SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 272

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.

+ ...if we can't find enlightenment, freedom, autonomy, divinity, and bliss amid every nitty-gritty detail of life, then all the rituals, sacraments, prayers, chants, yoga asanas, gurus, and pilgrimages in the world are useless.

-- Lama Surya Das in Make Me One with Everything

+ So, then, “every nitty-gritty detail of life” is a fantastic opportunity to “find enlightenment, freedom, autonomy, divinity and bliss.” Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that wonderful?

This is what unceasing prayer is all about.  In addition to the learning opportunity of every moment, we can learn so much from other wisdom traditions as well as our own.  There is so much variety in humanity allowing everyone to find their own way to bliss. Bliss and unceasing prayer go together.  Which wisdom tradition offers you what you need to find this bliss?  It may be that you find it all in one wisdom tradition or it may be that you find what you need as you seek wisdom in different traditions.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Indeed, it may be the only way for some of us.

I have two shelves of favorite books.  One shelf is dedicated to my first and most important wisdom tradition (for me): Christianity.  The other shelf is dedicated to other wisdom traditions and modern sources of wisdom.  This works for me.  I want this variety and I need this variety.  But not everyone does.  I suspect that anyone who doesn’t have this want and need has left this exploration a long time ago!

Those of us exploring wisdom from all over have a lot to offer humanity because humanity needs to come together and find unity in diversity.  Unceasing prayer in whatever form it takes is a necessity for the common good of all creatures.  This is bliss.     

+ Lama Surya Das is not new to these pages.  We encountered his inspiration and illumination when we did the silence exploring (SE69) and when we did the solitude exploring (SE108) and when we did the simplicity exploring (SE173) and here in the heavenliness explorations (SE250).  He is one of the Spirituality & Practice featured Living Spiritual Teachers.

+ 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