American Indian

Progress – Why is the Still Small Voice Still Small?

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“Then a Voice said: “Behold this day, for it is yours to make.”
~ Black Elk, Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Medicine Man

 

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History abounds with stories from those who have heard voices guiding them in life. Many of us can tell our own modest tales. What does this phenomenon mean?

In the Biblical story of Elijah besting the prophets of Baal in a dramatic contest, God speaks to Elijah afterwards in a “still small voice.” A scriptural website explains: “The point of God speaking in the still small voice was to show Elijah that the work of God need not always be accompanied by dramatic revelation or manifestations.” 1

While we’d all probably love to hear heavenly pronouncements regularly and receive wisdom to direct our lives, most often we’re given advice like, “turn off the oven before you leave,” or “I-5 is probably jammed right now; exit here to take the 405.”

In terms of our progress along the path of awakening, these intuitive messages are worth respecting. They may not be dramatic but they are imminently practical. We can all attest to the value of listening and, at least as often, to the damage that occurs when we ignore those directives or never even hear them in the first place.

There’s another reason that voice, however it may manifest for each of us personally, remains small: we’re barely paying attention. The world is noisy and insistent voices assail us from every direction on multiple frequencies, 24/7, so that voice can easily get lost in the midst.

Here is the primary reason why regular meditation is so essential for any genuine seeker. What we seek is what we find when the noise fades, when thoughts flee, and when we are left with a deepening awareness of awareness itself. In that exquisite silence, Spirit speaks.

We can pay attention, not just in meditation but throughout the day. While most people claim extreme busyness here in the 21st century, when we examine the content of an average day, it’s likely we will discover countless interludes.

Our lives are not really the non-stop action dramas we may think they are. In fact, we often find ourselves waiting. We wait for software to load, for red lights to turn green, for lunch to arrive. The tendency is to automatically fill those available moments with more busyness, the favorite tactic being to play with our Smart Phones.

Apparently about half of us check our phones every five to ten minutes. More than 1 in 10 GenExers admit that they probably couldn’t last an hour without their phones and 16% of Americans take their phones to bed with them. 2

We are addicted to the connection we make via technology with a world beyond our senses and intuition. As we become more and more tuned in to that virtual world, we lose touch with both the material realm and the domain of spirit.

Still, that small voice speaks. And we make our own choices as to what we listen to. We could decide to not automatically fill those spaces with texting or surfing or any of the countless other activities that drown out the subtler messages that are also being broadcast moment by moment.

 

Indian Girl

 

Black Elk, the Sioux Medicine Man I quoted at the beginning of this blog, advised: “Perhaps you have noticed that even in the slightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in different ways.”

This comment illuminates another possibility: what we “hear” may be more than the “voice of God,” if we were to phrase it that way. Perhaps we are hearing the prayers of all living things. Perhaps there’s a conversation in progress, all the time, one that we can participate in.

It’s interesting to consider that our consciousness may be alive with another level of communication entirely, beyond FaceBook and YouTube and Instagram and beyond even our own incessant thinking. The term “innernet” has been used to describe this invisible domain and some have even suggested that the Internet is meant to provide training wheels, helpful to develop our own inherent extraordinary perception, an aspect of what I call E.S.P. (Elementary Spiritual Powers) so that, eventually, we can progress beyond the technology..

If you can recall dining with friends in a noisy restaurant you’ll remember how your hearing improved when you focused your listening. That’s also a good technique for improving our ability to hear this still small voice.

We can pay attention where it counts and progress our ability to tune in and remain intimately connected with this inner world, while engaging in the material world to make of each day what we choose.

References:
1. https://www.gotquestions.org/still-small-voice.html
2. http://anewdomain.net/smartphone-addiction-stats-new-survey-infographic/

 

sprout between hands

Progress – Choosing Our Thoughts

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“There are two types of seeds in the mind: those that create anger,
fear, frustration, jealousy, hatred and those that create love, compassion,
equanimity and joy. Spirituality is germination and sprouting of
the second group and transforming the first group.”

~ Amrit Ray

 

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We can choose our thoughts, just as we choose what channel to select on the remote control for our television.

In one of my recent books I told the story of a disciple asking his master how long it would take him to reach enlightenment if he meditated two hours every day.

