WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS
+ Continuing with the 12 styles of the Mandalaprocess, we are exploring the style of Love and Compassion as taught by
Edward Bastian who writes:
+ The Way of Love
and Compassion leads us naturally and unquestionably into the service of
others. It is the foundation
for spiritual activism, or engaged spirituality. When our motivation is love,
then we compassionately
engage with everyone in our families, communities, and professional lives. Our
lives become living
examples of our highest ideals, irrespective of our occupations, relative
wealth or social status. Through
this altruistic, spiritual love, our compassionate engagement with others
becomes an unselfish insurance
policy that guarantees our own personal happiness and well-being.
While there are
some who are naturally infused and surrounded by the experience spiritual love,
many of us need to be
led into it through prayer, contemplation, meditation, ritual or even nature.
Of course, it helps greatly to be in the presence of someone who embodies and
radiates spiritual love to give us confidence that it
is possible, and to help guide us along our path. We cannot achieve spiritual
love through will-power
alone; for this supreme love will elude our needy, egotistical grasp. It is
subtle, delicate, and
refined; yet once embodied, it is indestructible.
To begin on the Way
of Love and Compassion, we need only to develop the honest and sincere wish and
intention to be infused and surrounded by it. With intention as the starting
point, the path opens up before us and beckons us inexorably to its source.
+ Ed keeps me and so many others on track as he reminds
us again and again to work on intention and sustained commitment to this way,
this essential way. Oh, how the planet
needs Love, Sweet Love.
+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual
Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.
+ 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 practices of Love & Compassion: The
Practice of Love | The
12s Gallery on Love | The
Practice of Compassion | The
12s Gallery on Compassion
+ 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 “Love” 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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