The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. Peace is freedom in tranquility, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death.
-Cicero

Servitude can be a sneaky thing. I can serve not just with labor, but with my attention as well. When something other than my spiritual path becomes a higher priority than my spiritual path, I have essentially made that thing my god.

This idea seems to be in direct opposition with Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs, a model I find to be true. And yet, it is also true that my spiritual path has to be my highest priority if I want not be a slave to something or someone. In truth, they aren’t in opposition at all. There is enough in this world. If my basic survival needs of air, water, food, shelter, and love are not met, it is because someone is hoarding them, keeping them away from me. They are seeking to keep me enslaved, and are holding my basic needs hostage as a means of coercion.

In Maslow’s pyramid, self-actualization is at the top, to be sought after all the other needs are met. I would suggest to you, though, that prioritizing your spiritual path is different than seeking self-actualization. Following my spiritual path allows me to be emotionally okay, regardless of what is going on in me or around me. Following something else can lead me to being not okay, regardless of what is going on in me or around me, because I am not my own person. Prioritizing my spiritual path will bring me to self-actualization, but it’s not the point of it. Prioritizing my spiritual path will always bring me a sense of freedom.

Which bring me to 2 questions you should ask yourself:

(1) What is my spiritual path?
and
(2) Where have I given my power away, who or what owns me?

Your spiritual path comes from your connection to Source. When you are in active connection, your next indicated action becomes clear. You can get more into it than that, but you don’t have to.

So… All of your experiences and all of your learning is designed to bring you to the point where you are in full and complete awareness of the fact that you are a cell in the body of the Divine and, as such, have the entire blueprint for All That Is within you. If you were to read about such a being, would it strike you as appropriate if they bowed to another?

Don’t trouble yourself with perceived competition for your meager resources. Be concerned about who is hoarding those resources and keeping you in survival mode for their own benefit. Be concerned about who is in the way of your freedom. Be concerned about who is perpetuating large scale slavery across the planet, to everyone else’s detriment. Be really concerned that it’s less than 100 people.

In this paradigm shift we are undergoing, we don’t have to be stuck in the old ways of doing things. Power does not have to come from fear or force. That means that we don’t have to take our power back that way either. Just point out that the emperor has not clothes and stop playing the game.

Peace comes not from surrendering your will and your humanity to another. Peace comes in knowing that you are a co-creator of your Universe, that you have access to all of the power that ever was. It is in this knowing that true peace is achieved because there is no longer any need to fight. Instead, you rise above the petty issues that make the unconscious ones rail and shake their fists.

Come, embody freedom in tranquility.

This post is part of a series called Monday Message, based on that day’s reflection from 365 Days to Enlightenment (authorized versions are currently out of print, working on a new edition). Check back next Monday for another one! You can also sign up for the Daily Message on my mailing list if you’d like to receive a new reflection every day. I also often post them to Instagram, if that’s a medium you enjoy.