Sacred Longing

I attended a wonderful Unity workshop last weekend on peacemaking. One of the facilitators introduced the idea of sacred longing, which was new to me and intriguing. I love the idea of it, because it describes a very holy gift in our human experience.

Sacred longing is that deep, persistent need to know the presence of God within us and in all things. It is the profound wisdom that leads us to seek to better understand ourselves, even when we are so busy with life’s details that without that intrinsic longing we would never even realize that there was more to our experience than we can see.

My spiritual path has most definitely been one of sacred longing. Throughout all of the circumstances of my life, relationships that came and went, ones that stayed, job changes, things that were important to me for their time and then faded as new interests emerged, the longing has remained constant. At times its voice was loud and insistent, and I took very definite and intentional actions to learn more about my spiritual nature. I actively sought out philosophies and teachers that felt right. Big jumps in my understanding happened during those times.

At other times, the voice of sacred longing was quieter, not urging me toward big changes but to gentle shifts in my awareness. In those times I felt the need to slow down and listen more, both to my own thoughts and feelings, and to the subtleties of others’ expression.

To me, sacred longing reflects that part of us that is always on our perfect path, no matter what chaos our personal growth may be creating in the moment. It is the beacon within that guides us to the light, even as our human experience feels disconnected from the light. Once we become aware of the unquenchable thirst of longing to know the divine, we must open ourselves to its gentle but insistent pull.

Sacred longing always knows the right next step, and its urgings are infinitely trustworthy. Even though it is not a roadmap indicating the exact twists and turns that we will make, it keeps us moving ever forward in the right direction, and we are never lost.

May you recognize and heed the pull that is your sacred longing, the voice of God leading you unerringly home, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Healing the World as We Heal Ourselves

I have recently discovered the writings of Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist nun who teaches in Nova Scotia, at the first Tibetan monastery in North America established for westerners. Her books have provided me with some very practical and appreciated insight from the Buddhist perspective.

In the book I’m reading now, called Taking the Leap, Chodron addresses in her gentle but powerful manner how we often use our spiritual practice as a way to feel better, but could broaden our perspective to allow our practice to teach us the tools we need to help uplift others.

More specifically, she states that “for many, spiritual practice represents a way to relax and a way to access peace of mind. We want to feel more calm, more focused; and with our frantic and stressful lives, who can blame us? Nevertheless, we have a responsibility to think bigger than that these days. If spiritual practice is relaxing, if it gives us some peace of mind, that’s great – but is this personal satisfaction helping us to address what’s happening in the world? The main question is, are we living in a way that adds further aggression and self-centeredness to the mix, or are we adding some much-needed sanity?”

She quotes a story about a Native American grandfather who was speaking to his grandson about violence and cruelty in the world and how it comes about. The grandfather said that it was as if two wolves were fighting in his heart. One wolf was vengeful and angry, and the other wolf was kind and understanding. The young man asked his grandfather which wolf would win the fight in his heart. And the grandfather answered, “The one that wins will be the one I choose to feed.”

The challenge, says Chodron, for our spiritual practice and for the world, is how can we train right now, not later, in feeding the right wolf?

One practice that she suggests in our “training” is something she simply calls “a pause.” Throughout the day, as we are able, she recommends that we just pause from what we are doing, and step back from the mind’s activity for a count of three breaths.  That is all.

I’m finding that when I do this I step back into that space of being the watcher, the I who watches me, the divine within me that is able to notice where my mind has been, but remains forever loving and peaceful regardless of its travels.

Chodron’s belief, as I’m coming to understand it, is that as we step back from the unconscious activity of mind we are able to access our natural intelligence, openness and warmth, and carry that forward into our interactions with others. These are words to heal a world by!

May you pause often to connect with our collective, perfect good, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Having Compassion For Yourself

In the years I've been writing I haven't yet gotten to this topic, which isn't surprising given how much easier it is for most of us to offer compassion to others than it is to have deep compassion for ourselves.  It seems that the very definition of being a good person must include trying to understand that others have different perspectives than we do, seeking to forgive when others have somehow wronged us, and just generally taking the high road and cutting other people some slack.  I think we would do well to remember to include ourselves in this gentle approach.

Many of us tend to be harder on ourselves than on others.  I see other people facing challenges and sometimes acting in negative ways, and compassion comes easily.  My deep intention in those times is to find a way to understand, and to forgive.  I send my prayers out into the universe for the best to happen for them, and I know that it is done.  I try to remember to allow my best and highest to express in the situation, too, and know that it is also done.

I'm finding that compassion for myself needs to go deeper than that.  I'm seeing now that it's not wrong or selfish to focus more on compassion for myself than for others. That's a different approach for me, but I see the importance of it.

The more intentional we are about listening to ourselves, taking the time to hear what we need to do to take care of ourselves, feeling and honoring our emotions, and holding ourselves in compassion and love, we are a light in the world, allowing others to do the same.

When I step out of trying to fix a situation for someone else and focus instead on my own wholeness, I find myself again in truth where everything around me is already perfect, and there is nothing that I or anyone else need to do better or differently.

When I seek first to understand myself, and forgive myself, and then cut myself the same slack I would for another, I am holding a space for divine love.  When I shift my awareness to seeing myself, and the situation, as God does, there is limitless compassion.

May you find compassion first for yourself, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Asking for Help

It can be hard sometimes to ask for help. We feel the need to manage things on our own because we don’t want to appear incapable or weak, or because we don’t want to burden others. Or maybe we just get so caught up in pushing our way through something that the thought of seeking help doesn’t even occur to us.

