Trick or Treat - 10/30/11

For this years Halloween I've been thinking about the phrase "trick or treat" and its philosophical merit, because that's what I do for some reason.  I found that there's quite a bit of truth in the words, if you look at it from a particular perspective. 

The egoic mind always tricks us.  It deceives us by constantly judging, attacking, and vilifying our present situation.  It tricks us by creating wants, desires, and thoughts of lack......it claims that we'd be happy if only we were richer, thinner, more attractive, more desired, had a better job, had a nicer car, a bigger home, more time, etc.  The ego abjectly refuses to acknowledge the present moment as being anything other than a means to an end, and therefore it's experience of the present is one of, if not suffering, than certainly boredom.  It takes no interest in the Now, because it cannot find meaning there.  It's wholly unconcerned with the present because it doesn't exist there.  It cannot.  And so the ego tricks US into not immersing ourselves in the present either.

The good news is that we can treat ourselves to the truth whenever we desire.  We can treat ourselves to the reality of our nature by becoming present, by staying within the moment, by casting aside our petty desires and low-level thinking and affirming the grandeur of who we are through acceptance.  We must accept WHAT IS, regardless of circumstance, because it's exactly what we've created!  We're where we are because it's where we've chosen to be. And only when we've treated ourselves to the beauty and majesty of the present, and acknowledged our power in creating it, will the tricks and deceptions of the ego be rendered utterly powerless.