The difference between being committed to something and being a commitment are profound. Most people, when speaking and thinking of commitments think in terms of something outside of themselves. “I’m committed to achieving that goal” or “I’m committed to our relationship” are common examples of this. An alternative is to think and live from the context of “I AM a commitment to X.” This sets me up to live, act, breath, think and exist as if what I want already exists. I AM what I want!
This is a far more generative and joyful approach to life. It’s an approach to living that is steeped in the recognition of the simple truth that everything that has ever existed or will ever exist already “exists”. That we’re not currently experiencing “it” is not an indication that “it” doesn’t exist! Experiencing anything in this world is a function of my beingness. How I am being is what allows me to experience what I have in my life. When my beingness is in alignment with what I desire is when I experience “it” being manifested. My experiences today are simply the way life is organizing itself around my beingness.
Now, here’s the paradox that attachment creates. My conscious desire for something is born out of the experience that it doesn’t currently exist – it’s missing from my experience of living! In fact, it does “exist”. However, my current state of being is such that I am not experiencing it in what I think of as the present. My attachment to the form of what I want (which is reinforced by my senses saying it doesn’t now exist) is what’s keeping me from experiencing it as a current part of my reality. Everything about my current reality tells me that it’s not here now and I “know” this because I “desire” it. It’s an object outside of me and as long as I remain focused on and attached to having “it” I experience my self being in lack of what I want. I am not being that person who has everything I desire!
This way of approaching life is truly a spiritual practice. It is about being rather than doing or having. It’s an approach that opens me to living and acting in the present in a qualitatively different manner. It’s a recognition that I have the power to manifest anything. It’s simply a question of who I am committed to being rather than what I’m committed to having. Putting this ideal into practice is not something I commit to doing…it’s who I commit to being.