by Moriah Marston & The Tibetan
It's so easy to fall into complacency as we breathe a contented sigh
of relief that our life is just fine - no need to stretch out, take
risks, explore new territory. Complacency spearheads our resistance to
change. Fear of the mystery confines us to the comfort zone of
complacency when we are convinced that our current experience is good
enough. So we stay with jobs, relationships, lifestyles, identities
way beyond the vital learning curve inherent in the magnetics that
initiated these conditions. We settle in ...forever enslaved to a
self-contentment that caps our willingness to move into the fertile
realm of insecurity where our cutting edge resides.
How many times a day do we react to growth opportunities with: "Yeah,
but" or "Why bother?" Complacency, entrapping us in a dependency on
situations that have long outlived their purpose, justifies all the
"good" reasons why we should just stay where we are and not rock the
boat. Complacency' s sister, resignation, adds to the pool of
stagnation that slowly drowns us in the sticky, gooey "blahs" that
flat-line our lives as we watch the days pass by, homogenized in a sea
of suffocating comfort and sameness. Even if we can muster up enough
creative energy to envision new potentials, we put them off, as
complacency convinces us that we have all the time in the world to get
to these fresh endeavors. Why take the risk, stretch out and apply
discipline today when there's always tomorrow.
The ego gorges on complacency' s self-satisfaction. What a shame that
it's usually pain that motivates us to grow. Wouldn't it be great to
simply shake loose of the chains of complacency by catalyzing our
transformation from a desire to leave the dead end "land of contentment. "
Complacency is subtle. It builds over years as we blanket our
potential without even realizing it. We start out excited about life
with grand visions about who we might become. Fired up about all the
possibilities and filled with juicy passion, we tackle fears of the
unknown with courage and determination. Then as we learn the ropes we
become comfortable with these undertakings - eventually good at them,
even masterful. Finally, in a heap of self-admiration filled with
certainty, we arrive at the top of our game. We've conquered our
dreams. The ego is pumped. We're off the hook.
If we've haven't reached a pinnacle of fulfillment, our initial
enthusiasm is eroded by the exhausting impact of life's obstacles. We
begin to settle for less as the voice of complacency seduces us into
the terrain of contentment that extinguishes all motivation for
growth. Complacency feels safe - appearing to be the easier route.
Ironically, the realm of complacency is one of the most dangerous
places for the soul.
Oh how the soul aches for us to leave Complacency' s zone of dullness,
flatness, lifelessness, laziness, stubbornness, blankness, boredom,
anger and defensiveness. Complacency fosters depression because it
counters our natural instinct for evolutionary adventure. Unresponsive
to the changes required for the soul, complacency' s sugary sweet
narcotic makes us groggy as it mutes our life with a haze that blurs
reality like an opium dream by holding us in a routinized past,
fiercely postponing the requirement to release obsolete parts of
ourselves.
The attachment to the status quo exacts a price. The soul is
distressed when we imprison our spirit with self-contentment. The
imagination atrophies, our body becomes rigid, and we die of
predictability. Ironically, self-satisfaction breeds its opposite - a
dissatisfaction that, like termites, eats away our foundation and
topples our citadels of complaisance. Complacency' s smugness is the
least secure place to be.
We lose pieces of our life when complacency puts our creative
imagination and sense of potential out to pasture, as if they only
belong to childhood. Steeped in complacency, we can't register the
changes that inevitably unfold within. Eventually we reach a crisis
point of overflowing sticky complacent energy that creates a web of
incarcerating "golden chains."
Complacency may be disguised as a spiritual willingness to accept
karma and comply with the Divine Plan,. But the underbelly of this
compliance is the curse of suffering painful symptoms of
under-extension -settling for less than what our soul really needs.
Somewhere along the line we make compromises that put our soul on hold
and take ourselves out of the game of life while we wait for some
magic moment to jump-start a sense of aliveness. But that moment never
comes because complacency broadcasts the message that "We're fine
just where we are."
Of course there's nothing complacent about me! I'm always on my
cutting edge! Smug in certainty that I could never fall prey to the
lure of complacency' s comfort zone, I don't notice how routinized life
becomes as laziness infiltrates my imagination and clouds my vision.
Loss of initiative then fosters low self-esteem and blankets my
creativity. Soon my resolute faith starts to waver as the prison walls
of self-pride close in. I realize that my life is just a house of
cards. My soul's intense disappointment reveals that I haven't
delivered the goods I promised because of rationalizations like: Its
too much effort, I've done enough already, I'm too old to be a
beginner, I want to just "ride it out." Cranky and ashamed, I'm
trapped by smallness - complacency' s only offering to my soul.
Thankfully, the soul's passion for evolution is nonnegotiable. If we
don't resist the stockades of self-assurance and humble our inflated
complacent egos, then the Universe delivers a crisis to liberate us
from complacency' s bondage. We can avert this emergency by bringing
awareness to areas of complacency and challenging ourselves to release
stagnation in order to explore frontiers of insecurity where we have
an opportunity for self-proving at a completely new level - very
exciting! Remedies for complacency like flexibility, not-knowing,
curiosity, courage and restlessness keep us growing with the fresh
sense of wonder and possibility of the magical child.
The Tibetan strikes a thunderous gong to shatter complacency' s spell
and teaches:
"Complacency is an ambassador of darkness, especially treacherous at
this time in history when all are mandated to release narrow vision in
order to ideate the emerging paradigm. The soul craves this
opportunity to explore the cutting edge of consciousness that cannot
be blunted by the self-pride of complacency or the defeatism of
resignation. The necessity for students to comply with the Divine Plan
doesn't mean to sit back, limply yielding, and abdicate responsibility
for transformation. Yes, enlightenment for everyone is guaranteed! But
true evolution requires the willingness to greet each day with fresh
eyes, the attitude of a beginner and the humility of one who touches
the mystery and allows it to unmoor illusions of certitude. Only then
can self can be truly receptive to the gush of unsettlement that
dismantles the ego's hold.
"Complacency is an escape from responsibility to the soul. It lulls
the soul to sleep in the realm of contentedness.
"Complacency is a denial of the directive to feel the surprise-filled
impact of the Divine Plan from moment to moment with its unexpected
twists and turns purposely orchestrated to shake students out of their
convenience circuits and leave them open to the raw truth of experience.
"Call for the Gift of Discontent. Allow it to stir the soul's passion
for more, providing just enough discomfort to provoke searching
questions, hunger for the next step and a willingness to ride the Wave
of Restlessness. Pray for assistance to be lifted out of the quagmire
of comatoseness and lethargy. Remember that one never arrives because
the path perpetually re-creates itself - unfolding into infinity.
Since there is no endpoint, complacency foolishly detains the journey.
Even the pinnacle of enlightenment marks only the beginning of the
soul's true creative pathway.
"To fall prey to complacency dishonors Source's Gift of Possibility.
Throw away all sedatives of egotistic conceit that leave self
listless, uninspired and imprisoned in strongholds of
knowing/accomplishm ent. It's the refreshment of new beginnings and the
unfamiliar that renews the soul and nourishes its journey home. Live
each day as if there were no tomorrow in order to rise to the Divine
Purpose that places self on the edge - open, eager, alive, awake. To
rest on one's laurels, or to settle for less because life is too hard,
only postpones soul work which must eventually be completed. Discard
the attitude of "same old, same old" and observe the excitement of
children who have yet to prove themselves and therefore play openly in
the Sandbox of Promise."
