In addition to the
mental, emotional, psychological, and physical
parts of our being,
there is also a spiritual
element. This part
of our being is least familiar to us, and
remains distant or subconscious
to our daily existence. Very few
individuals live from this poise,
even though it has a vast power to enable the infinite possibilities of
existence to enter our lives.
It is at this spiritual plane that
we transcends the
limitations of our emotions, feelings, and thoughts, and instead gains a new unified
perception of life. The spiritual plane can be reflected in our lives at first as silence,
light, and intuition. At more advanced levels it is expressed as a unitary consciousness,
where all conflicting thoughts, ideas, events, and life circumstances are reconciled into
a greater harmony. Further still one has the experience of a greater spiritual force that
can be called and utilized at will to affect life.
Down through history individuals who have had deep spiritual
experiences and feeling have noted some common qualities to their
spiritual experiences, such as a
deep peace insider, or a sense of oneness
with others and the surroundings, or a profound universal love, or a
power or force, or a light
of illumination and knowledge.
In the final analysis these experiences and realizations come down to us in two
fundamental ways, as consciousness and as force.
Spirit as Consciousness
By consciousness we mean our level of perception
about ourselves and the world around us. The higher the
perception, the greater the consciousness. Those who have had the spiritual experience have
noted that their state of awareness, i.e. their consciousness, has been elevated beyond the
norm, enabling that person to experience existence from a whole new perspective.
Oneness
One of the most common experiences of
this spiritual consciousness is feeling of
"oneness." Oneness is often experienced as a feeling that everything is part of
a whole, or that we all from one common source and share a common spirit.
Let's then consider some ways that the spiritual
beholder might experiences oneness.
To our
ordinary perceptions, the world is a mass of individual life forms each
seeking its own destiny. Behind this appearance is the essential nature of
existence, the One Divine consciousness. This consciousness expresses
itself in the universe in many forms, each with its own will to be. But in
fact each form is an expression of the One seeking its infinite joy of existence.
All true spiritual realization begins with this new perception of the
essential Oneness of all beings and things.
The
spiritual
experience of Oneness often expresses by the feeling or understanding that we are of one
essence or spirit. We experience that the same soul force that we fell in ourselves
is there in each person we encounter. This deep perception has the effect of reducing the barriers we feel
between ourselves and the people around us. That in turn leads to the realization that
other people's interests and concerns are no different and no less important than our
own. If we carry this experience into our daily lives, then we cannot but have a deep
and abiding respect for every person we meet along the way. Living our lives this way
inevitably leads to increased energy, happiness, and good fortune for ourselves and those around us.
By the way, many of the common personal values we share in our lives
can be said to emanate from this inner experience of oneness. Examples of these personal
values are -- concern for others, trust, tolerance, openness, respect for the individual,
and teamwork.
Also we can say that the greatest
foundation for any collective, including our society as a whole, is one
rooted in this experience and realization that the spirit in me resides in
every other person in that community. This spiritual oneness may be in fact
the central attribute of an ultimate
future society.
Techniques
-The next time you meet someone else remind yourself that the same
spirit that is in yourself is in them. In other words, they, in one sense, are you.
-Whenever you speak with someone else focus completely on their
interest, needs, and opinions, and accept them as your own.
(For more on the topic of Grow by Giving, click here.)
Beyond Good and Bad
A
second way that the spiritual
experience of oneness expresses is by the perception
that there is a level of consciousness that transcends our normal experience of what is
good and what is bad. A person normally accepts good things that happen in life as
"the good" and bad things that happen as "the bad." Through the
unitary spiritual experience of oneness we rise to a higher level of knowledge and
insight, and come to understand that the difference between the two are not what we
normally perceive. We understand that "the bad" in fact serves a very important
purpose; that it is there to help us and the world around us evolve. In that sense it is
just as good as "the good!" Conversely through the experience of spiritual
consciousness we begin to perceive that many things we perceive as "good" may
not be truly good, and may just be expressions of our desires, attachments, and
preferences.
