No one who is awake seeks God. The only part of us that is attracted to the spiritual life is the ego. Did that get your attention? Good! Because it is true.

But why is it true? We all know the answer. Ego (Edging God Out) is wonderfully depicted in the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a hideous creature with a huge belly and a tiny, tiny mouth. Thus, it is condemned to needing to feed constantly on anything that holds a promise of providing even meager nutrients. As you reflect back on your life, can you remember the jobs you have taken just to get a paycheck, or the one night stands or relationships you have entered fueled by a hunger gnawing at the belly of your soul? Humbling and embarrassing, isn't it?

This very world is Ego's world. If you find yourself currently living as a body-in-space, rest in the knowledge that Ego has moved in and taken over the territory of heart, mind, and soul. It is Ego that has spurred all your quests to be filled from the outside, and spurned the gentle call of the "still, small voice within", for Ego is the effect of the soul's decision to reject its union with God. (Note: the "Last Temptation" is one we all face: to believe "It is finished. I've got it!" The awake know they are an eternal work in progress, but more on that later...)

When I began my Path some thirty years ago, I(probably like you) felt noble, certain that my questing was my soul's longing for God. It actually took some fifteen of those years, years spent devouring world religions, philosophy, and psychology, countless thousands of hours of meditation, yoga, and prayer, before -finally - opening to the great insight that only Ego seeks. It has no choice.

The grace of this benevolent Universe is that it is completely directed by God, and let's remember to thank God for that! You see, like the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, the long, long journey of the Ego's seeking must finally bring it to what promises its greatest glory: Spiritual Mastery!! Don't you remember the verve and excitement with which your own Path began? Wow! All those crystals! Those eerie Sanskrit chants! And those wonderful New Age workshops learning to 'invoke' the Masters(talk about a deluded power trip), and memorizing pithy phrases that supposedly reveal how "wise" we are becoming as we learn a whole new languaging with which to cloak our naked and direct experience! "At last!" shouts the Ego. "Now, I shall fulfill my hunger once and for all! And probably attract my soul mate, manifest wealth, and never feel suffering again! I have found the Cosmic Mother Lode! Yippieeee!!"

And just beneath all this jubilation, God waits in the dark, softly chuckling. The rabbit has entered the snare, and the "food" it now reaches for will be the final and consummate undoing, unraveling, shattering, and death of the Ego's reign......