“Five years,” his teacher replied.

“And if I meditated four hours every day?” pressed the eager student.

His master chuckled and replied, “In that case it would take you twenty years.”

Spiritual progress does not accelerate with extra effort. You can’t strive to let go! Instead, you can relax from the deeply ingrained habit of efforting, you can unlearn and deprogram… ultimately, you can shift to an entirely different operating system.

The old OS equates work over time with results. More work plus more time, equals more results. The new OS is not linear. More is not necessarily better. What matters is quality, not quantity.

As Amrit Ray wrote in the opening quote, we do have different kinds of seed thoughts and what we choose to focus on will grow. Seeds, of course, always become what they inherently are. A carrot seed has never become a watermelon! And a hateful thought cannot be changed into a loving one. It’s a choice: think the hateful thought or think a loving one.

Our thoughts do influence our progress, if we want to call it that. They also influence other people. In his book, The Shape of Thought,” H. Clark Barrett writes: “Investors’ beliefs about the state of the economy influence stock prices, which in turn, influence others’ beliefs, goals, and behaviors.” 1

They say that birds of a feather flock together (and fools seldom differ!). Our thoughts birth the words and behaviors that attract/repel others. In this way, all of us create a personal world of relationships based on which thought seeds we nurture. We end up with our own mutual support network.

There are pivotal moments in every life where a person takes stock and realizes some sort of deep change is necessary. This could be, and often is, stimulated by an emergency, like a dire health diagnosis or an ultimatum from a partner: “Change that behavior or else!” Confronted with an urgent crisis like this, we often try to change that behavior in order to get different results.

It seems to make sense and this is known as first order change. It can work, temporarily. But there’s a more effective long-term strategy, known as second order change which focuses on shifting our mind set. Athletes know very well that changing their mindset is what changes behavior to develop improved results. “Fake it ‘til you make it” is a popular success strategy.

This works in many aspects of life but not relative to our spiritual life. We can’t fake experiencing the truth of ourselves! We can choose which thoughts to entertain. And, like seeds, they grow… if they are nurtured by our attention.

The most effective mindset for making progress in the truly important aspects of our lives – experiencing meaning, growing loving relationships, etc. – is to embrace our inherent worthiness. Self-esteem problems routinely sabotage even the most concerted efforts to grow and change.

But self-esteem issues can’t be solved with proclamations to the contrary. For instance, manipulating thoughts into affirmations like “I am worthy, who I am is perfect,” is a mental imposition based on judgment. Who would repeat such words to themselves? Certainly not someone with high self-esteem! Likewise, trying to solve financial problems by repeating words like, “I am wealthy; money is pouring in from the universe,” is not a strategy a wealthy person would adopt!

Toiling in the jungle of ego ambition is futile and it’s the virtual opposite of what we’re discussing relative to choosing our thoughts. No, we choose from those thoughts that present themselves, understanding that we are not required to manufacture thoughts but rather to select from the momentary thought menu, just as we choose where we go, what we do, and who we engage as friends.

Our thoughts are emerging, not just because of influences from the physical environment that our senses detect but also in response to our inner connection with Source, in relationship to our own unfolding destiny.

The Bible refers to “the still, small voice.” In this series of blogs we will explore how to culture that inner knowing in order to change our thoughts at that deep level and generate real progress in life.

References:
1. The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve (Evolution and Cognition) by H. Clark Barrett, page 128

 

Help – We All Need Each Other

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“Holiness grows so fast where there is kindness. The world is lost for want of sweetness and kindness. Do not forget we need each other.”

~ Mother Teresa

 

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Where would we be without others? Regardless of our differences, we are one human family, learning how to get along with each other.

It’s not unusual for family members to quarrel. But we work it out. The same challenges face us as members of the family of mankind. And, we’re working things out, thanks to those of us who value diversity and understand that we need each other as we are, not converted to some kind of sanctioned sameness. Viva la difference! as they say.

This is our final blog based on an alphabet of spiritual literacy developed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat1. I’ve been inspired by their list and developed my own elaborations. These are best considered as meditative morsels and digested as nourishment that can deepen your momentary experience of connection with life and communion with each other. In fact, we are always connected, it’s inherent in life, but the epidemic of loneliness assaulting our human species testifies to a special irony: we need each other to remember that we need each other, to overcome this alienating side effect of civilization.

