SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 233

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ Continuing with our exploration of the 12 styles of the Mandala process, we now move on to the style of the Devotee. Edward Bastian writes: 

The Devotee is naturally loyal and lovingly committed to a job, a relationship, a set of principles, a way of life, a daily routine, a religious teacher, a spiritual tradition or a life goal.

·         Are you more prone to faith than skepticism?

·         Are you are naturally loyal to a job, a person or a community?

·         Do you yearn to be dedicated to a greater cause or higher principle?

·         Do you long to be committed to a spiritual teaching, teacher or higher power?

MANY OF OUR MOST important life-goals are virtually impossible to achieve without commitment and dedication. Whether the goal lies in the fields of athletics, academics, the arts, society or spirituality, we need to be devoted to our objective, to our teacher, and even to the founder of the tradition of our teacher. Why? Because, in practical terms, devotion helps us to be steady, consistent and determined. Simply put, devotion is a practical psychological tool for accomplishing any life-goal.

We naturally devote ourselves to the things we think will make us happy. But, during the course of our lives, we are often disillusioned because the objects of our devotion don’t always bring us happiness. When this happens, we shouldn’t blame devotion, but rather, the false hopes and dreams we projected onto the object, person, goal or idea to which we were devoted.

+ Since we have already explored the practice of Devotion on this amazing journey, we will not be exploring this style for more than this post.  I urge you to keep working on this essential practice and possibly write about it and share your experiences here.  Send an email with the subject “Devotion” to John@abundancetrek.com

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

+ The 7 steps of InterSpiritual Meditation by Edward Bastian are listed in SE21 and SE213.  They are described fully in his book, InterSpiritual Meditation.

+ 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)

·         15 minute introduction to InterSpiritual Meditation and the Mandala Process

·         2 hour lecture & conversation

+ Spirituality & Practice offers abundant resources on The Practice of Devotion and a 12s Gallery on Devotion.

+ Spirituality & Practice offers abundant resources on a variety of contemplative practices including: The Practice of Being Present | 12s Gallery on Being Present | The Practice of Attention | 12s Gallery on Attention

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Heavenliness page.  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