by Frank M. Wanderer,
Contributing Author, Conscious Reminder
Image Source: magnific
One of the deepest attachments of the human mind to its personal story is the idea of “destiny.”
From childhood, we begin to feel that we have a life moving in a certain direction, and within that life, certain things will or will not happen to us. From this perspective, even spirituality can easily become part of the personal story.
A person says, “If it is my destiny to realize the Self, then it will happen.”
At first hearing, this may sound humble or wise, as if the person were accepting the order of life. But if we examine it more deeply, something very strange is hidden within this statement.
Because who is the one saying this? Who is speaking about their own destiny? Who is waiting for realization to happen to them one day?
There is always the same center in the background: the personal self. That thought-created identity, which believes itself to be a separate being and which now wants to make spiritual realization part of its own story. The ego is extraordinarily subtle. It can attach itself not only to ordinary desires but even to the idea of enlightenment itself.
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And this is how the spiritual person is born. Someone who waits. Searches, develops, practices, hopes, or fails. Tries again. Imagines a future moment in which they will “realize the Self.”
Yet this very idea already contains the misunderstanding. Because the Self is not a future event. It is not an obtainable state. It is not something the person will one day possess.
The Self is that which is already present behind every experience. This is why the great teachers say again and again that the Self has no destiny. Destiny always belongs to the story of the person. To the body, the mind, the events of life, and the psychological patterns. Personal life moves through time. It has a past, a future, memories, hopes, and fears.
But the Self does not move through time. It does not become something, it does not evolve, and it does not arrive anywhere. Consciousness does not suddenly become aware of itself the way a human being learns something. Rather, personal identification occasionally loosens, and what has always been present becomes visible.
But the human mind finds this extremely difficult to accept. Because for the ego, this is a deadly realization. The ego wants to remain as a separate center while simultaneously becoming “enlightened.” It wants to preserve its own continuity. Secretly, it still wants to survive.
Because many seekers are not truly searching for the whole Truth. They are searching for a safer, more peaceful, more spiritual identity. A more refined ego. A state in which the person can feel more special, pure, or elevated while the personal center itself remains unchanged.
But self-inquiry is not meant for this. Self-inquiry is not the path of perfecting the person. It is a recognition that the personal center itself is not as solid and real as we once believed.
And this is where the seeker arrives at an inner point where bargaining can no longer continue. Because for a long time, a person tries to walk the spiritual path while secretly holding something back. A hidden identity. A desire. A self-image. A secret hope that “I will somehow still remain.”
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Consciousness, however, does not negotiate with the ego. One cannot awaken halfway while still clinging to separation.
And yet this is not a violent process. It is not about the seeker destroying themselves. The ego often imagines this and therefore becomes afraid. In truth, most fear comes from believing that if personal identity is released, only some dark emptiness will remain.
But the opposite is what actually happens. What disappears is the constant compulsion for self-definition. The endless psychological grasping. And what remains is not nothingness, but a far more direct and alive presence.
This is why the masters say that on the path of Truth, eventually everything must be placed on the table. Every self-image and every spiritual identity. Every secret desire to remain “someone special.”
Because as long as a person is still hiding something, there remains a center protecting itself. And perhaps this also explains why so many seekers suffer for long years. Not because Truth is far away, but because the person simultaneously wants to awaken and remain the same. This inner contradiction creates enormous tension.
True surrender, however, is not the heroic act of the person but the realization that the “someone” who spent an entire lifetime trying to control, preserve, and continue itself is itself only a temporary construct appearing within the infinite field of Consciousness.
And when this is deeply seen, a strange simplicity begins to appear within us. The search starts to quiet down. Not because the person has “reached” the goal, but because they gradually recognize that what they were searching for had never been separate from them.
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Excerpt from Frank M. Wanderer’s new book THE TEACHING OF CONSCIOUSNESS to Those on the Spiritual Path T (FREE BOOK on pdf. You can download now)
About the author: Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D. is a professor of psychology, a consciousness researcher and writer, and publisher of several books on consciousness . With a lifelong interest in the mystery of human existence and the work of the human mind, Frank’s work is to help others wake up from identification with our personal history and the illusory world of the forms and shapes, and to find our identity in what he calls “the Miracle”, the mystery of the Consciousness.
You can also follow his blog HERE.
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