Welcome back to our conversation about creating a unique spiritual path, one that is right for you. Personalized. Customized. How is it going? What challenges have you encountered, what surprises? Have any excuses surfaced, any confusion? What do you want to celebrate about this process of self-discovery?
Like this blue dragonfly that I happened to catch with my cell phone last week, a spiritual path can seem somewhat illusive initially. Little more than a speck of color with wings.
But if you keep looking, keep trying, you will begin to see a path in the wilderness of life. One that inspires you to keep going. One that feels compelling. Like a rare bird you must follow with abandon!
Specifically, so far, we’ve talked about selecting two “big” questions to focus on. We’ve also talked about spending time with nature … in silence, with a journal available for taking notes. Time that allows you to go beyond mind chatter (the habitual sequence of thoughts most everyone suffers from); time that is free of expectation and desired outcome, in particular.
Do you need more knowledge? Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity needs most at this time?
But what is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions. ~ Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks
This being the last post on this topic (for now, anyway), I want to look at the third step. Again, this is a condensed explanation (something short and simple and relatively easy) for charting a spiritual course that is meaningful to you.
- Let simplicity open this door in your life.
So if you’ve started to tap into something besides habitual thought, started to go beyond ego and mind polarities, started to discover the peace of “nothingness” … what’s next?
See if you can bring your spiritual path into your daily life even when you’re not focused on spirituality, per se.
Here are just a few ideas to help you get started … but remember, this is all about you finding your unique spiritual path.
Find the courage to follow your intuitive guidance. Insights that come to you during periods of reflection. For example, if others in your world think you should be “doing” … you know that “being” is more critical to your spiritual well-being.
Focus on developing a stronger “spiritual connection” with friends and family. A spiritual connection can be nurtured no matter how infrequently you visit with someone. And it has nothing to do with buying a plane ticket so you can sit face-to-face in someone’s living room. That can be nice when feasible, but sometimes, out of habit, when we are in the physical presence of friends and family, we fall back on old times. We fail to acknowledge the growth and change within ourselves, and are unable to stay “true” to our more recent insights. It can feel like ghost-walking, playing outdated, conditioned roles that have little to do with “today.”
And true caring, if it exists, will flourish whenever acceptance and attention and awareness are the focus of a relationship.
Another idea for bringing your spiritual growth into plain view is to talk openly about your evolving internal landscape. Some will get it; many will not. But, at least, you are being true to your inner world. If you are feeling more peaceful, more content, more inspired … share that with others.
You must be the change you want to see in the world. ~ Gandhi
If you are less and less interested in the external world and its false pursuit, share that with others. If you are no longer invested in faster, better, more, but looking for a life that is spiritually rewarding, share that.
Whatever it is that is real for you today, per your spiritual path, that is the self others will want to get to know.
If they insist on you being the person you were 20, 40, 60 years ago, gently return to the present tense. The wise words of Oliver Wendall Holmes come to mind: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared with what lies within us.”
Have you actualized your spiritual work,
made the evolution of your inner world visible?
- If you practice meditation or yoga, take time each day for silence, and become attentive to your breathing, you will be well on your way to discovering your spiritual essence.
Remember the blue dragonfly during moments of doubt.
I love their simplicity. Light and colorful, with large eyes
and transparent wings, they are tiny works of art.
And we are all works of art.
I hope this 3-part series on creating a unique spiritual path has been helpful and interesting. And thanks for sharing your ideas and thoughts; this is a vast topic that I may return to in the near future. Posts in this series: Spring Shadows, Your Inner Mystery, Blue Dragonfly.
Blog posts by DazyDayWriter @ work in SunnyRoomStudio: all rights reserved.
