Today the world is in a crisis concerning their need to be spiritual beings. There are many of us that are searching for a purpose and a meaning to our existence, but we are often times looking in the wrong places. We have been searching and searching for the things that we believe will make our lives complete. We have been walking in the wrong direction, searching for a hope that does not exist outside of the hope that was sent by God through Jesus Christ. We have experienced the feelings of loneliness, emptiness, alienation, abandonment, hurt and betrayal, and no matter what we do, our lives are never fulfilled. The feelings and emotions that we experience, give us a signal that we are way off course, and that we need to get on the right road to deliverance and recovery.

Many have tried to fulfill their lives, with money, clothes and cars, and found that these things still did not do the job. In our lives we are filled with a variety of things that do not give our lives a sense of purpose or meaning. Instead of getting on the right track, we continue to warehouse our addictions and increase our sorrows even more. As a result of our lack of knowledge, we are disillusioned about marriage, family, and relationships. When we live our lives in this manner, our lives become warehouses for misery and escalating pain. The emptiness and despair that we harbor are direct results of being alienated from our spiritual connections to our lost lives. If we are going to live as spiritual beings, we are going to have to empty out our meaningless warehouses, so that our spirits will have room to be free to receive the newness of life God wants to impart in us. We need to empty out our feelings of bitterness, in order to fill that space with the spirit of forgiveness.

The spirit of God needs a home with enough space to roam free in our hearts in order to influence our spiritual growth. Our quest for spirituality will only be obtained when we are able to surrender into the hands of the living God.

The spiritual life is simply a life in which all that we do comes from the center of our life in Christ. When we become spiritual, we acknowledge the reality of God and his presence. We will be able to yield to the call and will of God to create in us a new and fulfilling beginning. As spiritual beings we will allow the spirit of God to live in us and through us for the benefit of others. Wherever there is free space, there is room for the spirit to move and operate. Scripture says that we can not put new wine in old bottles, else the bottles will burst. We can not allow our lives to be weighed down with worldly lusts and desires, without eventually exploding from heartache and pain.

The bible teaches that those without a spiritual connection to the divine creator are lost, broken and detached from their spiritual nature. Being lost they can not find their way without a guide; broken; they are incomplete, detached; they are without a connection to the vine, Jesus Christ. The hope of a spiritually lost, broken and detached human being will be based on their acceptance of the truth about salvation. Knowing that one must be saved in order to be free, must become a reality for those that are lost and without hope in this world. Instinctively, we should sense that something is missing in our lives. Even though Jesus is looking for the lost souls in the world, the lost souls should be looking for Jesus as well. Jesus is not hard to find, because he is not lost, we are.

If you have only a spiritual Guru who is dead such as Ramana Maharshi or Moses then you may be missing out on an accelerated path to enlightenment.

A dead Guru can give you the rules but who really follows the rules graven in stone? Usually one places the rules on an altar and says, “Oh Holy Book of Rules, Please take me up to heaven!”

Only a live Guru can use those techniques which can flush out your internal problems into the light of day.

These techniques confuse the sub personalities and feed the soul personality.

As a matter of fact they make the sub personalities really angry!! Read “Are you angry Mr Sufi?” from the reference below.

Only a live Guru can do this and if it is not happening to you then you are probably living in a world of delusion.

Being touchy is having a low emotional IQ and is one of the symptoms of a split personality which is one of the symptoms of not being enlightened.

For example, one day an eighty year old student of Gurdjieff came to Osho to become enlightened. He had never met Gurdjieff, had just missed him when Gurdjieff died but had followed all the Gurdjieffian rules and practices for 40 years or more before coming to see Osho.

In his first talk with the old man present, Osho, who loved Gurdjieff, criticized a few things to do with Gurdjieff just to see the truth of the old man.

The old man was very offended and left the ashram immediately.

He missed!

He missed with Osho just as he had missed previously with Gurdjieff.

Indeed as Osho said, Gurdjieff did not suffer fools gladly. He got really angry with them.

As well as anger, Gurdjieff used alcohol to flush out the sub-personalities. In Vino Veritas – In wine, truth – such as when he performed his ceremony of the “toast to the idiots” with much vodka and old calvados.

And if this old student had met Gurdjieff he would have left him in the same way. Angry and pissed off!!

Only by seeing your ego faults directly can you heal them.

