SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

 SPIRITUAL PRACTICE - CONVENTIONAL 

OR UNCONVENTIONAL ?

In this blog we will discuss the more conventional Eastern, esoteric or exotic forms of practice which are the most popular but also other methods that are less conventional but practical.

It is challenging to maintain balance, harmony and equanimity in a changing world. We need to navigate our boat down the river of life keeping to the middle and not setting up camp on either side, be it sacred or profane, light or dark, good or evil, happiness or suffering. We must learn to coexist with the negative and not assimilate it but also not be attached to the positive because of its impermanence. 

“Fear itself is not a foe but acquiescing to it empowers it to be a powerful one.” Hillel

 

Spiritual practice invokes a parasympathetic relaxation response. Life is stressful and engenders a sympathetic flight of flight response. There are only two feelings – love and fear. Love connects us to Big or Spacious Mind, fear to Monkey, Narrow or survival Mind. Love empowers our inclination to do good, fear enhances the shadow or our evil inclination. Opening the heart helps us to subordinate ego to the higher Self and the shadow to our inclination to do good. 

Unskillful emotions are a property of monkey mind, ego and shadow which are fear based. Our higher consciousness connects us to the feelings of love, compassion and the empathy of spacious mind. 

We are entitled to our feelings but responsible for their expression.

 

Emotions run high – feelings run deep.
Emotions require discipline.
Feelings require nurturing.
The better one controls emotions the more one can express feelings.

 

…Through our choices and efforts we go beyond ego and Narrow Mind’s pursuits of immediate and momentary satisfactions to engage in Spacious Mind’s on-going joys in searching for spiritual fulfillment – joys found in the very quest itself. 

Narrow (Monkey) Mind concerns itself with the one percent world and so its yearnings can never be gratified in a lasting way unless spiritualized in Spacious (Big) Mind.  

 

Narrow Mind generated by Fear leads to harmful emotions such as; malice, hate, envy, anger, vengeance, and our unskillful habits, compulsions, desires and addictions.

Love and Spacious Mind connects us to our higher ideas, ideals, notions, concepts, beliefs, discriminations and discernments. Spiritual practice is about opening the heart to love. For many when it is embodied and sensory it is more powerful.

 

“May the hero/ine awaken from forgetfulness and transcend all anxiety and sorrow.”  The Upanishads

 

We can also find equanimity in the work we do at the culmination of the hero’s journey when we Incorporate. In giving service we may be in the “zone” or experience a sense of flow or  “superfluidity.”

“When you find your place, where you are, practice begins.”  Dogen

Inner practice is also key to the transcendent hero’s journey and becoming who we truly are. It is especially critical during the incorporation or integration phase of the journey, where without some method of going inward we often lose the way. 

To the yogi there are four options arising out of spiritual practice and meditation; Karma yoga - the way of service, Bhakti yoga - devotional yoga and love of God, Janna yoga - mastering the scriptures through the intellect and Raja yoga the path of the Buddha - control of the mind - the most challenging. 

 

Being in the present moment is healthful and helpful.

 

Our spirit guides live in the present moment. In order to connect with them and their “Field” of potential we require a dedicated practice to awaken the “Snake” or the Kundalini, raise our vibration and open our Third intuitive Eye. 

Some form of meditation is also how we can more efficiently navigate the ups and downs of life. Every adversity along the way can be considered a test of our karma as well as the effectiveness of our inner practice. 

When we are in a balanced, harmonious state we are more able to subordinate ego and do things for their own sake. Moreover, we can allow our "body or flesh to cleave to our soul or essence in unison." An embodied spiritual practice that is active can support this.

 

From the sound of my sighing (my state of equanimity) has my essence (soul) cleaved onto my flesh (my body.)  

The Ancestors are very much in favor of a sensory, embodied spiritual practice.

Sangomas say; “We pray by drumming, singing and dancing.”  There is a Chassidic teaching that “with song you can open the gates of heaven.”

