A Lot of Talk About Spirituality – The Little Prince Series

Continuing Insight from The Little Prince

Have you found that there aren’t too many people you can talk meaningfully with about the deep issues of life?

This was the experience of the little boy, now grown into a man whose career is that of a pilot. Occasionally he would come across a person who appeared to be fairly “clear-sighted,” as he put it. He’s referring to someone who seems to be somewhat aware—we might say conscious.

The pilot would show this seemingly conscious person his Drawing Number One. Did the person have real understanding?

If the individual concluded that the drawing was of a hat, then the pilot didn’t go any deeper into conversation with this individual but talked about surface issues such as bridge, sports, politics, and fashion—the things the average person talks about.

The grown boy who had at age six drawn a boa constrictor from the outside and the inside to represent what society was doing to his true self had enough sense to realize that most people are locked in the grip of social constriction and know nothing of realconsciousness. So he would talk only about the kinds of things that interest unconscious people.

I come across a great many who appear to be “clear-sighted.” They talk about being awake spiritually. They say they are pursuing consciousness and becoming enlightened.

They read books on spirituality, listen to CDs and watch DVDs about personal growth, pray or meditate, go to talks by spiritual teachers, and attend retreats.

Yet I find that the pilot got it right: few who seem to be on a spiritual path really are.

That’s why, I suggest, so many millions have resonated with the book (and now the movie) Eat, Pray, Love, which has all the trappings of being a spiritual journey. But does it really lead us into the awareness and stillness of consciousness, so that we arepresent in every aspect of our life?

People love this sort of thing.

As I commented in The Compassionate Eye a few days ago, it gives them an “aha!” sensation because the story reflects what they are feeling inside themselves. They too see themselves as “seekers.”

But let’s not confuse this with becoming present.

I have listened to all kinds of “spiritual teachers” over the years, each of them promising some form of enriched life, whether achieved through meditation or through following “laws of attraction.”

None of this has to do with presence—with consciousness.

As the story of The Little Prince shows, most people are stuck in the constriction of the boa mentality. And I am including the vast majority who are involved in a religion of some sort, whether Western or Eastern—yes, and just about everyone who is “seeking.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who wrote The Little Prince back in 1944, got it right. What passes for “enlightenment” in most cases isn’t enlightenment at all. What goes under the label of “spirituality” much of the time has nothing to do with a true understanding of what it is to be spiritual.

I am just dumbfounded by the number of people I meet who go around and around on the same issues year after year, still seeking instead of finding—and who are actually proud to wear the badge of a “seeker.”

I listen to all of the talk about channeling, about prosperity teaching and abundance, about laws of attraction, and I watch how rarely people who pursue these teachings appear to simply be fully present, right here, in the now.

As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount concerning the conscious path, “Few there be who find it.” The vast majority who seem as though they are “awake” really just talk about it, not live it.

Consciousness is about being our natural self, unaffected, without pretense, authentic in every way—the very thing most spiritual “paths” (read “circular”) are designed to help us avoid.

Whenever I ponder this amazing book The Little Prince, simply sitting with its insightful statements, I am just stunned by how accurately it depicts the journey of life. If any book was ever “channeled,” it was surely this book!