Whenever we find ourselves running after something -- anything -- to complete us, what is the real nature of this force within us that compels us in this way? We are pushed along in these pursuits by a very subtle, but solid sense of feeling as though we are somehow incomplete.
None of us would feel this uncompromising compulsion to complete ourselves, let alone be deceived into destructively compromising ourselves, unless deep within -- however subtle or seemingly inescapable -- we weren't living with a very powerful sense of being incomplete at our core. Given this unwanted state of self, what else can we do but yield to whatever's dangled before us; anything is better than living with the belief that who, and what we are -- in and of ourselves -- is just not good enough.
Anything tempting us, whispering in our ear, "Go ahead, just do whatever is needed to make yourself feel complete," belongs to a lower level of (our) self. Think of this prodding, and its pressure, as the will of an incomplete nature (within us) that promises fulfillment, but that in fact is unable to grant itself the sense of wholeness for which it longs.
Each time we yield to its invitation to complete ourselves -- by complying with what it tempts us to do -- we take another step deeper into dependency upon the very thing we thought would liberate us! From there it's just a short step to a host of painful attachments and the subsequent compulsive behaviors that follow. This is why we must wake up to all of the ways in which this incomplete sense of self sets us against ourselves; we must awaken to its stealthy operation within us.
The challenge before us is, on one hand, a great one; and yet, what does it matter how long a room has been in the dark once a candle is lit within it? The law is absolute: what is false must fade in the light of what is true. So, we must agree to see the following fact if we would be freed from our bondage born of being blind to it: our lives are now shaped by this "will of what is incomplete" in more ways than we can imagine. Its need is the seed of most of our actions, regardless of our unending ability to justify or otherwise explain away our service to it. But don't be dismayed by what's seen in the light of this new self-understanding: more is in our favor than stands against it.
The next time you hear some familiar old "voice" whispering in your inner ear, "Go ahead: take a drink, do some drug, obsess over something, fear the future, or regret the past," do something truly new and different. This totally new action doesn't take strength, or even wisdom; all you need is a conscious awareness of the following truth: something within you keeps promising to give you what it has never had the power to do, which is to bring an end to that endless feeling of being incomplete.
Keeping this in mind, here's the first step in bringing an end to what's been stealing your life: Instead of unconsciously identifying with what you're being promised, i.e., relief, confidence, peace, or some other kind of imagined pleasure, become conscious of the nature making what you now know is an empty promise!
Would you trust a shark to take you to the safety of a distant shore? Of course not! So rather than agreeing to climb aboard the comfort of that familiar thought or feeling, shake yourself awake from the dream that you now know it represents. Come wide-awake within yourself. Reclaim your attention; put it on what you have come to know is true, even as you watch the lies being told to you about what you must have in order to feel whole.
Each time you take this deliberate inner step towards true independence -- by the very fact that you've dared to make it -- comes a certain kind of miracle: as surely as flowers follow a spring rain, you see with ever-growing clarity the one great truth upon which all that is good and true stands. Who you really are is already complete.
Yes, that's right: Your True Self is whole, and has never been anything else. The first dawning of this new awareness changes everything that you've yet been unable to change. Here's why: the fullness of your True Self cannot be tempted by the empty promise of some happiness to come. You know, without taking thought, that as long as you remain inwardly aware of who you really are, the wholeness your heart longs for is there with you, right where you are.
Choosing this new kind of watchfulness is the seed of a new beginning. Rather than go along with the old willfulness that seeks instant gratification, it is we who take hold of our own attention and place it where we wish it held... on what is already whole and complete within us. But this spiritual step is only our first action to be taken.
As soon as we are centered in this healing remembrance -- even if we do not yet feel the Good we call upon come into us -- we must still give ourselves to it, surrender our self completely into what is already complete within us -- even if this act of giving is just to our hope for a wholeness yet to be known. This is the true enactment of our new understanding: We don't just want to "let go and let God;" we now know that we need to, because we've seen what happens when we hold onto what's hurting us.
This is why we must remain awake to ourselves within ourselves. Otherwise, each time we feel the pain of some indefinable emptiness come over us, we won't be able to remember that we already live within the shelter of a True Self that is, and always has been... complete.
