Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle

July 17, 2010
To pursue riches and at the same time following a spiritual path is akin to a rich man going through the eye of a needle – not likely! Serving two ‘masters’ is heading down a path damaging to both ‘masters’. Leading a material life of comfort certainly is one in which to sit back and admire all the pretty things, but for the one choosing the spiritual path, life can’t be bought. The inner joys are the riches to enrich the spirit.  In the bible it says, it’s easier for a rich man to go to heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle! Is it true?

I never paid much attention to that saying but remember it from ‘childhood sunday school’ as do millions who continue to be told over time. Never gave it much thought as being true or false, but just a saying that I let drift to the back of my mind, until recent years when I could experience and also see that manifestation. During most of the ’70’s and early ’80’s I lived very much in the New York City corporate world while living in a 5 room rent controlled, bohemian apartment with a roof garden. Until the early 80’s, I was able to balance a ‘spiritual life’ with a relaxed life in corporate sales that was easy for me to earn a living to support a lifestyle where little was needed for rent.

As the 80’s progressed until 1990, I left the ‘life serving two masters’ to one working hard in a Wall St. career. That consumed more time and energy, but payed for more material rewards that were quite enjoyable and comforting. That time came to an ending in a 40th floor luxury apartment over looking NY’s Central Park and the whole skyline down to the World Trade Centers which no longer is there since the 9-11-01 terror attacks. As I stepped back over the years into living a continuing more bohemian spiritual life on the Pacific Coast, the ‘eye of the needle’ story has become a reality that I can see more clearly, and experience.

It’s not just the rich that are kept blind to the mysteries of divine consciousness but those who fill their mind with desires of greed, substance abuse, self loathing, apathy, the drudgeries of common married life, etc. Self realization and evolving into self love needs clarity from ulterior motives that block one’s consciousness from moving into the ‘lightness’ of deep love and divineness. Coming to a ‘stop’ in moving in ways of fears, ‘self serving’ desires, denial, and all negatives is necessary in changing directions leading to an entry into the gates of the nirvana within. Real freedom comes when having gone through the eye of the needle.

Arhata