If you feel them you can heal them.

If you see them you can free them.

Having faults is one of the symptoms of not being enlightened.

Everyone needs a Sat Guru unless their ego cannot be humble enough to take it.

In the past this function of fault finding, for example by Jesus Christ – An egotistical man can have as much chance as getting into heaven as a camel passing through the eye of a needle, – was the sole function of the Guru.

Now with advanced meditational techniques it is possible to speed up the function of grounding the ego with Advanced Meditational Techniques. The combination of fault finding with grounding the negative karmic mass attached to the fault is staggeringly quick at removing the selfish competitive ego.

The real Sat Guru shows us the example of soul fusion in daily life. Soul meaning the sole, the one sub-personality-less Personality. Strong and Clear!

As the energy field, the Buddhafield of the Sat Guru drives out all the sub personalities in his students, this creates all the standard symptoms of Kundalini energy, physically, emotionally and mentally.

So, if you are not feeling Kundalini energy. If you are not getting all the spiritual symptoms associated with Spiritual Masters, then what is up?!!

The Buddhafield of the Master is his energy of compassion which speeds up the process of enlightenment. Instead of happy cows, chewing the cud, he creates strong personalities by harmony through conflict.

The grain of sand creating the pearl he mirrors your ego to show you your false self – some call this the path of blame.

Compassion is not sentimental or weak. Compassion is energy for the purpose of enlightenment which speeds up the evolutionary process. Creating a quantum leap in intelligence which is far beyond the simple IQ available to the average person.

A meeting with a Sat Guru, an enlightened master can create this in you, and if you have never experienced this, then you have never truly lived.

A spiritual master is sad with the failed processes of enlightenment in his students but it is their choice to leave him before the process of enlightenment can be completed.

It takes one to know one

The quality of the Buddhafield is not constrained

It droppeth as the gentle dew upon its place beneath.

It is twice blessed first by he who gives and then by he who receives.

So feeling anything in the presence of a spiritual master or guru is the first step on the path of enlightenment but only when the symptoms stop, can we be said to have succeeded.

A teacher is chosen but you do not choose a Sat Guru from the level of the mind so, why not meet the Sat Guru or Spiritual Master?

Because of your split artificial minds of Negative emotions and selfish ego which is controlling you. The sub personalities want to avoid anything which can throw them out of their home, your body, and so they control you and your emotions to keep you away from any genuine spiritual master.

The Sat Guru “channels the incidental cause of all evolution, the energy of the soul, which removes the samskaras or energy blockages as a farmer removes stones from the water course” – Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 4:3

The energy of the Buddhafield surrounding a Sat Guru forces all samskaras or energy blockages out into the light of day, showing the student the symptoms of their blockages which cause the student to be separate from the original cause the Purusha the Soul, as negative emotions and negative thoughts.

As the Spiritual Guru notices the samskara or Energy Blockage caused pain of the student he sometimes chooses to remove the energy blockage through Meditation and Samyama – The Energy Enhancement Seven Step Process.

Only when the student can stay in the presence of the Spiritual Guru and absorb the energy of the Soul without any negative symptoms can the Student be said to have reached Enlightenment.

The search for this next step in evolution comes from the enhancement, the increase, of energy.

As fire is spread from candle to candle. As the sacred word resonates in both he who gives and he who receives. As Grace dropeth as the gentle dew from Heaven, twice blessed.. So a preparation of he who receives, the student, the candle, by the removal of Negative Energy, Energy Blockages, sub-personalities a lack of Energy Blockages allows more Spiritual Energy to be absorbed and used to crystalise, complete, finalise, create the Spiritual Body of another Master, another transmitter of the Truth!

They say that Masters represents infinite power through a complete loss of the selfish ego – When the robe was touched no credit was claimed by the wearer, It was your faith which healed you! said the Master – and so the truism, It takes two to Tango, – the student must be purified and prepared by evolution and spiritual practice to accept the Force, the Energy transmitted by the Master.

All energy blockages stopping the flow of energy through the system and preventing the buildup of psychic power in the system must be removed.

Thus we learn and practice Yoga, Pranayama, Meditation, Samadhi, Samyama, the Kundalini Kriyas, Chinese Alchemical Taoism and the Micro and Macrocosmic Orbits, the Supra Galactic Orbit, VITRIOL and The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, The Grounding of Negative Energies, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Raja Yoga and the Eighteen Classical Yogas of the Bhagavad Gita.

