Quite a few human beings still find themselves mostly mired in the raw selfishness of Zone 1 living – unabashedly focusing the majority of their time & energy on “getting theirs”; accumulating material wealth &/or developing emotional allies; utilizing their talents &/or their friendships to survive as comfortably as possible for as long as possible. That having been said, more & more folks are making more & more frequent leaps into the realm of Zone 2 – focusing instead on searching for more truth &/or living lives that are more meaningful than merely successful &/or more purposeful than merely pleasurable. Of course, once such pseudo-awakenings occur, the inner ego immediately begins striving to get us to return to our previous Zone 1 lives based on quelling fears &/or satisfying desires. And not only that – those same egos are just as invested in keeping us from making any additional gains of wisdom or understanding; encouraging us just as stridently to avoid enlivening the Zone 3 values of unconditional kindness &/or self-sacrificial generosity; values that lead to the deepest possible experience of Peace & Joy, and yet values that the ego falsely believes lead to disillusionment & death. And so it is that the vast majority of Zone 2 residents listen to these insidious inner whisperings (what I sometimes call “ego traps”) and fall willingly into states of “active unenlightenment” – adopting any number of errant beliefs designed to either keep them stuck in the faux-enlightenment of Zone 2 or have them retreating to the raw ignorance of Zone 1 (and keeping them far from Zone 3 in either case). The following eight chapters will explore & illuminate eight of the most prevalent & most potent of these “spiritual snares.”

Filed under: Enlightening Enlightenment by Scaughdt