How many of us have looked back over the course of our lives and
have seen that the difficult experiences we have gone through (that at the time we
perceived of as bad) was often the doorway to a new beginning or opportunity. If we can
carry into our daily lives the consciousness of a plane beyond good and bad, we will be
able to operate from a more centered poise, enabling us to make better decisions since we
see the world from a greater depth and deeper truth. This in effect can only lead to
greater success and happiness in life.
(For more on the topic of the negatives and positives in life, click here.)
Overcoming Limitations of the Mind
Having spiritual experiences such as oneness
helps us recognize that the source of our thinking process, our mind,
is a very limited instrument. Before the spiritual consciousness our minds seem puny and
limited, filled with our own prejudices and justifications; limited in its awareness,
perspective, and knowledge in life's situations and circumstances. On closer scrutiny we
discover that the mind and its thoughts tends to pick out one truth out of a
larger truth, one piece of the puzzle, discarding the rest. Or it divides things into
pieces or sections, not able to hold a wider truth or know the big picture.
From this discovery of the limitations of mind we
can make the effort to break our attachments to our own attitudes, opinions, and habits.
This effort can help us become more
tolerant, energized, and open to the possibility of the full truth, not the
limited truth that our own minds present us. This can only lead to greater knowledge,
awareness, achievement, success, and happiness in life.
Inner/outer correspondence
The spiritual experience often leads to an awareness that the things
that occur outside of
ourselves and the things within us have a direct correlation and
relationship. The mind says they are divided, are of two different worlds, and
cannot possibly have a direct relationship. For example, how could
changing an attitude possibly relate to a positive circumstance happening
to you a few moments after be related in any way. Our minds suggest that
such a relationship lies beyond the normal bounds of causality, space and
time. Yet, that is precisely what occurs.
Our conclusion is that everything that is
happening around you is a reflection of innermost thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. If
something is wrong on the outside, you find the corresponding negative inner perception,
change it, and watch life respond positively in kind. This in turn leads
us to the understanding that we can and should take responsibility for
everything that is happening around us, and can make inner changes to effect the world
around us.
Interestingly, we have witnessed that if people take this
approach, they can bring about an instant outer response from life. For example an
individual changes an attitude about someone at work, and instantly gets a call
thereafter that a new project has been agreed upon that that person is to lead; or a man
cleans something he was reluctant to clean before and instantly finds out that he
has run into some expected money. This is called a Life
Response.
If your attitudes and
opinions are reflected by the circumstances around you, then we can make an effort to change the world on the outside by
making a change on the inside; by changing our attitudes, opinions, and habits, or taking a specific action. Under certain circumstances life on the outside can instantly respond to
your inner effort.
If you can look at every positive and negative circumstance and
match it to a corresponding attitude, value, or habit inside yourself, you
will be well on your way to understanding the character of life, and gain
the ability to master life.
There
is no faster way to
change the world around us than by acting from a positive inner poise.
Techniques
-Whenever you are bothered by something outside yourself in your life, try
to see the corresponding
limited habit, opinion, or attitude. Then make an effort to change it at that moment.
Better yet develop an action plan to change it in all aspects of your life!
(For more on the Power of Attitudes, click here.)
Openness to the Natural Unfolding
When we are connected to spirit we see that everything that unfolds in the course
of time has its own purpose and justification. Normally we want this particular thing
to happen and not that, or are expecting one thing to occur over another. However, when we
experience the spiritual consciousness, one perceives that each moment has its purpose,
that there is a natural unfolding beyond our desires and limited
perceptions. This
realization enables us to interact with life more joyously and much more successfully as
we follow life's thread of unfolding, rather than our ego sense. This can
lead to increased energy, reduced stress, an increasingly positive
outlook, and increased possibility for great accomplishment, success, and
joy in life.
