When you started out on the spiritual path, you probably sensed
that an extraordinary spiritual transformation was possible--a
radical realignment at the deepest levels of your being that would
not only liberate you from personal suffering but would infuse your
life with a sacred, cosmic sense of meaning, purpose and wholeness.
Yet after years or even decades of working on yourself, you may
have begun to doubt whether that initial intuition of possibility
was grounded in reality.
I want you to know that the highest possibility you've glimpsed,
the most glorious potential you've sensed is not a figment of your
imagination but a real possibility. And even more than that is
possible.
It is possible for life to make perfect sense. It's possible for
YOUR life to make perfect sense. It's possible to come into such
profound alignment with the moral and spiritual axis of the
universe that every moment of your life is a walk in grace, and
that you know without any doubt that you are in the right place at
the right time.
It's possible for all existential doubt to disappear, and to live
with unwavering conviction in the inherent goodness of the life
process.
It's possible to awaken so deeply to the divine evolutionary
impulse at the heart of existence that we know that we are living
our lives in service to the highest calling there is. And in this
knowing, to discover an unimaginable and abiding liberation from
the suffering of the confused, neurotic, separate sense of self.
It's possible to be truly free.
What I'm speaking about is a completely different kind of human
life than most of us have ever encountered. This is not simply
about "being in the now" or "loving and accepting what is in every
moment."
It is not about simply accessing a more expansive state of
awareness or being able to stand back and abide as the Witness of
all that arises. And it's not just about cultivating a sustained
feeling of compassion for the suffering of all beings.
All of these are good experiences to have and important capacities
to cultivate. But I'm speaking about something more.
I'm pointing to authentic God Realization in which the ego has been
radically overridden by the ultimate principle, by the creative
force of the cosmos, by what Gotama Buddha called "the roar of the
timeless beyond."
It's a life where our personal motive to have and get for ourselves
has been replaced by a passion to give everything for the greatest
good. In this ultimate submission to and alignment with the
Absolute, the human being becomes a living, breathing force for
higher evolution.
And this changes our relationship to being alive in unimaginable
ways.
Experientially, one finds oneself in a state of profound
receptivity and openness. A deep and abiding simplicity pervades
one's life, and an ongoing sense of flow permeates everything. One
has let go of identification with the mind, abandoned any
attachment to the self, and lives as a transparent, vibrant vessel
for the Infinite.
There is remarkable mental clarity at times, but there is no
clinging on to that clarity. Insights come and go, but there is the
knowledge that "I can't hold onto any of this." And so there is no
grasping on. But in moments when clarity is needed, it miraculously
appears, integrating all of one's knowledge and lived experience in
a moment of intuitive knowing.
Experiences come and go, too, and there is no longer any clinging
to ecstasy, bliss or love. One has discovered the source of all
these things and so feels no compulsion to cling to them.
More importantly, and contrary to popular belief, one awakens to a
profound awareness of the moral order of the cosmos. One feels, in
a sense, for the Whole of Life. One feels the pain of the whole and
the ecstasy of the whole as one's own pain and one's own ecstasy.
One becomes the seeing, sensing, feeling organ of the whole, of the
cosmos.
And at the center of one's being is a burning passion for evolution
and transformation, a calling to transform the world into an
expression of the divinity one has discovered.
All of this may sound very big and beyond reach, but I want to make
it clear that this is not a pipe dream drawn from ancient books.
This is what it's really like. This is really what's possible for a
human life--for your life--to become.
Now, just because it's possible to awaken to this radically
different kind of life does not mean that it's easy. Indeed, what
I'm describing is without question the most challenging endeavor a
human being can undertake.
We have to recognize that, even if we feel deeply that we want to
surrender to the Divine, to be an agent of evolution, there is a
big part of us that wants nothing to do with that. A part of us
that desperately wants to maintain control, to keep our life small
and manageable.
So, if we want our life to change that profoundly, we have to come
to terms with what we're doing here. That means cultivating a clear
and unwavering intention to bring our life into alignment with that
which is greater than us.
Cultivating this kind of intention requires a 24/7 commitment, but
you can begin engaging this inquiry by engaging the following
exercises on a daily basis. Any of these exercises can be engaged
as a silent contemplation, as a journal exercise, or as a dialogue
with a trusted spiritual friend.
1) Every morning, before you do anything else, take fifteen minutes
and contemplate what you are really living for. Ask yourself: what
is the most important thing in life? What is of ultimate
significance? And what do I need to do to align with that? To be an
expression of that in the world? Don't simply ask these questions
with your mind. Ask them with your whole being, as if your life
depended on it.
2) Then, every evening, take another fifteen minutes, and again ask
yourself: What is the most important thing in life? What is of
ultimate significance? How did I live my day? Did I do everything I
could to live in accord with the deepest truth I know? To align
with a higher purpose? Where could I have given more?
3) Ask yourself: What would I need to give up or let go of to be
able to align with the divine evolutionary impulse? To be a vessel
for a greater intelligence and power in this world? What is in the
way of me stepping into full submission to and partnership with the
creative force of the Cosmos? When will I be ready to leave that
behind?
The spiritual path has always been about surrender. But the truth
is that in this evolutionary awakening, this integral
enlightenment, there is a further goal, which is the willingness to
not only surrender to the Evolutionary Impulse but to step up and
take full responsibility for its manifestation and expression in
the world.
In the end, we realize that the very power we've surrendered to is
also our truest self, and that it needs us to fully embody that, to
dare to be a creative agent of evolution, to align our own being
with it so completely that we become the conscious choosing aspect
of the Divine principle on Earth.
In this radical realignment at the core of our being, we begin
incarnating divinity and we give our every breath to making that
divinity known and fully expressed in this world. In this
unconditional stand, we discover our final liberation from the
world, even as we give everything to transforming the world into an
expression of the sacred. And when enough of us learn to live in
this way, we will have Heaven on Earth.
http://integralenlightenment.com/telecourse/
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