Thus the torch is passed on from Master to Student.

Another candle is lighted up!

And Masters have existed in every time period.

They exist Now!!

Reference above.. As a matter of fact they make the sub personalities really angry!! Read “Are you angry Mr Sufi?” http://www.energyenhancement.org/ANGRY%20MR%20SUFI.htm for more on this.

In Isaiah 54:17 (KJV), The Word of God speaks, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”

All throughout history and even today the Jewish people are attacked because of hatred. The story of Esther is one of so many great lessons for us all that I am proud to create a response commentary on the Book of Esther in Gods Holy Word.

As a child, I have always pictured God as my own Father and felt I knew Him very well. I was not raised Christian but my heart already was. The writings of Esther were exactly the way I first started to learn about God. When Jesus was here on earth teaching us, he often used parables to teach us about His Kingdom. I find the Book of Esther very similar to that style of teaching. Unlike much of the criticism I have read with this book, I must say I have a very different view.

It is agreed that the Book of Esther, takes place in Persia. The Jewish people were made to leave their land and had settled in and around Persia. King Cyrus had declared that the Jews could return to their homes after they had been forced to move by Babylonia. If the Jews returned they would live an extremely difficult life so many stayed in Persia. As many Jews are today, they were hated and received much oppression. The Persian government was wealthy and offered some relief.

There are mixed ideas and criticism with regard to the date but I felt that this comment by ESTHER, BOOK OF by John Urquhart, describes it best:

Light is thrown upon the date of the book by the closing references to Ahasuerus (Esther 10:2): “And all the acts of his power and of his might,…. are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?” The entire history, therefore, of Xerxes was to be found in the state records when the book was written. In other words, Xerxes had passed away before it saw the light. That monarch was assassinated by Artabanus in 465 BC. This gives us, say 460 BC, as the highest possible date. The lowest possible date is the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander in 332 BC; for the royal records of the Median and Persian kings are plainly in existence and accessible, which they would not have been had the empire been overthrown. The book must have been written, therefore, some time within this interval of 128 years. There is another fact which narrows that interval. The initial waw shows that Esther was written after Nehemiah, that is, after 430 BC. The interval is consequently reduced to 98 years; and, seeing that the Persian dominion was plainly in its pristine vigor when Esther was written, we cannot be far wrong if we regard its date as about 400 BC.

This story mainly rests in Shushan, a palace of King Ahasuerus. The King had thrown an extravagant party:

Esther 1: 6-8 (KJV) “Where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.

7 And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king.

8 And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man’s pleasure.”

This party was self-indulgent to say the least, as each was to party as the King commanded to their hearts extent. King Ahasuerus had a wife Queen Vashti, who also had her own banquet for ladies which was just as lavish and excessive. The King lived by Satan’s likeness where every man was to live as he wishes. This was bound to end in some sort of trouble, as when we give our hearts to the love of self and money we always have a consequence. In his drunkenness, he had commanded his wife Queen Vashti to appear before him and his friends to show off her beauty. I wonder if this was meant to view her body without clothes. In any event, she had refused. In her refusal, the King was angry. He seemed weak as well to me, not just because he was drunk but because he invited his staff also drunk, to help him decide how to punish his wife.

God appoints rulers and officials, so because he can take a bad situation and use it to work for Good, In walks Esther. Esther is a beautiful Jewish orphan who is raised by a family member Mordecai. The Bible says that Esther was Mordecai uncle’s daughter. (Esther 2:7 KJV) Mordecai was in the palace and Esther was taken by the King as the new Queen.

Haman, a man who worked for the king had decided that all Jews should be killed for Mordecai (a Jew) would not bow down to him. Esther is asked to plea for her people and faces death in coming to her King.

