The Devil has turned up three times this month.
One of the honorifics for this being is “Father of Lies.” To me, this speaks to a fundamental truth – that we do not, and most often can not, see things as they are. This is true whether in reference to the stuff of material reality, which we only experience in a very limited way through the senses, or in reference to what might be another person’s intentions, motivations or general state of mind. Everything is filtered through our own conditioning and learned preoccupations of attention. The ego projects the “movie of me” on the screen of our experiences, and most of the time we are content to watch the movie without questioning its veracity. We see the world not as it is, but as we are.
The only way to escape the Devil’s trap and to achieve liberation is to experience the truth as directly as we can, through meditation, through the study of science and scripture, through regrooving our neural pathways – and to surrender ourselves to the Source of truth through prayer, chanting and service to others.
I suspect that I have more work to do.
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