Broadcast Love

At this time of sharing and renewal, be sure to maintain connection with the Source of everything. Be a beacon of love and compassion for those in need, not only of food and shelter, but of spiritual sustenance. Broadcast comfort and joy; absorb and cleanse any negativity, sadness, or hatred you encounter. Release ego's need to magnify and wallow in the misfortunes of yourself and others. Be compassionate but focus on infusing Love and hope into your own space and others'. Allow the sustaining light of Spirit to shine through you for the benefit of the whole world.

The End Is Simple

All paths to Oneness are blessed. Each of us must find a way to detach from superficial worldliness in order to approach Truth undistracted. However, it is important that the path itself does not become a distraction. Those practices and beliefs that help us find the road less travelled can eventually become encumbrances upon the Way. Be wary of attachments to rites, doctrines and paraphernalia. Spirit's goal is the ultimate simplicity of Oneness in perfect Love. All ritual, all superstition must fall away until one is found nameless and naked before God. At the moment when all differentiation ceases, Oneness becomes the sole point of awareness. Then only does the soul exult in the attainment of pure unity with All That Is, and dissolve in fundamental welcoming Love.

There is nothing you can change about your circumstances or surroundings that will make a lasting improvement in your life. Peace and happiness can only be found within yourself, so if you lack them, it is yourself you must change.

Dealing With Negative Energies

It doesn't matter if the whole world seems charged with negative energy. Chances are this is only an illusion caused by some unresolved conflict within you. Let go of that problem and it will cease to give out the negative vibrations that are clouding your vision. If the negativity is external, it may still be localized so you can easily move away from it. Or you may choose to remain and overpower negativity by casting your own penetrating illumination into the darkness. With practice, you can create a zone of clean, positive energy around you at all times, so that you always exist in that environment and serve as a beacon to others. However you choose to deal with negative energies, remember that reality is the Self, the Self is God, and God is Love.

No Limitations

Limitations don't mean anything until you reach them.  Why tell yourself that you can't do this or will never attain that goal, if you haven't given all you can give to the effort?  We are all capable of far more than the small self wants us to believe. That negative voice has its own agenda, and it is not love, peace, and contentment. 

The small self is run by ego, and paradoxically in most of us ego would rather complain about failure than attempt success. Failure is something we can have right now, while achievement requires focus, effort, and in many cases, sacrifice of immediate gratification of base appetites. The more we live in the ego, the more we give ourselves over to indulgence, resentment, and self-pity. We create limitations out of our own imaginations to justify staying stuck in the comfortable wallow ego creates for us.

The illusion of limitation is nowhere more evident than in the realm of spiritual growth. We have embedded ourselves in a web of images that collectively constitute the physical world as we see it. We have invented science to convince ourselves that nothing exists that cannot be detected and measured by physical instruments. Others of us have spent thousands of years developing religious (or anti-religious!) orthodoxies to imprison the human spirit by circumscribing the range of permissible spiritual experience.

In truth, there are no limitations on Spirit or on what the individual can experience when the higher Self is expressed through personal intention and behavior. I have recently blogged on the Foundations of Spiritual Growth. From the dawn of human existence the practices mentioned there have enabled many to transcend the limitations that we and others have imposed on ourselves. It is a path that is open to everyone. Following those practices requires only a measure of intention, and the willingness to step out of the busy-ness of the world to a peaceful space in which the higher Self  can act as a channel through which Universal Love can fill and possess our being. But those who choose to do so are rewarded for their efforts a million times over.

I myself denied the validity of spiritual experience for many years.The passage of time brought a sense of frustration and futility as I pursued one mundane satisfaction after another, only to find the anticipated pleasures crumbling in my hands at the first touch. Eventually something activated the kernel of Love at the center of my being and I became open to instruction from the earthly spiritual masters of our time. I became mindful of the opportunities for growth latent in my consciousness, and of the bliss that such growth can confer. I formed the intention to grow. Love fed ravenously on the teachings of contemporary masters and  of their masters throughout history. It was not long before I began to receive insights directly from Spirit through the higher Self. I am still a novice, but my devotion to Spirit is constantly on the upward path, and I continue to derive true satisfaction from surrounding myself with a matrix of Love, peace, and Universal light. 

I am a personal witness to the truth that the only limitations on our spiritual growth, and therefore on our happiness, are those that we impose ourselves. True happiness is not only attainable, it is present at this and every moment regardless of worldly circumstances, because it is drawn directly from the fundamental loving energies of the Universe. All that is needed is the intention to allow it into our lives.