Here are the final seven key words on Brassat’s list.

Silence

“Silence is golden.” Why do we say that? Because we understand that spirit is always active, alive in the silence and spaces of our lives. When we learn to honor the unseen and unheard, we expand our experience from the literal to the poetic and become able to embrace a largeness to life that is unobtainable in the material world alone. In the silence we grow and dream and love and share.

Teachers

Where would we be without our teachers? Indeed, we probably wouldn’t survive. We come into this world completely vulnerable and defenseless. Parents and teachers help us equip ourselves to live successfully and happily. The best teachers are those who also understand the inner journey and can guide us from the inner trail they are walking, at least a few steps ahead of us.

Transformation

Life is transformation. From the spectacle of a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly to the everyday unseen regeneration of cells in our bodies, every moment of life includes some degree of fundamental change. It’s easy to forget that if our lives become dulled by routine, but we can recapture the magic of any moment. How? It could be as simple as voicing an appreciation for some simple gift we are receiving right now. Like the air we are breathing, the sun shining on us, a breeze cooling us.

Unity

Unity is not sameness. Think of an orchestra. Each member plays their instrument, using their unique skills, and – by all following the same score and heeding the conductor – can create beautiful music together. True unity is diversity in harmony, a reunion of separation that enhances every part.

Vision

The Bible warns that “without vision the people perish.” Vision is more than seeing; it includes intention, peering over the horizon of the moment and extending a force of creativity to establish an energetic foundation for the material form of our daily living. With vision, we can build miracles, because we’ve started where life always begins, with the invisible, the unseen, the genius of spirit awaiting articulation in the 3D world.

Wonder

We lived in wonder as children and it’s not too late to reclaim our heritage. It’s only resignation to a perceived sameness that dulls obscures the wonder of a moment, oppressing with unconscious beliefs that turn novelty into routine. “What if” is the core question that can unlock our capacity for experiencing and growing wonder.

Yearning

It’s natural to yearn for what we want. But, what do we want? Behind all “things” are feelings. When we understand that true desire lives in the soul, we can surrender our quest to feed that hunger from the material world. Jesus said, “I have meat you know not of.” He yearned for God, for an ever deepening connection in oneness with his Father within. This is the natural yearning that lives in the heart of desire. When we accept this, we can release our addictions and return to the center point of connection and Love.

We all need each other to live. Look around, notice who is here for you, and marshal an attitude of gratitude for what these friends and family and teachers and healers are bringing you. And, in the same breath, appreciate what you are giving them. We live, truly, in a free sea of generosity, giving and receiving Love to expand our awareness and experience of the overwhelmingly magnificent gift that life is.

References:

  1. http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/alphabet

Help – Exploring Your Life

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“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

– T.S. Eliot

 

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Life is meant to be explored. That means leaving our comfort zones for the unknown, one moment at a time.

This is the third blog elaborating on an alphabet of spiritual literacy developed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat1. They’ve compiled a helpful list of qualities to remind us of the power of spiritual expression; I’ve taken inspiration from their descriptions and crafted my own.

Treat each of these as a mini-meditation, reading slowly and allowing the meaning to flow into you. Words can bring medicine into our lives and expand our awareness, especially when we open to the meaning woven between the lines and the words and the characters. Without space, there would be no meaning. That in itself is a helpful realization, midst a world that values form so highly.

We can navigate this object centered world very differently when we deliberately emphasize relationships, and come to experience ourselves as “one with” rather than “separate from.” That expanding sense of union is the core of all spiritual questing.

Here are the next seven key words on Brassat’s list.

Nurturing

We won’t feel confident to explore until we feel safe. Our life journey is from known to unknown so the necessary priority is to feel genuinely nurtured. This happens through loving relationships and courtesy of our growing connection with Source, which I prefer to call Love. When we feel held in the embrace of Love, from within and from without, our natural urge to explore can be safely followed.

Openness

What a wonderful quality. Openness allows us to enjoy new experiences. It adds color to our lives, the joy of novelty and the unique challenges of learning. Unfamiliar territory can seem thrilling or intimidating but with our connection to Love strongly in place, we can forge ahead with the trust and spirit of an innocent child.