Harmony
All of these
perceptions of oneness can lead one to understand that all of existence is moving towards
greater and greater degrees of reconciliation, unity, and harmony. The spiritual aspirant often takes with him into the world the inner
perception that all life is moving toward higher levels of reconciliation; between his
inner existence and his outer circumstance, between his limited thoughts and the real
truth, between the "good" and the "bad" that occurs, even
between his own destiny and the destiny of the world around him, including
his spiritual destiny. Harmony is perhaps the greatest spiritual value one can have, and if
brought into our daily lives can lead to unlimited reconciliation, unity, and
truth, which can serve to open us to the very highest possibilities for achievement and happiness in
life.
In fact, all problems
of life are essentially problems of harmony. In essence we are all one,
but since we live in our limited divided consciousness, we do not see and
understand the underlying harmony between all things; between ourselves
with others, ourselves with the environment, ourselves with the Divine
spirit.
Harmony does not mean to
compromise. It means to use a higher understanding to find a true
reconciliation between the opposites we encounter, for all opposites are
portions of a Oneness that seeks expression through the diverse play of
their opposition. Constantly strive to find the widest and most
encompassing harmony in all that you do.
Spirit as
Force
Another phenomenon that has been felt by people who have had the spiritual
experience is one of having felt some sort of spiritual energy or force, perhaps even a
kind of pleasure or bliss. This force of the spiritual plane is experienced as a
current, or energy, or something radiating within that has a substance and a power.
Some have learned to marshal this power to effect the outcome of events and circumstance.
Here are a few ways that the force of spirit functions, and can be utilized to change our
lives.
Peace
Another way force
acts is as Peace. Peace is a state of utter calm and stillness from which all successful
outcomes in life must begin.
One of the first steps on the journey is to
establish Peace in our physical nature. We must quiet the body and the
nerves to seek that which is beyond our surface being. Spiritual peace
comes by self-discipline and calling down the higher vibration into the
body, whose nature vacillates between dullness an action. This is an
essential first step in any spiritual path. Once physical Peace is
established we must learn to free ourselves from the influence of our mind
whose lower nature is one of analysis and division and establish the
abiding mental Peace to augment the physical Peace.
Calling Peace
Here's one technique: Take any situation in which there
is turmoil, confusion, or other negative circumstance. Try to find a point within yourself
where there is calm and peace. If you are unable to find that point call peace into the
situation. When you feel you are at the point of calm and peace resume your activities.
Our research indicates that by calling peace you can calm your thoughts, decrease pain,
and attract positive circumstances around you. You can even help stop a negative incident
around, such as a riot.
Calling peace into yourself is also a way to reduce
physical pain. When a pain occurs, quiet your mind, and don't let it give sanction to the
pain (i.e. don't give in to such thoughts and feelings as "Oh no not again" or
"Now I have to go to the doctor"). Then call in Peace into yourself for a few
moments. Relax. Then watch the pain ease or even disappear. This is also a great technique
for reducing stress.
Techniques
-Whenever you are unbalanced, mentally or emotionally, do not try
to solve a problem. First become calm, and peaceful. One technique is to call Peace into
your being for a few moments.
-Whenever you feel a physical pain, do not react to the sensation
with any mental or emotional feelings. Keep calm, and then begin to ignore the pain
completely. Don't mention it to someone else, especially a doctor.
(For more info related to this topic, click here.)
-Before going to bed aspire for a restful, calm
sleep. Also call Peace into your being before you drift off into asleep.
You are more likely to have a restful, calm, refreshing sleep.
Notes: Calling
down Peace disperses a quarreling crowd, as well as calms down a nation
troubled by war.
Spiritual Joy
A
final way you can experience spirit as force is as the joy and delight of existence.