 

From my flesh shall I behold God.
The route to God is through our senses

The soul’s conversation is not of the mind. It is best heard with the senses.

 

The soul’s fulfillment is through the experience of the senses. 

 

Spiritual pursuits are to be practiced with pleasure, welcomed with gratitude. We are to experience delight of the senses and be absorbed in joy – therein is God.

The Sacred Triad of the Soul

Joy

Love-Heart

The Senses

Mind gets in the way of this Triad. 

The rational mind often gets in the way of what the heart must embrace in order to coax the soul to open.

When our practice is embodied, sensory and joyful it can be more powerful.  It is enhanced by opening the heart.

Our soul is made for joy and the more we truly love the more we will experience it and become its very essence.

 “Joy is not incidental to your spiritual practice, it is vital.”  

Rev. Nachman 

The heart must honor the mind for its understanding and the mind must follow the heart in its wisdom

Use it to support the heart’s wisdom.

The soul’s language is learned by listening with the heart. It has many sounds including that of silence. Its eloquence is universal.

 

When the heart is muffled the soul shrinks.

 

“To awaken the heart is to awaken the dormant soul.” M. Gandhi

Any practice done for its own sake, not to perform or look good, that turns us inward and that is enjoyable, regular and sustainable can be a spiritual practice. It does not have to be Eastern in origin or exotic. Unconventional practices can include playing a musical instrument, painting, walking on the beach alone and in silence. The Western mind gets bored easily so some may require more than one way of going inward. A spirit guide practice will be described later since it is more unconventional.

Frequently when I do divinations, the “bones” say the participants’ practice is lacking. More often than not when I ask what they do that is missing it is usually a way of connecting with their guides or an active, bodily oriented active, sensory practice or the use of sensory driven active imagination, rather than only prayer, journaling or passive Eastern forms of meditation. 

The ancients (ancestors, guides) would ask of you to perform good deeds, speak good words and think good thoughts in their memory.
They would want you to be a repository of their instructions, teachings and their righteous and loving ways.

It may also be a sustainable ancestral or spirit guide practice where we ask to receive for the greater good through the container or medium of an altar. We will cover these, including nature and sound as meditation  when we describe more Unconventional forms of practice. 

 

The most profound sound of all is that of silence – not the silence that is the absence of noise, of quietness but that in which we hear the longings of our heart and ponder our response.

God’s breath is heard in quietness and felt in stillness. 
Beware the noises and clamor of ego which drown out the Divine whisper.

The Creator would like a personal relationship with each one of us. Jeremiah teaches; 

"Search for me and you will find me. Seek me with all your heart and I will let you find me."  

God is playing hide and seek but no one wants to play.  

 

The best way to get out of “Mind” notably Monkey/Narrow mind is with spiritual practice.

The lighter we tread with the mind, 

the higher the soul will soar.

Use the mind, do not let the mind use you! 

The mind must mind what the mind minds best.

 

The mind controls the heart. 

 

We choose whether its Monkey or Spacious mind which governs. We should be sure love, not fear is the controller.

The more we steep ourselves in the immediacy of the moment, the deeper we travel into the heart’s chambers.
The lighter we tread with the mind (Narrow Mind,) the higher the soul will soar.

 

Spiritual practice should open the heart chakra. We should be able to see the divinity in everyone. Even if we do not like them we can love that.

Opening the heart helps to subordinate harmful emotions to the love generated feelings of our higher consciousness.

How can we be sure our meditation is working for us? 

The most challenging chakra to open is the heart chakra or the sephirah of Tiferet in the center of the Tree of Life which is love. Our heart or a feeling of love will tell us if we are successful in our practice. Forgiveness – both of oneself and others – is key to opening the heart. Compassion, empathy and gratitude are the bi-products.

It is all about cosmic union. Go forward with forgiveness which is essential to substance and joy.  

How can you be sure? Does it serve love or acquisitiveness? Does it bring us closer to your Creator?

A deep sense of serenity and fulfillment. A state that pervades all emotions and sorrows that come our way. The mind decides.