Peace

Peace is an inside job. When we culture an atmosphere of peace within ourselves and test it throughout the rigors of daily life, we become a peacemaker, bringing peace through our thoughts, words, and actions. Physicists inform us that courtesy of “quantum entanglement” we are always affecting everyone and everything. Peace within us contributes to peace in the world.

Play

A life without play is arduous and stressful. It’s a condition that not even meditation can cure. Rather than adding play to work, we can re-format our entire life as play and include work in a playful context. When we remember that most of what we encounter is illusory, we can relax and enjoy the play of consciousness, starring in our own life story, and finding novel ways to turn each moment into an opportunity for playful learning.

Questing

The heart of question is “quest.” Questing is an attitude of going beyond known answers, living in the spirit of discovery. It’s fine to not know from one moment to the next. In fact, a core competency for spiritual mastery is surrendering the need to know and becoming comfortable with not knowing. Socrates said, “I know one thing, that I know nothing.”

Reverence

Reverence for life is natural and it’s infectious. Anyone who is in love with life is inherently lovable. Nothing stops any of us from deepening our primary relationship with life itself and there is nothing we can do that is more powerful for upgrading all our relationships. When we put this first, we learn that the love we share with others is all based in a mutual love for life.

Shadow

Our fear of the dark is based in ignorance. Without night there could be no day. Everything casts a shadow, including every individual. It’s difficult to see our own which is why evolved friends and a spiritual teacher are so helpful. We can invite illumination, we can welcome our shadow and go fearlessly into the dark of our lives when those moments come. Even the dark can be nurturing, when we’re secure in our relationship with Love.

There is no greater adventure than exploring our lives. We can climb mountains, build families and businesses, vacation in exotic locations but what shows up consistently in every situation is you. Adopting the attitude of a life explorer turns every moment – from mundane to magnificent – into a learning adventure.

References:

  1. http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/alphabet

Help – Enjoy Your Challenges

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“If you aren’t in over your head how do you know how tall you are?”
– T.S. Eliot

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Challenges come to us all, but not all of us have learned to welcome them and allow them to help us grow, let alone actually enjoy them.

In last week’s blog we introduced an alphabet of spiritual literacy developed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat1. They’ve compiled a very helpful list of qualities to remind us of the power of spiritual expression, and how to turn challenges into opportunities. I’ve taken inspiration from their descriptions and crafted my own.

Gratitude

It’s easy to be grateful when we pause to contemplate the many blessings we enjoy, starting with the freedom and time to read something like this. Gratitude lives at the heart of mindfulness, which is the simple practice of being fully present in each moment.

Hope

There are two kinds of hope. Most often, hope is wishful thinking and diminishes vitality. The other kind of hope is based in your personal connection with Love, which acquaints you with the hopeful nature of Love, always expanding at the heart of consciousness.

Hospitality

The Good Samaritan story provides a reminder of the essence of hospitality. True happiness is impossible without helping others. “No man is an island” means that we are all connected. When we help others, we are also helping ourselves.

Imagination

Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. Sadly, our educational system emphasizes knowledge and rewards linear thinking. Our brightest minds usually bail on formal education, for that reason. But it’s never too late to begin exercising our imaginal muscles and learning how to consciously create our lives in alignment with Love.

Joy is natural. Although our modern civilization has invented countless paths to joy, from shopping to sex, none can fully substitute for the simple joy of living. But we’re impervious to that experience, and vulnerable to the seductions of those substitutes, until we commit to life itself and fully embrace our experience moment to moment… because that’s where joy is always found, here and now.

Justice

Justice is not a legal matter, ultimately it’s a term for the “rightness” of life. Some say that life isn’t fair, and that’s true to a certain degree. Bad things do happen to good people. But that doesn’t obviate meaning. There are reasons for everything, well beyond our capacity to understand. Fortunately, we don’t need to. We can be advocates for justice by living in harmony with life and choosing to express Love, as appropriately, in every situation.

Kindness

Kindness is never a mystery; all of us can recognize it, both when we receive kindness and when we give it. Kindness is a tender gift that can change lives in an instant, especially when it is given into the face of hatred as a powerful method for conflict resolution.