In our daily life, we experience alternating
periods of pleasure and pain. The world appears to be full of suffering
and pain. But if we look behind the surface actions, we discover that all
life is moved by the Divine's Joy of self-discovery. This same process of
self-discovery occurs in ourselves. As we come out of our ignorance
through our experience of the spirit, we come into the light of knowledge,
which helps us uncover the spiritual Joy and delight in existence and in
our own lives.
Through prayer, meditation,
contemplation, or feelings of devotion one can learn to move beyond our
surface awareness and ignorance, and perceive the inner Divine plan,
workings, and unfolding. when we understand this in our own lives, there
is released in us a deep feeling of spiritual Joy in our delight of existence.
The Great Secret
Deference to Higher Source To Create
Positive Circumstance
Spiritual consciousness has been felt from time immemorial as a force or
current that uplift our spirits. In addition, that force can also be
utilized to improve our daily lives.
Normally we create positive outcomes in our lives
by having the right skills and knowledge, the proper level of
organization, the right attitudes, and taking the necessary effort,
amongst other. If we optimize our capacities, we are sure to meet with
success and happiness in any activity or circumstance. Yet to move to a
level of
perfection in any situation or circumstance, we need one thing
more; the cooperation of life.
In life we don't normally have any real control
over external circumstance surrounding the event or circumstance we
engage in, such as the occurrence of a sudden fire drill in the middle
of a meeting we are conducting, or a key person arriving late to the
meeting because of a traffic incident. We don't have the ability to
effect or prevent such things. Likewise, if we don't know the answer to
a problem that we are suddenly confronted with, we don't know where to
turn. The only thing we really seem to have control of is our own
current capacities.
Then how can we truly become the master of any
action, project, circumstance, or situation we partake in? How do we
overcome any barrier that appears beyond our control?
Our research indicates that you can gain this
control by developing the simple discipline of remembering or deferring
to the spiritual consciousness before the activity or event commences.
By making this smallest of efforts you will experience that
somehow life responds in a positive way.
For example, an engineer
deferring to the spirit before beginning his work can have breakthrough
discoveries or insights that he or she could never have been able to
have based only on one's own knowledge, skills, and efforts. An
instructor who opens to the force before his class commences watches as
everything during the day seems to dovetail perfectly into place, and
anticipated problems just vanish.
Deferring to the higher consciousness, the spirit,
the Divine, if you will, opens us
up to unlimited, even infinite
possibilities,
transcending the
skills, knowledge, attitudes, and other capacities we bring to the
situation.
Opening to this higher force before commencing an act has the power to
evoke positive responses from life. Actions are completed much better
than expected, people respond more positively, events move more quickly,
and life "cooperates." This power solves problems, resolves conflicts,
dissolves dead habits and unwanted traits, opens up new opportunities,
generates freshness and enjoyment in everything we do, widens the
personality, deepens our awareness, and reveals one's true inner self.
To experience this effect just once in one's life is to set one
onto a new course in life.
Our experiences suggest this method of
deference to a higher force before commencing an activity is a
scientific, provable fact, witnessed thousands of times by our
researchers, with unprecedented positive results.
If you try it and see the results once, it could change your life
forever.
Techniques
Before you commencing any important activity open yourself to a higher
power for a moment. Then take the action. See if the action ends in
positive results, atmosphere. (This is our most recommended strategy!)
(For more info on the topic
The Great Secret: Opening to the Force, click
here.)
Calling
Many of us have resorted to prayer or meditation as a way to solve
serious problems in our lives. Fewer of us however have actually adopted
such a technique on a regular and ongoing basis, when things were
not going particularly poorly or when things are going well. Utilizing
such techniques can bring about great fortune and joy in our lives.
For example one powerful
technique is something closely related to prayer. We call it "Calling."
Our experience is that if one were to take any situation and call the
higher spiritual power into that situation life responds sooner or later
in a very positive way. For example, you can use calling on a
daily basis in your work:
The owner of a chain of
audio-video stores in Canada took up the technique of calling. Whenever
he went to one of his stores he called the higher presence into that
location. Within a year of utilizing this technique, profits increase
six fold!
