly useful and spiritual we must welcome the dissolution of our selves and a reconnection with our souls. Then we will never feel despair or downheartedness. Even though we will have to face ourselves in all our alienation of consciousness and apparent aloneness in this three-dimensional matrix, we will never feel lonely. For there is a light which goes with us, which is one with us, which protects us, which inspires us as our Muse and which encourages us from now until the day our fragile flesh can live in this place no more.

© 2016, Alan Morrison / The Diakrisis Project. All Rights Reserved. 
 
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]