The most important scripture to me now comes into play, a great reminder to us all today found in Esther 4:

Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Es t h e r 4:13-14, NKJV)

This scripture reminds us all that God uses us to do his work. That he seeks for those who have the heart to accomplish his tasks and if we do not listen he will choose another. We all have the opportunity to work in God’s plan if chosen. I for one understand the fear Esther may have had in saving God’s people (and herself). It seems better sometimes to choose what appears to be the easy way out. However, usually the easy way is the wrong way. Esther listened to Mordaci and asked her people to come together and fast and pray. God saves His people and the one who plotted the death of the Jews is the one who was murdered. A good lesson to us all that we will reap what we sow! Proverbs 22:8 “He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.”(KJV)

Another lesson to remember is God hears our requests and when we pray together asking in his name it is done for us. Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

This story is so rich with lessons that I find it humorous that there is much criticism and awe that God’s name is not used. Other critics cannot figure out who wrote the story. This story has been said to be amusing and theatrical. I for one am not concerned with such information. Nor do I see it theatrical. I do see that it is a timeless story still very relevant today. The Jewish people have a history of horrible treatment and we still have persecution and suppression of God’s people today. The fact that God’s name is not used in the Book of Esther actually comforts me. I feel that sometimes when non-Christians hear the name “God” it scares them due to a lack of knowledge. Some lessons are best shown through example. This is a great way to show God’s love, faithfulness and the choices and consequences that we can make today and the impact of these choices. We can lead a life of self-love or we can choose to live (and perhaps die) for others. Either way God is always here and His purpose and desire will be done. The fact that Esther was a great woman of influence in the Bible who had courage and strength while still humbling herself and submitting to authority is simply an inspiration for me. A Woman does not have to insult her husband or family to lead or influence. With a soft manner and wisdom she can even go so far as to prevent a massacre! Finally, I have learned about the Jewish holiday Purim, the Feast of Esther. I have no knowledge of Jewish holidays and traditions but find this wonderful to learn. In doing this response, I have had the opportunity to learn of a very important celebration amongst the Jewish tradition. I am now looking at the other Jewish holidays to teach my own family. This coming March 14th I will be teaching my children about Pur and Israel’s deliverance and how faithful our Lord is, and our responsibility toward His call.

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Get The Spirit to win!

It’s springtime. Tulips and crocuses, with lilacs right around the bend. And, of course, the rose is on its way, too. It’s a time of renewal and rebirth, a time for the re-emergence of that which has lain dormant; a time for new love and the dreams of an extended winter’s night ready to be fulfilled.

Bette Midler wrote and sang it best in the “The Rose.” For, especially when things seem their gloomiest, it is essential that we know there is a seed buried so deep within us that even during the starkest winter snows it can and it will survive and then thrive. But it needs a little help from us. We have, after all, free will. With our determination and conscious intent, with our refusal to never give up, and with our stubbornness to stay with it until we have healed our ideas of lack and limitation, this seedling essence of us will blossom to its fullest. If we stay with our dream long enough and refuse to get lost in appearance, doubt, and old stories, we will ultimately be changed by the warmth of the sun’s love in the spring thaw, which actually is a metaphor for the love that we are – that magnificent core which joins us together as a Universal family of one. This seed of us and our potentials, forever nurtured by the core of love that we are, can one day become the rose. It can one day blossom into the promise and fulfillment of us.

That day can be today.

The good news is the “spring” of our potential is not limited to the calendar. On the other hand, often our personal “winters” are not limited to three short months. But working for the experience of healing, rebirth, and renewal is more than worth the wait and the effort. We are all so very worth our own effort. I know because my “winter,” fueled by the experience of and then recovery from horrific childhood abuse, lasted for the first three decades of my life, plus a few extra years thrown in for good measure.

Ah, but then came spring…

My favorite spring arrived one November, over twenty-five years ago. My long winter’s dream was no longer ensnared in pain and suffering. I had grown to the place where I was only interested in experiencing the parts of life I had not yet known. I was divorced, the mother of three, but I had never known true love with a partner. So I took out a fresh canvas and new paints and set about creating my dream. I knew that I had to be willing to own in me everything I desired in my partner. How could I magnetize into my life something that I had not at least energetically and emotionally integrated with?

Being a natural organizer, I began by making a list of what I wanted.

What a list! I wanted someone who was intelligent, kind to the core, funny, attractive, wonderfully sexy to me, knew himself, and perhaps more important than anything, someone who shared what drove my life. A spiritual perspective that we are created out of the substance of a Divinity that is forever, a Light that is greater than dark, a Love that is greater than pain. He didn’t have to express this passion for what I call God in exactly the same way I did, but it had to be an integral part of who and how he was.

And then I added the next piece, because in order to accept the potential of my dream, I needed to be able to resonate with the feeling of being so loved and treasured. I needed to be able to match the picture of what I wanted with the passion/feeling of it. Now that was definitely something new. It certainly didn’t reflect anything from my personal history of childhood cruelty and rejection.