Techniques
-When there is a problem in your life call to the
spiritual source for solution. List the specifics in your mind, and
offer the problem to it. Don't have any expectations of a specific
result. Have faith in the outcome, whatever it is.
(For more info related to this topic, click
here.)
-If there is a great problem in your life,
recount your problems as above, and then call for a full day. This takes
a great effort, but you may see a great change in your situation in the
days and weeks that follow.
One can also call inwardly to another person
or object across time and space. consider this example:
I sent the computer to Micron for
replacing the damaged keyboard and also for checking on defective
performance of my battery since it would stop functioning when it was
only 25% discharged. I sent it on a Saturday by overnight and called on
Wednesday to confirm they had received it and find out the status. The
tech could confirm from the computer that it had been received but their
was no update information on status. Even when I was speaking to the
tech, I thought I should have called the computer instead of the
company. The following morning, I again had the impulse to call Micron.
This time I checked the impulse and inwardly called the computer with a
warm affectionate emotion for it to return. Five minutes later, the
doorbell rang and UPS delivered the computer back!
On checking the computer, I found the keyboard had been fully repaired
but the problem with the battery persisted, so I called Micron again and
they asked me to send it back. They said under their new policy it would
take 10-15 working days. I wanted the computer back in time for a
conference we were conducting but it appeared very unlikely. But I had
little choice except to send it, since immediately after the conference
I was leaving the country for a prolonged period. So I sent it in and
tried to be patient. After four or five days, I thought of calling the
company to check. Then I recalled my previous experience and thought I
should call the computer instead. In spite of my earlier success, the
impulse was to call the company in the normal way. I restrained it and
called the computer as before. One hour later UPS delivered it to the
door!
Faith
The ultimate skill of the spirit is perhaps the
acknowledgement that there is something beyond any skills, beyond our knowledge, beyond
even our spiritual emotions that we can have ultimate trust in. That is faith.
Faith is the mind's intuition of higher spiritual
truth. Faith is the knowledge of the soul within us of truths we have not
yet discovered.
We can have
faith on occasion, when circumstances are difficult, or on an ongoing basis. Ongoing faith
in the spirit, the divine is an indication that spirit has become the foundation of
our lives. From that poise anything we come to believe that anything is possible for us.
It opens us up to the infinite possibilities
in life, and it brings us into a closer relationship with the Divine
spirit.
(For more information, click
here.)
Aspiration
When we are first in touch with the spirit, we
have a desire to keep close to this force in our lives. However, that
aspiration usually wanes after our experience with the spirit recedes over
time. To rekindle our relationship to the spirit and its benefits of
peace, joy, light, truth, and infinite possibility, we need to make a
continuous effort to bring the spirit back into our lives. This effort
must be constant, unending, and should embrace all parts of our nature
until a flame ignites and burns inside ourselves as a constant Aspiration
for union with the divine. By having aspiration for the spirit, the divine
in our lives, we make it the central part of our being, the light of our existence.
Grace
Finally, beyond al our spiritual efforts to connect to the spirit, there
is the direct action of the Divine. Grace does not wait for us to connect
to spirit; it occurs on it's own. Grace, a direct action of the Divine in
our lives, organizes and conducts everything for us and the world around
us. Our awareness of its action releases in us
a deep universal Joy of existence.
Additional Strategies
-Practice a discipline such as prayer, meditation,
contemplation, or gaining of knowledge to experience and feel the richness of the
spiritual plane. For example, calling the higher power into your life
or your work on a regular basis can bring
enormous success, achievement, and joy in your life.
-Make connecting to spirit (via prayer, consecration, calling, etc.) a regular part of your
work life. Integrate it into your normal working routines. See if
greater possibilities and outcomes occur as a result.
For additional
Growth Online thoughts on connecting to spirit in one's life, click
here.
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