By Cathy Eck

Real Gifts or Talents?

Most people confuse their real gifts with talents.  They are a good singer, writer, artist, golfer, or cook.  But those activities are not their real gifts.  Talents give us something fun to do, help us make money, or get us approval within the illusion.  But our real gifts are the qualities that get us out of the illusion.

The Truth About Passion  

There is a big follow-your-passion mania today.  Passion has become associated with doing what we love.  But people forget that the word passion has been strongly associated with the crucifixion of Jesus.  Often when people try to find or follow their passion, their life starts to look like a giant crucifixion.  Here’s why.

The crucifixion was called the passion because it was the last act before Jesus achieved freedom from the illusion.  In ancient times, some people remembered that we were born to be free.  They entered mystery schools to find the keys.  Those who succeeded were said to be twice born or resurrected beings.

The story of the crucifixion wasn’t about killing the Son of God because that isn’t possible; it was about the death of the false self, the ego.  Jesus’ story is a model initiation story; and all great initiation stories end in freedom.  The false self dies and the True Self wins the battle of good and evil.  Peace and freedom reign.

Sadly, the illusion contains the notion that Jesus died for our sins. It ignores the fact that the illusory world is still full of sin, which proves its error.  But the false self never sees that it’s the problem.  Jesus’ real gift was exposing the illusion, and it was turned into the curse of martyrdom.

What is our real gift?  

Our real gift frees our mind by exposing and eliminating our false self.  It is the inner strength that puts the winning odds on the side of our True Self.  It is the part of our mind that is absolutely loyal to the truth.

People hypnotized by the illusion will label our real gift a curse, a defect, or a character flaw because it won’t conform.  It won’t blindly obey even if you beat it, judge it, or imprison it.  It refuses to listen to stupid rules or accept rituals that don’t make sense.

So how do you find this gift?  Look to the people who have criticized you the most.  They have exposed your real gift by calling it a curse.

Look Inside a Painful Memory

When I was in third grade, my nasty ass teacher said to always answer her questions.  I raised my hand every time I knew an answer because she said to, and I was afraid of her.  One day, she called me a know-it-all.  I was horrified and embarrassed.  I didn’t even know what a know-it-all was.  I didn’t know what I did wrong.

Then I tested high on an IQ test, and my mother was horrified.  I’d never get a man if I knew more than men.  I was supposed to be nice and cute, not wise.  This issue showed up again and again in every aspect of my life except for my work where I was paid handsomely for my expertise, which was nothing more than my ability to know all the answers to big problems.

For four decades, I was sure this was my curse.  I believed that I was an arrogant know-it-all.  When I looked through true eyes, I saw people making problems, sickness, and suffering and then pretending they didn’t know the answer so they could be less than the doctor, lawyer, or clergy.  They needed a big-ass dose of know-it-all.  The people in my life believed that being dumb and submissive was nice or holy.  People seemed to want my expertise to fix their problems, not my wisdom to end their problems.  I became very jaded.

But it wasn’t their fault.  They were stuck in the false world.  They were taught that their know-it-allness was bad so they applied the same judgment to me.

Level Confusion

Everything in the true world is 180 degrees from the false world.  This is how we get lost and confused.  To the ancient ones, this was called level confusion.

Our gifts usually have a horrible label in the false world.  Some of those labels are disobedient, rebellious, overly emotional, or daydreamer.  More therapeutic labels include ADD, ADHD, autism, bi-polar, or Asperger’s syndrome.  Our gifts often show up in socially unacceptable ways — such as emotional men, someone who surfs all day and forgets to show up for work, or someone who refuses to serve their country in war.  The very thing that causes us to rebel against the status quo is often our real gifts that can set us free if we can peel off the judgment that clouds them.

Someone who surfs all day is a genius at going with the flow.  Someone who is a daydreamer is a visionary.  The ADHD person moves at a faster pace than those in the illusion.  The Asperger’s person can’t stand the false nice, sickening sweet, personality.  The one who hates war knows peace.  Each of these gifts labeled curses, like my know-it-all, expose beliefs and destroy the illusion if we can just express them.  By fearlessly expressing our real gifts, we set everyone free.

We have to use the key that we were given.  We have to stop hiding our real gift or feeling embarrassed by it.  We have to stop believing the judgments that others throw our way.  When we finally express our real gifts, our false self loses power very quickly because we’ve found our true passion, our true purpose, and our True Self.

For more on level confusion, click here.

photo credit: wallyg via photopin cc