The New Seers are the only ones who have the sobriety to see the mold of man and understand what it is; the pattern of every human attribute we can think of and some we cannot even conceive. We are what it stamps us with. ~ Don Juan

Two years ago I wrote an article called The Mold of Man. While diligently striving to continually expand my awareness on this path for more than 20 years I have come to find that there is no true mastery of it, only further knowing, a deepening of awareness and knowledge that can be attained through seeing. Committed to deepening brings more understanding and clarity, most of which comes from silent knowledge.

In a sweat lodge over the weekend we were in a round dedicated to the human being and being human. Intentions were spoken by each participant on how to further embody the totality of their authentic selves, the freedom of being human without the patterns that press upon us from many directions on how to be a human being. Some of the intentions were spoken in pure freedom, some with a touch of lofty presumption and some from a point of humility. One participant said, “my intention is to be non-judgmental, more enlightened and less self-important.” Don’t get me wrong, this is a good intention; however, it was said from the perspective that until that occurred for him, if ever, he would remain unworthy.

By the time it was my turn, clarity presented itself and it was this. As warriors of freedom we have to be mindful of all traps, even the trap of spirituality. Spirituality contains an entire sub-structure of expectations that prevent us from seeing our self-worth. We constantly battle against patterns to become free, and spirituality is a deep and heavy pattern that continuously prevents us from just being human as we constantly strive to “get it right”, to ascend to a new “level” and become that which has for millennium promised us eventual enlightenment provided we maintain the belief that we are somehow not enough just the way we are. The mold of man ensures our compliance.

After I shared this, someone briefly touched upon the middle way of the Buddha or the path of wisdom. The Middle Way or Middle Path may be misunderstood as equivocal. In fact Buddhism is not as such. “Middle” means neutral, upright, and centered. It means to investigate and penetrate the core of life and all things with an upright, unbiased attitude. A respected spiritual warrior, teacher and friend from India said in a recent conference that we need to change the word “spiritual” to “understanding” and I couldn’t agree more.

I have always considered myself a spiritual person and I still do. I am deeply connected to the earth and the infinite mystery and I imagine, as I’ve already seen, that even these connections that I maintain will eventually be recapitulated. We have to be careful that we don’t let our ideas of “becoming spiritual” control us and avoid becoming fixated upon new or different patterns that present themselves as freedom. We must discern that which deceitfully dangles as the carrot of promise in front of us and keeps us forever striving to become the embodiment of something other than ourselves by immersing into yet another pattern! It is, at times, a worthy transition allowing one to move their fixated positions of the assemblage point from dogmatic religion into something perceived as being freer but the bottom line is, for most people, that they carry their religious, dogmatic patterns into their “new” spiritual awareness simply swapping out a religious label for less restricting spiritual terminology and within this they repeat the same patterns. If they are not committed to breaking the patterns then all they accomplish is the repetition of taking one pattern to fit into a new mold.

We can change the labels that define us all we want but unless we are willing to truly deepen through understanding we will continue to repeat the patterns that hold us prisoner to the belief that there is something better beyond us, that we are not enough, that we are unworthy as we continually strive to become more than our human being and being human selves. Be yourself and allow others to be themselves. Is it challenging? Yes. Impossible? No.

Sorcerers love the purity of the abstract. For them, the value of the path with heart is not so much where it takes us but how intensely we enjoy it. ~ Carlos Castaneda