 

Responding to Negativity

When someone is exhibiting anger, dislike, or other negative emotions toward you, you may feel that you want to respond in kind.  Most likely, however, that person's negative feelings are actually directed at himself and merely displaced upon you.  Compassion, not anger, is the appropriate response. You may feel he or she is trying to goad you into a negative response. However, it is actually your own ego that is goading you. No one else can goad you if you are mindful and your higher self is in control of your emotions and, especially, your ego.

Foundations of Spiritual Growth

Study, meditation, mindfulness and intention all foster spiritual growth. 

Study

It is true that each of us has direct access to truth through the higher Self.  However, before we can learn to channel that truth to our consciousness, most of us require the guidance and encouragement that we derive from studying the works of spiritual masters of the past and present.  The more diverse our sources of wisdom, the better, because no one teacher, no matter how great, has been able to translate spiritual truth into human language perfectly or completely.  By studying the ancient teachings of Jesus and the Buddha, Krishna and Lao Tsu, the recent teachings of such masters as Ramana Maharshi, Joel Goldsmith, and Paramahansa Yogananda, the teachings of contemporary masters such as Eckhart Tolle and the Dalai Lama, the interpretations of students and scholars past and present, and the everyday wisdom of the spiritual teachers we encounter daily, we can achieve a holistic understanding that relates the truth to our individual circumstances in a way that no one philosophy or system of thought imposed from outside the self could possibly give us.

Intention

Intention is the will to put aside the promptings of ego and the base urgings of the small self in pursuit of higher truth.  Study leads us to this intention as we learn to appreciate the values incorporated in the teachings of the masters.  Intention truly forms within the self, however, and is the first evidence of the universal spirit that inhabits the consciousness of each individual.  It is the first shoot of the sprouting seed that pushes through its earthly covering and spreads its leaves to the sun. Studying the masters is like providing warmth and water to  the sleeping grain of universal consciousness under the surface. That seed responds to truth and blossoms spontaneously into the personal consciousness:

Awareness, dormant in the Soul,
In meditation, or by a guru's touch,
Erupts in spontaneous beauty,
Like a flower.
 
Meditation

Spiritual consciousness, however, cannot be acquired through study. Study prepares us, provides us disciplines and intentions, that will help us to find the way and keep steadily to the path that will carry us on our journey.  But once this foundation has been laid - this roadmap has been opened - a general understanding of the benefits of spiritual truth and the means of accessing it - we must open ourselves to the gifts of awareness that are granted us in meditation.  Though meditation can mean many things, here I am referring to the silent practice of emptying the conscious mind and opening it as a vessel to receive the downpouring of Spirit from its universal Source. Here paradoxically we must renounce reliance on the teaching of human masters along with all other mundane practices and wisdom sources.  Through the practice of opening ourselves directly to Spirit, we are following in the footsteps of those mystics and masters, whose teachings invariably emphasize the importance of a personal relationship with the Divine.  A meditation practice begins with the abandonment of all preformulated beliefs and principles. Sitting in stillness, we are able to contemplate many purported truths that make their way into our consciousness. Many of these will come from our own minds and egos and will not stand up to the light the consciousness casts upon them.  Only those that are pure enough to possess their own internal illumination, and to flood the consciousness with the unmistakable brilliance of eternal truth, will we adopt as principles on which to build a new understanding. Over time, meditation will assist us to refine and reformulate these understandings in a dynamic process of polishing our consciousness into an ever more perfect mirror of divinity.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is an essential tool in our practice. Mindfulness can be applied to both thoughts and actions. In meditation, mindfulness enables us to be aware of distractions and to adhere to our intention by setting them aside; and to distinguish the gleam of truth from the glare of desire in the thoughts and images that pass constantly on the periphery of consciousness. In daily life, mindfulness allows us to make choices and take actions that are consistent with our intentions and with the values we have absorbed from the study of great masters and from communion with the Divine. Mindfulness allows us to avoid the unexamined life in which we act based on instinct or reflex (what I call "one dimensional consciousness"), or on habit, on values and behaviors derived from the sometimes polluted environment in which we live ("two dimensional consciousness"), or on the promptings of ego. It provides continual course corrections to keep us on our chosen path. Mindfulness consists of holding each thought, each action to which we are prompted, up to the light to determine whether it is consistent with our highest good and the intention we have formed for our spiritual development.  It enables us to choose loving thoughts and actions over selfish ones.

Together, study and meditation, practiced with divine intention and mindfulness, are the essential foundation of a life that is fulfilling far beyond the satisfaction of material desires, a life of loving oneness with the Divine.