I went on a mission, searching industriously for a model of today’s dream. And then one night, voila, there it was right in front of my face, reaching out to my consciousness from my Sony television. Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers. Hart to Hart. On screen, they treasured each other. The way the character of Jonathan Hart was filled by his lovely wife, how he drank her in – I soaked it up. I would say to myself, “Yep, that’s how my guy will look at me. That’s how we will delight each other.”

I turned back to the metaphoric rose I was coaxing into becoming the blossom of my intention for my personal life.

A picture and a passion. Heart to heart.

I checked to make sure I didn’t have any hidden agendas. I didn’t want my partner because he would heal me. I had already done that for myself. I didn’t want him to validate me, complete me, or take care of me. He was simply the part of my life I had not yet experienced.

A new mantra formulated in my mind. I felt so certain that my counterpart existed and that some part of him was looking for all that I was. I began to think and repeat and repeat: For every thought there is a corresponding factor. That which I am seeking is seeking me. The law of attraction in action!

And yet when the day came, when my big moment was upon me, I almost canceled. It was 1982, the night before Thanksgiving. I was tired, planning a holiday feast the next day for my children and some friends, and here I was with a last minute plan for a kind of non-date date with a great guy named John with whom I had been friends for a year. But, really, nice as he was, I didn’t have time for this. I was after all very, very busy looking for Mr. Right.

John returned to my home with me after the non-date movie we went to see. We opened a bottle of wine, turned on the music, lit the logs in the fireplace, and chatted easily as we always did. We laughed and teased, and then something magical happened. In the soft glow of the light, I began to see facets of this lovely man I hadn’t realized were there. His quick smile, his defenseless attitude, his wonderful mind, his handsome face – they all were suddenly coming together in a new awareness within me. “Put away your telescope,” my inner senses said to me, “Mr. All-that-you-have-ever-hoped for is right before your eyes!”

The flower of my spring time blossomed lusciously that winter. John and I, living out a romance that has never faded, will celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary this May.

The calendar tells us now that it is spring once again. Embrace it – the colors, the the fragrances, the vitality, the blue skies and warming temperatures. And if there is, for whatever reason, a cloud darkening the heart of your spring, remember there is a power within you greater than the dark, greater than the problem. For even in the appearance of the darkest winter day, the seed of the rose that holds your dreams and hopes is rising to the surface, just waiting to be recognized. Just waiting to blossom into the fulfillment of the love that you are.

Spiritual Truth is something to know, to experience, not something to believe in.The joy and love and peace of God can be actually experienced once you know how to access it.

Do you need a belief system to know how many heads are sticking up out of your neck? If I told you you had 18 heads sticking out of your neck, would a debate even be necessary? No.

You know you have only one physical head. You experience it. You know it. No belief system or opinion is necessary.

It’s when you lack the complete knowingness and experience that the weaker substitute of belief or opinion (which only exist in ego, not in reality) is necessary.

Whether or not Jesus turned water into wine, or whether Adam and Eve actually existed, it’s not something we can actually experience. Thus, it’s basically a question of whether you believe in it or not. Since there’s no way of proving it one way or another, all you have are people arguing and defending their belief systems which is essentially a big house of cards. People are terrified of what will happen if their cards come tumbling down.

What are some spiritual truths that can be experienced and that really make a DIFFERENCE in your life?

* You are God also.
* You are a Creator.
* You are pure Love, Joy, Peace, and Bliss.

A lot of people like to buy into these things or not as if they’re some sort of belief system. Why? Because they have yet to figure out how to actually EXPERIENCE them.

So, how do we experience the Love of God?

Do the thymus thump and open your heart chakra. Immediately you’ll start to feel better. Your heart will open and you will reconnect with the Love of God. This feeling of Joy starts to radiate through your body and it’s clear that you don’t need a belief system one way or another to recognize that this Love needs nothing, requires nothing, and Loves everything without condition.

The same is true with God’s Love. He needs nothing, not your worship, approval, acceptance, sacrificial goats, or even your Love in return. God’s Love radiates towards all without condition, without exception.

You, too, can reach this state on a permanent basis by surrendering away the ego you have and choosing Love again and again in every moment. Let go of resistance. Let go of all resistances to Love.

