What you’re left with is who you really are (bottom hand), not how you
appear. When your life is over and you cannot rely on your external world
to define you, you will be left with that feeling you never addressed. You
would not have evolved as a soul in that lifetime.
For instance, if you had certain experiences 50 years prior that marked
you as insecure or weak and you felt that way about yourself ever since,
then you stopped growing emotionally 50 years ago. If the soul’s purpose is
to learn from experience and gain wisdom, but you stayed stuck in that
particular emotion, you never turned your experience into a lesson; you
didn’t transcend that emotion and exchange it for any understanding. While
that feeling still anchors your mind and body to those past events, you are
never free to move into the future. And if a similar experience shows up in
your present life, that event will trigger the same emotion and you will act
as that person you were 50 years ago.
So your soul says: Pay attention! I’m letting you know that nothing is
bringing you joy. I’m sending you urges. If you keep playing this game, I’m
going to stop trying to get your attention, and you will go back to sleep.
Then I’ll see you when your life is over. ...
It Always Takes More and More
Most people who do not know how to change think, How can I make this
feeling go away? And if the novelty of accumulating new things wears off
and stops working, what do they do? They look to bigger things, a whole
other layer above where they were, and their avoidance strategies become
addictions: If I take a drug or drink enough alcohol, that’s going to make
this feeling go away. This external thing will produce an internal chemical
change and make me feel great. I’ll shop a lot, because shopping—even if I
don’t have the money—makes that emptiness go away. I’ll watch
pornography ... I’ll play video games ... I’ll gamble ... I’ll overeat....