Tuesday, July 12, 2016

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 201

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS


+ Stillness is the greatest revelation
-- Taoist proverb

+ Silence, the quiet calm at the heart of nature, carries, or even hides, the presence of the Divine. Cloaked in the stillness, the Way, the Divine one dwells, always available to us through our surrender. All we need do is dispose ourselves to listening intently. This intent listening is the essence of meditation. If we lean our ear toward the stillness, the outer quiet, it will lead us into a realization of the Presence around us, within us and beyond us. Outer or surrounding stillness will deliver us to the inward stillness, the ultimate presence in which we really reside.  Eventually, as our listening and practice mature, outer and inner finally collapse into each other, and we find ourselves in the One.
-- Wayne Teasdale in The Mystic Hours, reflection #5

+ The Journey of the Soul concludes with the essential practice of Heavenliness. Is Heavenliness really a practice? I think so. But it is ultimately a gift which we receive through surrender.  In other words, we can practice heavenly patterns of behavior but we really aren’t aware of ourselves as thoroughly heavenly until God totally takes over.  We are always heavenly beings but we all too often think, feel, say and do things which do not reflect this heavenly state.  Let us try to remember as often as we possibly can that heaven is “the ultimate presence in which we really reside.”       

You probably know by now that I believe the practice of stillness is essential.  How are you doing? As you practice Stillness, are you becoming more and more aware of “the greatest revelation,” of the “presence of the Divine?” You can always begin again if and when when you realize you need to go back to the basics.  There are 40 SE posts on the practice of stillness beginning with SE1.

Wayne Teasdale is probably responsible more than anyone for creating the new and I believe essential movement of InterSpirituality.  I have found his books particularly inspiring and illuminating.  They are well worth the read.  I invite you to visit the Wayne Teasdale Amazon author page.  

I also cherish the website and the books of my InterSpirituality mentor, Edward Bastian. He is pioneering a method of InterSpirituality which includes lots of wisdom from many different traditions and several great practices.  Several colleagues including me are working closely with him. 

+ To get inspired and illuminated by Ed Bastian, I invite you to set aside some time for these videos:
·         Seven Steps of InterSpiritual Meditation (11 minutes)
·         2 hour lecture & conversation

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Heavenlinesspage.  Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Heavenliness” or “Guest Post” to John@abundancetrek.com.

+ You can always find a link to any of the Spiritual Explorations posts by going to http://abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html

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