Any time you’re experiencing suffering, negativity, or anything you would call “bad,” it’s a sign that the ego has popped in and you are somehow resisting reality, resisting love, resisting life itself. That experience can be used as a trigger to let you know that there’s something you’re resisting and something that needs to be surrendered in order to reconnect to the Love of God.

Want to experience yourself as a Creator? Go have sex. Make babies. You’ll literally create a new being from pure energy.

Learn about manifestation. We’re all manifesting in every moment of every day. The thing is that most people do it unconsciously. They’re playing the game without knowing the rules. Learning about the Law of Attraction is nothing magical. It’s basically just being taught the rules of the game you’re already playing and then choosing to play the game consciously, deliberately.

You can experience the creation of whatever you so desire. If you have the capability of imagining it, the universe has the capability of creating it. You ARE the universe. You ARE God.

Want to experience the Peace of God? Quit making judgments and simply make observations. Become the awareness, the silent witness of All That Is. By doing this, you will begin to bypass the ego. The content of the world will begin to pass into your awareness without first being filtered by the ego and subsequently judged, labeled, categorized, compared, and dulled down. Instead of absorbing the appearance and your ego’s opinion of your surroundings, you will begin to absorb the pure essence of All That Is. You will begin to see everything in its true nature. You will begin to see the beauty and perfection of All That Is.

All reaction (that is, to re-act) is based upon previous experience and is an automated response determined by what worked last time given similar conditions. You become basically a machine and lose the experience and wonder of existence.

Creation, on the other hand, is a new choice based in the Now moment, not something that happened in the past.

As you begin to see everything for what it really is, you see that everything is in a constant state of creation. Everything is being created anew. It may look similar to how it did last week, but that’s only its appearance. It’s actually created itself in a manner that looks the same. It’s really a completely new being.

The world will begin to fill with wonder and beauty. It’s not a matter of seeing something new that wasn’t already there. No. What you’re actually doing is letting go of the ego’s filters and seeing with new eyes, true eyes, God’s eyes. You begin to see things as they ACTUALLY are.

EVERYTHING is beautiful, perfect, wonderful, glorious, and pure Love itself. Everything has its place and is part of the totality of the universe.

You will begin to merge back into this totality and experience states of extreme bliss and indescribable ecstasy. You will experience the Love of God himself.

Then, when others ask you if you believe in God or not, you’ll find that there’s no need to believe in God for you already experience Godliness in every moment of every day. Everything EVERYTHING is God and once you begin to experience all this, it becomes amusingly apparently that there really is no need to believe in God or not. God is.

In reality, everyone is experiencing God in every moment of every day. It’s simply a matter of realizing it, not believing it.

Choose to know God, to experience God, and you will.

So let’s walk this path back home, back to to God. Let’s live together, laugh together, love together, and play together, joyously. Life is meant to be fun. Live lightly. That’s enlightenment.

aaaahhhhhh

YOU ARE TRULY LOVED!

You don’t become spiritual. Spirituality is your natural condition. You are already, regardless of whether you like it or not, whether you are religious or not, whether you are inclined towards spiritual practices like meditation or contemplation or not – spiritual. It is a word which describes your inner self, your essence, that essential part of you which is deeper, more profound and more original than any other part of you. It is closest of all to your source, the origins of your existence and the place from where life in you springs.

To understand life, the role of human beings and other life forms, events and circumstances we see in life, humankind has thought, depicted, drawn and painted, and created rituals and ceremonies, sung, played and composed music and countless elaborations of movement since the beginning of recorded time. In fact most or even all of the things we take for granted, like music, movies, movement and dance, wine, food, arts and crafts, singing, parties and ceremonies, rites of passage (like baby’s naming, coming of age, weddings and funerals) have their origins firmly in pagan, primitive humankind’s attempts to make sense and to honor life in a way that connected them to supra-human forces, such as the weather, the fructification of the crops, the success of the hunt, the longevity of human life, the survival of the tribe, the bonding of the relationships and the families in the tribe, the continued flourishing of life in the community: Not much has changed, because we mostly share the same kinds of concerns today.

Spirituality is all this, plus arguably everything we do, say, argue about and think. The ways in which we interact, love, fight, engage in our human roles, look after ourselves and each other, is in essence spiritual. It is who we are.

