Oh Where Oh Where Have My Desires Gone?

What are your desires

By Cathy Eck


Heaven on Earth

In my mentoring program in the past, about half of the people couldn’t do the “Heaven on Earth” exercise where I asked them to write down their desires.  I wouldn’t push them.  People must find their own inner motivation.  But, I really wanted to push them.  Those who did the exercise moved more quickly and easily toward freedom.  They didn’t get stuck as often.

Mentoring initiation isn’t like regular coaching.  I’m guiding the person on a journey through their own personal Armageddon.  Like any tour guide, my value is in knowing the traps along the way.  I keep you safe until we get to the destination of freedom.  But when people seek my mentorship, their false self doesn’t submit because I’m not an authority figure.  It tries hard to hijack the operation by triggering my false self into believing their illusion.  I have to stay awake.

The people who lacked desire all had  some past relationship with the New Age or eastern disciplines.  The New Age is a rapidly growing illusion in the western world.  When someone gives us the truth, they look enlightened and good; but they entrap us in their illusion.  Many people today believe they don’t have the truth — they’re seekers.   When someone seems to give them the truth, their false mind connects to the teacher’s false mind.  Their mind sees the teacher as the source of truth; the teacher becomes their new false God.  That’s how all religions and false Gods were created.  It’s how cult leaders work.  They don’t want us to see outside of their illusion because we’ll realize they’re a frightened little man  — not a giant wizard.

When we discover our own truth, these wizards look like con artists.  We see that their truth is really just a bunch of beliefs.  There’s a show in America called “Breaking the Magician’s Code.”  First they do an illusion the normal way, and it looks so cool.  The magician looks almighty and powerful.  Then they show us how it’s done; and the magician suddenly loses his cool.  You can see that he’s actually very sloppy, kind of an ass.  Discrimination breaks the magician’s code in any kind of illusion.

One popular eastern belief is:  Desire causes suffering.   Gurus wear the same crap every day. They look like they’ve never taken a bath.  They love their begging bowls.  They follow rituals, practices, and dogma to the letter and impose them on their followers.  There’s no room for the True Self, which thrives on creativity, beauty, and unique expression, in the east. 

Eastern masters look desire free.  No one notices that they desire quiet minds, food for their begging bowls, blind obedience to their dogma, and monetary contributions.  It’s a magical slight of mind trick that causes followers to become critical of their own desires, which they’re told are the result of spiritual deficiencies.  If they follow the master and do the disciplines, they’ll float above the illusion into nirvana.  If they stop the disciplines, however, they fall back into the illusion.  That feels horrible so they go back to the disciplines.  It’s a closed loop system with no escape.  The disciplines are for life unlike letting go which ends when our minds are free of beliefs.


The Emperor IS Naked

When people can’t see that their emperor is naked, they let go of their desire for freedom and “Heaven on Earth” instead of their beliefs.  I’d feel their false self take the wheel in my heart and chest.  Their false God had promised them something —  72 virgins, life after death, less karma, enlightenment, approval.  Freedom has no promise — you manifest your desires.  If you have no desires, freedom has no appeal.  That’s what keeps religions, cults, and spiritual groups alive.

I’ve been working on this issue for months, and it shifted in Ecuador, which is one giant Catholic illusion — my past nemesis.  I’d tell my cab driver my address.  Several times, I got confused and stopped him too early.  My false mind said that I was at my destination when I wasn’t.  But I did know my destination.  I had to walk in the dark alone; it took more effort and had more risk, but I arrived.

Our True Self will keep pushing to be let out of the closet and take us all the rest of the way if we just remember that enlightenment and acceptance live within the illusion.  Our desires will keep us going until the end if just admit that we have them.


Desire Unwrapped

The True Self thinks a thought and immediately manifests that thought.  That’s it.  It has desires, but they don’t last long.  We could say the True Self has faith, except faith isn’t necessary for the True Self.  It knows it can manifest anything.  Our false self holds our beliefs — lots of beliefs sit on top of one master belief that says we can’t have what we desire (west) or desires are suffering (east).

Desires morph into longing and suffering when we can’t fulfill them, but the desire isn’t to blame.  If the longing and pain get too great, we tend to let the desire go, which appears to end our suffering.  But the beliefs that keep us from the desire are the real enemy.   Religions, cults, New Age, are all belief systems.  They lose their power if we don’t believe them.



In initiation, we honor our desires, and we also admit our reality.  The gap between our desires and our reality is filled with beliefs.  As we let those beliefs go, the gap shrinks until it disappears.  Our work is done.  We’ve reached our “Heaven on Earth.”  Religions make our desires wrong and our beliefs right.  Initiation does the opposite.

Initiation was designed as the pathway to Heaven on Earth.  When the beliefs that separate Heaven and Earth disappear, we’ve arrived; and we’re truly free.  The promises of the illusion have no appeal; we’re too busy creating what we desire.