There is a story of a beggar, who shows up at the gate of a king. On the doorway of the entrance to the palace is a sign that says they’re going to have a big celebration and that only people wearing royal wardrobes could attend. The beggar looks at the sign, and looks at his rags, and this voice within him tells him, “Why don’t you try to go anyway.” He went up and he knocked on the gate, and the attendant came up and he said, “Sire, I need to talk to the king, I want to come to the banquet.” The sire returns with the king and the beggar says, “Sir, I would love to come to the banquet but I don’t have any clothes.” The king looked at him with compassion and said, “Well I’m glad you came to see me today let me introduce you to my son the prince.” The prince brings him into his room and picks a beautiful outfit for the beggar. The beggar puts it on and goes to the mirror to bask in how it feels to be prosperous. As he gazes at his rags in the corner, the prince says, “You know you won’t need those anymore because these clothes that you have of royalty will last you forever.” The beggar quickly grabs his rags and puts them in his bag and carries them throughout the evening. He continued to carry his bag of rags everywhere he went for the rest of his life.

I think this is true for all of us in this process that we call spiritual unfoldment. We have our new outfit (our spiritual consciousness) and everything that we need to do anything we want in this life. It is Gods infinite love that gives us new clothes yet we continue to hold on to the rags of our past limitation; the rags that keep us held in bondage.

What shifts of consciousness do you need to make in order to release the rags of your past?

For more inspiration and information: http://templehayes.org/