What if we’re “Satan”? Satan is cunning, selfish and always out for his own best interest. He constantly lies and persuades humanity to make destructive choices. In the Bible, he was cast down by God for selfishness and attempting to usurp God (Isaiah 14:12-15). After reading the Bible, I believe our ego is Satan. It’s the part of us that lashes out in reactivity, the part that only thinks about how things can benefit or harm us, without thinking of the effect of our actions on the whole. Satan, literally meaning adversary, is the part of us that rebels against truth… rebels against God. It’s our adversary to happiness. It’s our adversary to love. It’s our adversary to growth. It’s our adversary to all of the attributes we all want so badly in life.
Earth is a place of learning how to abolish Satan so that we may embrace personal bliss. It’s where, if we are astute students, we learn that we have the choice to be held back by Satan or choose the path of righteousness that leads the way to God, enlightenment, samadhi, etc. If you are human, you are fighting this battle. If you are an aware human, you recognize that you are fighting this battle. If you have not yet cultivated this awareness, you are most likely on the losing side of this battle repeating the same mistakes, not obtaining the outcomes you seek, and lacking confidence.
We all are on the battlefield when it comes to gaining spiritual/mental ground. Whether we are trained to be there is another thing. I’ve been training as a warrior for awhile now and have been losing battles less, though there are still some attacks that catch me by surprise and it takes me a few days to realize I’m being beaten. As an example, recently my patience for my 6 year old has not been incredibly high and I caught myself being spiritually beaten last night. I was beating myself up about being firm with her and then I realized who was winning. I was not being kind or compassionate to myself. I was basically receiving a spiritual lashing from my inner Satan… “You’re not great at this mom thing. She’d be better off with another mom. You’re going to screw her up. All of your spiritual reading, prayer, and yoga practice isn’t paying off.” The minute I realized that I was being beaten is the minute that I suited up and got in the fight.
I realized that the negative self-talk was not truth. I was able to recognize that my inner child was growing frustrated. When my daughter chooses not to listen or respond to me when I’m talking to her or asking her to do something, it’s a huge trigger. My own inner child grows upset… something to the effect of, “Nobody wants to listen to me! I want to be heard!” Then my ego/Satan goes all out to make sure my inner child is heard. My voice elevates… next thing I know I’m loudly threatening to take something away in my angry authoritative voice. Later, I’m feeling bad about raising my voice and getting angry, which is where the negative lashing from Satan comes along to beat me down.
So how do I fight this? I’m still learning, but the major “weapons” I’ve learned that I carry are love, forgiveness, compassion, truth, and kindness. When I become aware of this dynamic, I apologize to and reassure my inner child, “I am so sorry that you feel that you aren’t being heard. You are important and it’s not that she doesn’t want to listen to you, but that she is 6 and has her own “stuff” going on, which has nothing to do with how worthy you are.” I then forgive my ego (which I feel is like the older and very protective brother of my inner child). This goes something like, “I know you feel that getting angry and making threats is going to bully others into doing what you feel you need them to do in order to protect your ‘sister’ and allow her to be heard, but that isn’t going to work. There’s no need to feel bad about the situation. Since you are part of me, I love you unconditionally. Let me help you out here so that we can do things a bit more effectively and we can all feel good about the situation and handle it better the next time.”
Once I’m able to make peace with the major players in my psyche, I can be at peace again. That’s how I know I’ve won the battle. When I am at peace once again, I recognize that I’ve taken another win and am moving closer to becoming the person I wish to be. Little by little, I’m allowing my ego to release some of its grip allowing me more time spent in joy. It dawned on me today that Earth is the way that it is because it is a place full of people attempting to learn how to quell their egos. Most of us have not yet mastered this yet. Some of us are taking our time here seriously, actively attempting to grow and learn how to subdue the demons so that we may live a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment. Others have no idea that this is the point of our time here and are wreaking havoc and destruction in the world as a result of their overactive egos.
The world will never be perfect as long as people are learning this skill here and it seems that this place is the classroom for this very lesson to be accomplished. Heaven, from my vantage point is a place where the battle has been won, where ego is no longer unleashed in reactivity. It’s a place where everyone knows their worth and acts from their power for the good of all. It’s a place where pure spirit is unleashed to love, create, and beautify all that it touches. It’s a place where there is no need for laws, commandments, yamas, niyamas, etc. because the lesson has already been learned. Here, we have all of these religions pointing the way to truth… sharing the commonality of morally rooted behavior, which describes who we are at our essence, when we don’t allow the ego to disrupt it and cover it over.
Earth is the classroom for remembering who we were created to be and how we were meant to behave. Class is in session… are you staying awake or are you sleeping through class? We get to choose whether we’ll pass. Choose wisely!