I often say that "Spirituality is an inside job." This is to say that living a Jesus-centered life does not just happen... it develops by way of our awakening to our true selves, the practices we undertake to nurture and expand that awakening, and by the daily choices we make to live authentically.
In every moment our past experiences are informing and shaping our present selves - unless we choose instead to be defined by who we truly are, our authentic self, rather than the story of ourselves based on things that have happened to us and the story that others tell us about who we are; the stories of us that we allow to define (and confine) us.
For some, this is a huge discovery - to realize, perhaps for the first time, that we have a choice about who we are and how we want to be in the world. The mere awareness of this choice can be transformative; and to active choose certainly is. Jesus presents us with that choice all the time.
The rich man had done all the practices and followed all the rules of his religion and yet when confronted with the selling of all his possessions he turned from Jesus and returned to the familiar of his life. (Mark 10:17-31) He was looking to add something to his life as if it were a possession to own or earn. Instead, he was asked to stop being who he thought he was and take on a completely new identity; to be his authentic self; the self that is not related to the collected items we possess and the stories they tell the world about us; the myth of us.
We do not just collect things. We collect stories that we tell again and again to say - this is who I am. But this is not who we are. We collect experiences and we relate them again and again to ourselves and to the people we know and we say - this is who I am. But this is not who we are. We look in the mirror and we tell ourselves and others about what we see and we say - this is who I am. But this is not who we are. The path to the authentic self, to self-knowledge, unity with the divine, the realization of our connectedness with the whole of creation and the rejection of the myth of separation - this is the Jesus way.
On this path there are delays, fits and starts, non-starters, road blockages, sinkholes, and wide fissures to transverse, as well as divergent paths to choose, often. Here are but three.
1. The Spirit resides in us. This one does not appear to be a tree lying across the road. But it is when we do not live from this truth. Most of the time we place the responsibility for our contentment, our happiness, our okay-ness, on the outside world. We ask the people in our world continually to reassure us that all is well and that we are doing well. And our world is all too happy to let us know when we are and when we are not going along with the myth of us that both we and they have created and keep in place through these patterns of asking and answering. (Please re-read the above to be reminded of the folly of this exercise.)
We seek the Spirit, we seek Jesus, we seek God everywhere but where divinity resides - in us (and in all of the natural world). I was listening to a podcast of Zach Bush recently who suggested that to remain cognizant of who we are we need to pay attention to our own vibration. To do this simply close your eyes and acknowledge where you feel vibration in your body. That is the you of you. Focus on the sensation of the vibration of your own body, this is the energy of Spirit. The Spirit is part of and is the fullness of God - and it is in you, in every one of us. When we are in pain the Spirit is not in pain, but rather it is that which seeks to comfort us. When we are angry the Spirit is not angry but seeks to calm our fears. When we are frustrated or confused the Spirit is clear and clarifying. When we are self-blaming and remorseful, the Spirit is never accusing or regretful - it rejoices in our evolution. When we are sad and longing for what has been, the Spirit pushes us on joyfully to the next adventure - including the adventure of dying. We have to choose the voices we listen to and act accordingly; from a place of insecurity and conformity OR from a place of connectedness with Spirit.
2. Distraction is avoidance. Every moment of every day we have to choose the path we are going to take in that moment: To live a Jesus-centered life OR to live a life dictated by conditioned patterns of asking and answering for short-term temporal okay-ness. Distractions are anything that are excuses (Things that are very important and have to be done right now!) that keep us from making that choice. Who has time for that?... is a distraction. I heard an interview some time ago with a celebrity who was explaining his one hour a day meditation practice. The interviewer exclaimed: Who can afford to spend an hour in meditation every day? The celebrity replied: Who can afford not to spend an hour a day in meditation?
3. Think before you act. This is advice you got from your mother or a good mentor along the way. It cannot be overstated. The thinking part, however, is not the intellectual thinking we do to figure out a logical course of action. It is rather the "sitting with" a thing and the consideration of all its consequences. Native people consider their actions as to how it will affect seven generations. If the thing to be done seems good for short term benefit but will have negative lasting consequences on later generations they do not do it. This is a higher spiritual principle that goes beyond the "me" of this moment but considers rather the "whole of me" - all my relations. And "all my relations" are not bound by time or space. The vibration that we feel in our bodies is not temporal energy bound to the flesh, but is pure energy - unbounded and free. As my mentor says: You are so free, you can choose bondage. We are free to decide how we will act and who we will affect by our individual and communal decisions. One example: Every time we buy an item from the store we decide. We either get to know and support local, organic farmers and eating nutrient dense food or we are very likely supporting unjust migrant farming practices as well as non-sustainable agricultural, harvesting and husbandry practices and eating nutritionally empty food grown in dead soil. Who made the clothes we are wearing or the cell phones we carry around? Do they come from China or Indonesia - did children make them? were the workers paid a living wage and do they work in humane and just conditions? We have a spiritual connection to the child that labors to make the clothes we wear. Jesus is that child. (What you do to the least of these you do to me. Matt. 25:40) Every single thing we do affects a people here and now and the seven generations to come. To plunder headlong with an absence of thought is a spiritual sinkhole.
Thank you for reading my blog and walking with me in the path of spiritual grace; for your willingness to spend this time with me as together we learn how to see and be Christ in the world. Rowena +
