SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 366

WE ARE EXPLORING THE HEAVENLY ATTRIBUTE OF FREEDOM

+ We are called to create and enjoy a realm of compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance for all.

+ To this day I believe we are here on Earth to live, grow, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.

-- Rosa Parks

This was the Gratefulness Word for the Day on January 15, 2016

This is it, the final post:  Spiritual Exploration 366.  I did not know whether I could do it or not but I am writing this on December 14, 2016 with the satisfying realization that I accomplished my goal of posting 366 Spiritual Exploration posts in the leap year of 2016.  All 366 will be posted as of this day, December 14, 2016.  Thank you fellow explorers for sharing this adventure with me.

The daily posts on Facebook and Twitter and at abundancetrek.com will  come to an end as of December 31.  I am anticipating finding new ways to explore the 9 Attributes of Heaven and 12 Spiritual Practices. Suggestions welcome.

Let us renew our belief in the promise of freedom as Rosa Parks put it so clearly:

To this day I believe we are here on Earth to live, grow, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.

We can do this because:

We are intimately, intricately and infinitely connected by a matrix of unconditional, unlimited and uniting love which is miraculous, mysterious and marvelous.

We can remember who we are and what we can do because we are gloriously free to put our attention on creating and enjoying a realm of compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance for all with every breath.

Breathe deeply. Breathe fully. Be still. Be silent. Be centered. Be grounded. Lighten up. Loosen up. Let go. Let God. Celebrate. Enjoy. Be glad all over!

This is bliss.

+ The meme is in the Spirituality & Practice 12s Gallery on Attention.

+ I have work to do on the Abundancetrek Freedom page. Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Freedom” or “Heavenly Attributes” 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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 276

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ This is the final 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.

+ Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

-- Howard Thurman

+ … prayer is an attitude, an attitude of lifting up heart and mind to God. So … ask, “What lifts up your heart and mind? …”’

 … Whatever lifts up your heart, focus on that.

-- Brother David Steindl-Rast in How Do You Pray? by Celeste Yacoboni

+ There is a constant presence of grace in everything everywhere all the time.  This precious and abundant grace lifts us up as long as we are attuned to it.  Prayer is the means for this necessary attunement.  Grace is the source. 

So, constant prayer makes it possible for us to be lifted up constantly.  Prayer is never a burden.  It is always a blessing.  It may feel like a burden sometimes because of our limited awareness of reality.  We don’t realize we are always in heaven.  Ultimately, prayer opens us up completely to this awareness.  This is bliss.  Something wonderful is happening.  Always.

 

+ 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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 198

ThiWE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF DELIGHT

+ When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

-- Helen Keller

This was the Gratefulness Word for the Day on June 3, 2016

+ You do not need to do anything; you do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You do not even need to listen; just wait. You do not even need to wait; just become still, quiet and solitary and the world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

– Franz Kafka

+ We can always find something to delight us.  We don’t have to go anywhere.  We have what we need to be delighted within our mind, heart, body and soul.  This IS heaven right now, right here.  This is bliss.

The more we practice these mind, heart, body and soul practices, the more we know this.  Celebrate. Enjoy. Be glad all over.

+ Delight is not one of the 37 Spirituality & Practice practices BUT put Delight in their Search Engine and you come up with 85 items including 67 quotes, 16 books, 1 practice, and 1 film as of 6/14/16.  Go to http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/search/?q=Delight.  However, it is clear that Mary Ann & Frederic Brussat are big fans of Joy. Therefore, put Joy in their Search Engine and you come up with 2057 items including 867 quotes, 835 books, 160 practices, 11 teachers, 24 arts links, 29 e-courses, 98 films, 26 blogs and 4 traditions as of 6/14/16. Oh, and Joy IS one of the 37 spiritual practices. You can also be inspired by their Twelves Gallery on Joy. 

+ Joy will come up again very soon in these explorations since it is the second of 9 heavenly attributes we will be exploring.

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Delight page.  Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Delight” 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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 152

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HOLINESS

+ The four ripening factors refer to the four principal factors that bodhisattvas employ in attracting disciples and enhancing their spiritual potentials. These are:

1. Giving material aid;

2. Speaking eloquently;

3. Always giving the right counsel; and

4. Setting an example by living the principles taught.

It is through these skillful means that the compassionate bodhisattvas work for the welfare of all other beings.

