Application Part 5

January 4, 2025

​​​​​Application Part 5

It is tough to apply consciousness when we feel unfairly treated. Life may have given us a terrific blow, or we may have been dealt a bad hand compared to others. Sometimes, we think our particular deficits place us below others. We notice that other people have wonderful attributes we did not receive, so we feel short-changed. We may have had to work hard while things seem to come quickly to others. We say, “This isn’t fair; it isn’t right.” We may have had losses or injuries that others have not endured; therefore, we feel defective or sometimes even “snake-bitten.

Our unchecked egos are apt to quickly grab hold of injustices and incorporate them into the pain body. The pain body, an agent of the ego identity, can turn the perceived inequitable treatment into martyrdom; injustices are worn as battle scars. Some of us gain a sense of power and even honor when we bring our injustices or inequities to the attention of others. For some, the suffering is shades of “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…” But there is another casualty that can occur: we can believe the narrative that it’s our lot to live as damaged and short-changed.

The good news is we do not have to live as damaged goods. We do not have to envy others and pity ourselves. We do not have to feel we are missing vital parts of ourselves and, therefore, can never measure up to others. When we apply spiritual consciousness to our circumstances, we experience others and the world through another lens.

Once we understand what type of ego we have and its way of handling our perceived deficits, we can take an objective look at the unhealthy ego’s defense; then we see how often the defense is not based in truth. It is based on the ego’s perception of the truth.

The soul perceives our deficits differently from how our ego sees them. Our soul doesn’t feel less than others because of its deficiencies, losses, inequities, and injustices. Yes, we may long for particular gifts that we may not have… Yes, our losses and weaknesses may leave gaping holes in our lives as we had hoped them to be… but the soul knows that its particular injustices, losses, and deficits are not snake bites. Instead, the brokenness they give us, allows us to become conscious of everything we were completely unaware of about ourselves, others, God, and the universe. That’s huge.

When we apply consciousness to our deficits instead of self-pity or the pain body, we have equanimity. In consciousness, our deficiencies spur on faith, adaptation, ingenuity, creativity, compensation, and self-reliance. They are also the touchstones of humility. One of the biggest consolations is that if spiritual consciousness is applied to our injustices and deficits — they become the light that helps us to see, sometimes for the very first time, all those who are broken (and in some manner, we all fall into that category.)

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Spiritual practice: Is there anything about yourself you feel is defective or an injustice you must bear? What are the spiritual advantages of these broken parts of yourself?

Self-inquiry: How may it be possible for your brokenness to bless you?

Dear God, 

I pray for consciousness. It gives me the truth I need to know about my journey, and it tells me that my cross to bear is my cross to bear. Help me understand, beyond all knowing, that all my brothers and sisters have their crosses to bear too, even if it may not appear that way. Amen