So, becoming spiritual really means becoming who you are. This rather assumes that you are not already who you are. And in a way it’s true. Not so much that you are not who you are, but that you are not yet all that you are. Life is an adventure of arriving or sometimes it is called growing up or maturing. We develop through stages of challenge, expectation and personal growth to become, or finally arrive, at a true foundation based on the reality, the truth about who we are.

An appropriate analogy is the flower. A flower begins as a seed germinating in the ground. Reaching upwards towards its intuition of the light source the seed grows a stem and finally penetrates and pushes through the surface of the earth. Once established above ground, the growing stem of the flower is wholly dependent on nourishment, not only from its roots, but also from light from the sun. It develops leaves and buds. In time the bud opens and reveals the true flower.

Becoming spiritual, becoming who you are, is vitally important. For everyone. The differences between people are never clearer than in those who take this seriously and in those who don’t. Taking our essence, our spirituality, seriously means that we know we don’t have all the time in the world, we know that we are not omnipotent, that we will not always be here, that we are just passing through and we know that we are here for a reason. The ones who do not take it seriously act like they have all the time in the world, like they will never die, will never have to face the important questions, predicaments and decisions of life; they are complacent and underneath it they are afraid.

The authentic spiritual life is the way beyond fear, because it is the path to truth and reality. It is the way to what is eternal.

How do you become spiritual?

Start with a little discipline. Feel the world, cultivate awareness, keep your eyes open wide and your heart open wider, allow yourself to be affected by the world, touched by people and events, be present and breathe – that is a good start.

Through the years, most everyone I’ve talked to either wishes for or is actively searching for more happiness, peace and contentment. These wishes and searches can take many forms.

I’m sure most of us have experienced a time in our lives when we were convinced that if a certain event happened, whatever it might be, we just knew that we would be happy forever. We were confident that this event was the key to our lifelong happiness, contentment and peace. This particular occasion may have actually come to pass and we may have been happy, at least for a while. Then as time went by, we no longer felt consistently happier, more content or more peaceful. The question is why. If anything, this shows that we can see that this kind of happiness, based on outside circumstances, is fleeting. That is the nature of life.

What if lasting happiness comes from being harmonious or at one with our deeper selves? What if we can live our lives with this connection to our deeper selves and feel a deeper peace most of the time? Is it possible to find true deep lasting happiness?

Various spiritual traditions teach that on the journey to uncovering our deepest truths we start by first noticing what our truth is not. We spend our time discovering and revealing layer after layer what our happiness isn’t. In certain teachings, this is referred to in the Sanskrit term as “neti-neti,” translated “not this, not that.” In our path of self-discovery, we investigate and learn what keeps us from our true happiness. We can see as we explore that it’s not one particular desire or a fulfilled achievement that allows us to relax into peace and happiness. This process or elimination can be called “cutting through” and helps us discover the blocks that keep us from having our deeper selves and happiness as our constant companion.

So much of what we see around us is motivated by well-intentioned folks, like ourselves, looking for nirvana out there. We look for it in a new kitchen, a bigger house, more experiences, more wine or food. We all believe at times that if we can just find the “right” formula in our outward lives, we can have the happiness, peace and contentment that we long for.

All of us have certain basic needs and when they are not met, we tend to struggle. But if we look at the hurdles that most of us lay down before us in order to find more happiness, we can see that we have set an impossible bar. We won’t be able to have happiness with this thinking. For most of us, this struggle has an insatiable quality that can never be met. From here we are always craving and believing that _ (fill in the blank) will makes us happy.

What we forget or don’t know is that a certain kind of happiness is available to us in every moment. Like right now. It is like the air. We don’t often pay much attention, but it is here at all times. It is up to us to do the internal personal and spiritual work necessary to open up to receive the flow of the Universe, God or any name that suits our personal tradition, and connect to ourselves inside seeing what might be possible. Rather than looking ahead to something else or behind at our memories, if we can open to it, we can experience the flow that is here now.

Let’s try this: Take a deep breath in and let it go. With your next breath, just for a moment imagine letting go of all your worries and concerns. Just for a moment let them go. Now, take another breath and let it go. In your next breath, imagine infusing your breath with more peace, contentment and happiness, whatever this means to you. Let these qualities permeate every cell of your body for just a moment. Now notice your body and how you feel emotionally.

Practice this a few times a day over the next few weeks. Let me know how it goes. Until next time…