Life Beneath the Middle-Class

Our beliefs are responsible for our powerlessness. They prevent us from perceiving the world as it is.

This point is illustrated clearly by the current debate in our society about the wealth disparity between rich and poor people. While this is the main focus of the debate, the greater concerns seem to be about the middle-class people, or those whose income falls somewhere in between the two polar opposites. 

Some of us who are struggling to make ends meet are more concerned about obtaining a well-paying job so we can pay the mortgage or rent, pay down some of our debt to get rid of the debt collectors, and buy the kids some decent clothes so they'll feel good about themselves, and not have to listen to other children tease them.

We're the other group that's excluded from the debate. We're the ones living beneath the middle-class, somewhere between the homeless and middle-class. For us, the debate is just another distraction in a day filled with too many distractions. We have piled too many negative beliefs into our minds that distort who we really are.

Nevertheless, in spite of our beliefs, some of us are aware of something in us that wants to come forth and express the hidden desires of greatness we so desperately want to accomplish. This something we feel is the enlightenment within our minds that's concealed by doubts, fears, and worries.

Unfortunately, we have bought into the class distinctions and our own powerlessness. And it is from the prism of our class distinctions that we perceive our lives and the world.

We victimize ourselves by believing we belong to a certain class of people, in this particular case a class beneath the middle-class. It could just as well be the middle or upper-class. Either way, this distinction is one of the primary obstacles preventing us from seeing the world and ourselves as we really are.

On the road to enlightenment, we see many things. We see people suffering beyond believability. We see people struggling to make sense of their lives. We see people living luxurious lifestyles with money, power, and fame. And we see people searching for their inner power. We don't know them, but we see them, and we identify with them.

We believe we know quite a bit about the upper-class people because they are the ones who supposedly control our lives. We believe we know even more about the middle class, because it's closer to us. And some of us, at one time or another, were middle-or upper middle-class.

Now we find ourselves, seemingly overnight, living beneath the middle-class, just a tad or paycheck away from the dreaded homeless people.And we know everyone is afraid of becoming homeless and joining a group that doesn't warrant a class distinction of any importance from society.

By living beneath the middle-class we receive all types of offers from ministers, politicians, social activists, self-help gurus, and so on. They offer us programs or pay-for-results inspirations. We are the ones that produce civil rights leaders, prosperity religion, mega-churches, government programs, welfare reform, healthcare reforms, and so forth.

We don't really have any leaders among ourselves, because most of us believe we're too powerless to have any influence in the society. We suffer from a leadership/dependency syndrome.

We need someone to liberate us from our own behavior. We believe we're powerless to help ourselves or incapable of freeing ourselves from the cyclical behavior causing the powerlessness in our lives.

Most of us have given up on ever becoming successful or making any type of meaningful contribution to the world. We have settled in to living beneath the middle-class, and rationalizing some form of success among people deemed by society to be unsuccessful.

It's a nightmare, but it's one we created. We believe these are the cards we have been dealt by our society.

Meanwhile, some of us are waking up our minds. And by doing so, we have discovered the power we have within ourselves to give us whatever we desire. We have discovered the enlightenment within our minds.

And with our new found friend, enlightenment, we are able to clearly understand why we live the way we do. We understand why our beliefs victimized our behavior. We understand how to unlearn what we have been taught to believe about ourselves. And we know that class distinctions are some of the beliefs that distort the enlightenment within us.

The truth about who we are is not found in the material status of our lives, but it's found in the spiritual clarity of our behavior. When we can see the world and ourselves as we truly exist, we can live freely from labels and characterizations such as class distinctions.

As we begin to do the work to develop our minds to unleash the enlightenment existing therein, we create a new paradigm for living. At this level of clarity, we begin to perceive ourselves as we really exist: colorless, faceless, and formless.

In other words, we see ourselves without societal labels and distinctions. We remove the labels, the distinctions, by changing our beliefs or unlearning what others have taught us about ourselves.

The power we seek is found beneath the beliefs defining us as something that we're not.

Now it's up to us recreate and revalue ourselves with the power and attributes that allow us to exist in this world with power and oneness.