SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 267

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ This is a post on the style of The Way of Prayer as we continue to explore Heavenliness through the lens of the 12 styles of the Mandala process created by Edward Bastian.  There are 3 more Mandala styles to explore after this: Reason, Relationships and Wisdom. After that, we move on to the 9 Attributes of Heaven. Here is more wisdom from Ed on Prayer:

+ Since prayer requires a wholehearted engagement, our effort is sometimes stymied because one part of us is praying while another is in doubt. Therefore, in order to fully engage in prayer, we are forced to resolve our doubts by finding answers to such questions as: Is there a higher power, or are there spirit beings who can hear my prayer and help me? Is there a higher state of consciousness within that can help me rise to this occasion? Can sincere and honest prayer in some way influence the forces of nature to come to my rescue?

Furthermore, if prayer requires us to bring our whole being into the act of praying, we must find ways to bring our own natural spiritual styles, or ways of being, into the process. By recognizing and honoring our own unique predispositions for spiritual practice, we forge a way of praying that aligns with these. In this way, we utilize the arts, our body, our contemplation and meditation, our devotion, our imagination, our love and compassion, our mystical capacity, our inter-being with nature, our reason, our relationships and our wisdom. In other words, we activate our unique set of spiritual styles in the service of the Way of Prayer. Simply put, we learn to bring the totality of our authentic self into our prayers. In this way, the Spiritual Paths Mandala provides a context and a process for us to bring the whole of our being into the simple act of praying.

+ Ed is a teacher who likes to ask a lot of questions.  So does another teacher I know and love, Naomi Kelly.  And it is good to reflect on questions, particularly questions which get to the heart of who we are and what we need to do.  Ed likes to say that we need to harness our spiritual styles or gifts.  He emphasizes this when it comes to prayer as you can see in this quote. We need to integrate our styles so that we can be more and more awake, aware and connected to everything. 

Prayer, for me, is the one spiritual category which is inclusive of all the rest.  Our whole amazing journey can be understood as unceasing prayer.   In other words we are always praying and our holy task is to be aware of our praying at this time, at all times.  The Good News is that we are praying at this time, all the time, whether we know it or not.  It’s better to know.  Keep practicing.

+ 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

+ 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