There have been countless, everyday situations in my life when my load was made lighter because I decided to ask for help. There have been times when I probably should have asked for help but didn’t, and other times when I felt uncomfortable asking but did it anyway, and was later gratefully aware of what a gift it was to be unexpectedly held by another in my time of need. I’ve also been able to move forward from major, life-altering events in my life because I reached out and someone was there on the other side to grab my hand.

We all experience these times in life when maybe we could go it alone but it’s difficult, or when we just can’t manage something by ourselves. When it’s hard to ask for help, I’ve found that just choosing to be willing to seek help with something opens the door for Divine Consciousness to present the help I need in the most perfect way.

As the song says, “We get by with a little help from our friends,” or from our family, a stranger we encounter, a caring professional, or from that perfect passage that jumps out at us from a book we’re reading. The key for me seems to be the willingness part - being willing to acknowledge that I am confused and stuck, and that God in her infinite expression will provide the answer I need. I just need to ask so that I can be answered.

I’ve learned what a gift asking for help can be to the person providing the help. There is a state of grace inherent in caring for, and being cared for by another. In helping another we know ourselves as strong, and loving, and compassionate. And in being helped by another we are able to experience the truth of how precious we are.

May you trust that the help you seek awaits you, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Letting the Best Happen

The world shows up to us in the way that we expect.  We have no idea of the extreme power that our expectation has in taking what we are given, and turning it into reality.  It's the difficult times that allow us to bring this power forward most dramatically, when we can turn a distressing circumstance into a miracle, all by what we choose to expect.

I've learned to be grateful, or at least be willing to try to be grateful, when a situation arises that makes me feel hopeless or out of control.  In these moments I am given the opportunity to own who I really am, a child of God able to spin the rough straw of an unpleasant situation into the bright, precious gold that is the truth I wish to create.

There is no painful reality that can persist when I hold it next to Divine Consciousness.  Sometimes I picture the problem out in front of me, looking very dark and sharp-edged, and then watch as Divine Consciousness surrounds it in a gold light that opens and softens, and all good things are again possible.  For me this is an example of heaven on Earth, our ability to create as God in human form.

In those moments when we are most challenged, all we need do is offer the prayer to "Let the very best happen," and it is done.  In this way we are like alchemists, using the laboratory of our human experience to transmute what is the most base in us to our highest, most noble expression.  We can repeat this prayer as often as needed, expecting that it will happen, and then stand back and watch as our unlimited power manifests and we express ourselves as God.

When we are confused or angry or scared, turning it over to Divine Consciousness to simply let the best happen relieves us of the burden of staying that way, and of needing to have solutions when we're feeling the most stuck.  It creates space for the vast creative power that lives within us and in all things to work its magic.  As we expect the best and highest outcome, it is done unto us.

May you invoke many miracles by letting the best happen, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Standing in Grace and Gratitude

I heard a song at Unity last weekend, and woke up with it in my head this morning.  It happens fairly often, and I always appreciate the voice of God, speaking to me as I dream, helping me remember.
The song is "Grace And Gratitude" by Olivia Newton-John.

All I have and all I feel
Is all because of you
All I reap is all I sow
And love is our living proof

Thank you for life
Thank you for everything
I stand here in Grace and Gratitude
And I thank you

Seasons come and seasons go
No matter what we choose
A thousand names
A thousand roads
All lead to one simple truth

Thank you for life
Thank you for everything
I stand here in grace and gratitude
And I thank you

Being God, in the Middle of an Otherwise Ordinary Life

Another door has opened on my personal spiritual path, and so the direction of this blog is getting ready to take an exciting new turn.

Daily Spiritual Tools has always been about remembering the deep, abiding truth within us that we are God. I've delighted in sharing many of the tools I've learned and used, and in celebrating the spiritual teachers who have affected me so profoundly, both in person and through the books they've written.

The spiritual tools in this blog have literally saved my life, as they have helped me remember that I am its sole creator. Knowing that with ever-growing certainty has taken me from seeming hopelessness to truth, and has been a deep joy.

My heart is urging me now to put more "feet" to the truth that the tools so consistently help me remember. And so I move into a new phase of turning my remembering truth into practicing it much more consciously. Jesus said, "Ye are Gods," and I believe that to be true. As God, I'm ready to try my hand at creating some miracles!

I've been aware of creating miracles before, at least I thought they were miracles, except when my head was telling me they were coincidences. Creating the job I now have was the most conscious act of creating the seeming impossible that I'd ever done, and it's still hard to own it as the miracle that it was 13 years later. One thing's for sure, if I'm God, then I want to take all I've been given and run with it!!

Right now, thinking about it, there are quite a few miracles in the hopper. As God, I can heal my back of the herniated disc that's been keeping me in pain at night and thinking of the troubling stories I've heard from others with progressing back troubles. Mostly I forget that I can create this miracle and so I worry instead.

In the middle of having a son in college, an aging mom who needs financial help, investments that sunk, housing values that went in the wrong direction, and approaching retirement, I forget, too, all the time that I can create the miracle of abundant money. This is just the beginning of the many small and large miracles I want to create!

I plan to focus on creating the miracles that are important to me, especially the ones that seem unattainable. If all goes well, I'll move on to even bigger ones as this becomes clearer to me. The highest and best part of me knows that I can create any and all miracles that I choose, but that part is also very quiet, getting lost in the noise of why I can't. 

I was was going to say wish me luck, but God doesn't need luck, right? I have a feeling I'm about to find out. . .