SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 295

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ This is the third of four posts on the style of The Way of Wisdom as we complete exploring the practice of Heavenliness through the lens of the 12 styles of the Mandala process created by Edward Bastian.  Why only 4?  Because Wisdom is one of the 9 Attributes of Heaven which we will begin to explore when we get to SE297. Wisdom will come up as the third attribute after we explore Abundance and Joy.

+ “Something old and something new”: These three quotes represent ancient Chinese wisdom from the Tao Te Ching and twentieth century wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi and recent wisdom from Wayne Teasdale who is the founder of the modern InterSpirituality movement.

·          

The sage is ahead

by being behind;

Is first

by being last;

Is whole

by being empty;

And is fulfilled

by being selfless.

-- Tao Te Ching in Zen 24/7 by Philip Toshio Sudo

·         Our compassion is a fruit of our spiritual lives; it actually arises spontaneously when formed by intention in our spiritual practice. Love and compassion are always the goods of the spiritual journey, and they are guided by divine wisdom, which then shapes compassion in the concrete situations of our existence.

               -- Wayne Teasdale in A Monk in the World

·         Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions.

              -- Mahatma Gandhi

+ As we practice all of the  12 Spiritual Practices we have been exploring, our wisdom grows simply because we are allowing ourselves to unfold naturally.  Every wisdom tradition teaches this in a variety of ways.  Artists, poets and musicians often teach this.  I particularly like “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” a popular song a few years back.     

   

+ 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