Listening

Listening is more than hearing. We know when someone really hears us, which means they are listening for meaning between the words. True communication is always an act of intimacy which can reward our willingness to be vulnerable with unimaginable gifts of reciprocating Love.

Love

Love pervades everything. Those who imagine we live in an unfriendly universe have divorced themselves from this power, this spirit which animates everything. Love is the essence of all, taking form in every form, and filling every moment with the potential for sweet communion, until we finally know in experience that Love is what we are.

Meaning

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 2  This is meaning. Meaning is not a concept, an achievement, even a belief about oneself. Meaning is proactive, the exercised ability to choose for oneness.

These brief descriptions of ten qualities can remind us of the wealth of inner experience that is available for those who choose to explore those realms. Why? Because we need both inner and outer resources to successfully meet the challenges life brings our way.

Imagine evolving to the point where you can face a challenge with an attitude of gratitude and the learned ability to enjoy every one!

References:

  1. http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/alphabet
  2. Victor Frankl from Man’s Search for Meaning

Help – Your Infinite Potential

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“Believe in your infinite potential.
Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.”

Roy T. Bennett

You have infinite potential. We all do. And sometimes the best way to access it is through the way we handle everyday challenges.

During the next few weeks we’ll be expanding on an alphabet of spiritual literacy developed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat1. They’ve compiled a very helpful list of qualities to remind us of the simplicity, and profound power, of turning all our living moments into an extended spiritual practice, especially during our more challenging moments.

Attention

The world is amazing. Often we miss the magic because we’re lost in our heads. Redirect your attention to where you are, what’s happening, who you are with, and learn how to leave that zone of anxious, superficial thinking that drains our energy and distracts us from appreciating the beauty of the moment.

Beauty

One way to discover your inner beauty is to expand your awareness of external beauty. The act of appreciative looking reminds you of your power to choose to live in gratitude. You see what you choose to see. You experience what you express.

Being Present

What you have you do not want. What you want you do not have. Who you are is enough. Being present, you come to know the depth of significance embedded in your very being. Before you do a single thing you have immense value. Experience it ever more deeply by being fully present.

Compassion

Compassion is sometimes described as “suffering with.” Notice those you are with and, seeing them through the eyes of compassion, become more vividly aware of what may be going on for them. Without a word, your attention – extended by being fully present – will bless them with the energetic reminder that they are not alone, that they are cared for.

Connections

We humans can return to being part of the web of life. In fact, we are always connected to all other life forms… we just don’t consciously know it. That causes us to be destructive, to hurt our “family” because we’ve lost connection. Regain your connectedness to life by expanding your sense of self. As Joanna Macy said, “… the world is our body.”

Devotion

Meditation is a devotional practice. Without words, in the silence of your own being, you can praise the God that made you, the life force that sustains you and, rising above dogma and judgment, feel yourself to be one with that which you are devoted to. Every moment is sacred when we devote ourselves to life itself, beyond beliefs and limitations.

Enthusiasm

Passion is a powerful force. It brings us alive and inspires those around us. Enthusiasm can fuel our way in life, through, around and over the greatest obstacles. Enthusiasm also helps us regain a child-like enjoyment of life. Duty becomes adventure when we live with enthusiasm!

Faith

True faith is not religious. It has nothing to do with beliefs. It’s the experience of knowing with certainty, “nothing wavering,” as the Bible described it. All of us have felt that kind of core assurance but we may not know that we can originate it. We are always able to reach out to experience that mysterious something, beyond words and description that beats our hearts and steers the stars.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not about coming to terms with how someone hurt you, it’s about releasing judgment. Something happened. You were affected. You can face facts, feel what you feel, and refuse to be a victim. Offering love in the face of injury is the secret to freedom in life. We can’t avoid damage because we can’t control what others do. We can be fully responsible for our own state and live in forgiveness, “for giving” in every moment.

Grace

Grace is one of the names of God. Grace comes in many forms, from the parking place that magically appears on a busy street to a stranger helping you in an emergency. Each of us can be an instrument of grace, by being vigilant for opportunities when we can help others, and receive the help that comes our way.

Each of these qualities, and the others we will describe in following blogs, can help us in times of challenge and, as we express and experience them, remind us of our infinite potential… as it actualizes!

References:

  1. http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/alphabet