Sooner or later in life, we all face what could be called “catastrophic events.” Death of a spouse, divorce, major illness, loss of wealth, etc. are all challenges of enormous proportions, threatening to derail our enjoyment of life. In some cases, we even question our faith, asking why God has abandoned us. Yes, we cannot understand why God, thought to be merciful and loving, sends on us all these disasters and overwhelming challenges that take away so much of our life energy… for nothing. At least, that’s what the self/ego thinks. Understandably so, as it is not equipped to deal with events that it sees as being of catastrophic magnitude. It is, however, well prepared and ready to instantly jump in, offering its interpretations and solutions as to how to overcome the challenges. If only our Self was allowed to “speak”…

Each one of these catastrophic events is nothing more than the energy of emotion that comes up about that. Once the energy of emotion about the loss fades away, it becomes kind of a “So what?” importance.
The problem is the acute catastrophic emotionality; so one has to accept it and be with it. For most of us, it’s the self that runs our lives, not the Self.
When we realize that to handle these catastrophic events we need to handle only the energy of the emotions themselves, we will never feel overwhelmed and threatened.
Yes, the only thing that matters is how we feel about the facts; not the facts, as they do not mean anything in and of themselves.

More importantly, we should stop labelling the energy field. Experience it; try to get over it in a hurry. By avoiding the process of labelling, calling or naming the energy as “something” we no longer have to handle it.
Then, the feelingness of it disappears – hardly a catastrophe, it now seems…
Realize that the pain comes from resistance and the insistence that the personal self and all of its aspects, are in charge of handling it; that it must do something about the painful experience out there.

For those of us in various stages of spiritual growth, these catastrophic events should be seen as God-given opportunities to test our progress. As a way to verify what we have learned and a chance to put it in practice and experience a major jump in our level of consciousness. For it doesn’t matter if you spend years reading spiritual books, attending countless meetings and gazing admirably at the portrait of your guru. All the meditation, chanting, healing services that you have attended to, all the spiritual work, amount to little, if you fail the practical exam.

When an acute catastrophe occurs, the spiritual work is bypassed to resume after all the tasks and remedies resulting from the emergencies have been dealt with. So, we do not really see the essence of spiritual work. If we did, we would realize that the spiritual work brings up these acute crises and positions us into them. They are our opportunities, for this is where the spiritual work is happening. Whilst our “normal” daily existence is gathering and preparation of experiences and information and accumulating spiritual knowledge, the test is when the moment of truth comes, the time to do it.

For many people who dedicated their lives to spiritual work, nothing has changed. Their personal life is the same; they are besieged by the same illnesses and problems. Why? When life brings the opportunities (disguised as catastrophes) to them, it is the time to take a leap of consciousness. These insurmountable life challenges are the times when we make great progress, when we face them directly and sternly say: “I will not veer from this spiritual work.” The core of spiritual work occurs when we’re confronted with that which we cannot avoid. It is the direct nature of that confrontation that requires a leap in consciousness. Thus we should see these opportunities as a gift from God!