— His Holiness The Dalai Lama in The Path to Bliss by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Christine Cox, editor

> http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotations/view/19704/spiritual-quotation

+ The archetype of the Bodhisattva is one of the greatest gifts of Buddhism to the planet. I liken it to the biblical archetype of the Suffering Servant which is introduced to us in the Servant Hymns of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1-6; Isaiah 49:1-7; Isaiah 50:4-9; Isaiah 52:13-53:12).  Other wisdom traditions also offer this archetype in a variety of ways.  The main idea is that the holy person becomes totally enlightened and, rather than keeping this bliss to herself or himself, she or he vows to save all creatures everywhere with this wisdom.  There is even an insistence that it is impossible for anyone to be saved until everyone is saved.

So, becoming a Boddhisattva or a Servant of the Lord is ultimately mandatory. I like how A Course in Miracles puts it:

This is A Course in Miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.   

Learning how to be holy and practicing holiness is an obligation.  Sooner or later, everyone gets the call to be a devoted participant in bringing our planetary evolution to a more holy level of compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance for all creatures everywhere.  I don’t believe anyone can avoid this call nor would anyone want to avoid this call once the bliss of holiness is experienced.

+ Holiness is not one of the 37 Spirituality & Practice practices BUT put Holiness in their Search Engine and you come up with 460 items including 227 quotes, 168 books, 28 practices, 14 teachers, 12 arts links, 7 e-courses, 3 films and 1 blog as of 5/11/16.  Go to http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/search/?q=holiness.

+ The Body gets a lot of attention from Spirituality and Practice as you can see when you go to a link to “Body” on their search engine. You will find 1611 items as of 4/26/16.

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Holiness Page.   Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Holiness” 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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 126

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF DEVOTION

+ Abba Poemen said about Abbot Pior that every single day he made a fresh beginning.

-- Yushi Nomura, Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers

+ When you think you've arrived, you realize you've come all this way just to prepare yourself to begin again.

-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

+ The whole course of the spiritual life is falling off, and returning, slipping away from the truth and turning back to it, leaving and returning.

 -- Henri J.M. Nouwen in Home Tonight

+ Be soft in your practice...It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight.

-- Sheng-yen

+ Devotion means staying with it even when the going gets rough. And it does. And it will. But if you have tasted the bliss of stillness, silence and solitude, then you know that continued effort to practice, practice, practice is worth it.

Bliss will always be fleeting unless you devote yourself to becoming your Real Self which is something like being the Real Universe. Yes, Real You, Real Universe. When the walls come tumbling down you know who you really are: fantastic, wonderful, compassionate, just, peaceful, content, satisfied, connected.

So, begin again. 

+ Spirituality & Practice offers many resources on the spiritual practice of Devotion.  You can explore even more with this link to “Devotion” on their search engine. You will find 2153 items as of 4/26/16.  And, of course, there is a Twelves Gallery of Memes on Devotion.  The meme comes from that gallery. The Body also gets a lot of attention from S&P as you can see if you go to this link to “Body” on their search engine. You will find 1611 items as of 4/26/16.

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Devotion page.   Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Devotion” 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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 110

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF SOLITUDE

+ Silence and solitude are the marks of spiritual maturity. They lead to peace and bliss. The spiritual life is an inner life and cannot be attained on the outside. The spiritual life is its own reward and seeks nothing beyond itself. Once we achieve inner peace and conscious contact, we want to overflow. This is the mark of truth and love to move toward goodness and transcendence. The ancient philosophers called goodness, truth, beauty and love the transcendental properties of Being.

-- John Predmore S.J. on his blog > http://predmore.blogspot.com/2010/04/spirituality-silence-and-solitude.html

+ Heaven is Here. Now.  That’s the truth.  We foolishly make all kinds of efforts to avoid this truth.  The Buddhists teach us that this foolishness is the result of ignorance.  But they don’t recommend books.  Books have their place, of course.  So do websites.  But ignorance can only be overcome when we create enough space for that “inner peace and conscious contact” to overflow.  It can happen.  We can live as God intends, as a Heavenly Being.  So, my friends, keep practicing.  It is definitely worthy the effort.    

+ Spirituality & Practice offers many resources on the spiritual practice of Solitude.

+ Spirituality & Practice offers many resources on the the spiritual practice of Beauty and a Twelves Gallery of Memes on Beauty.  The meme above comes from that gallery.  Thank You very much S&P.

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Solitude Page.   Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Solitude” 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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS -- 55

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HUMILITY

+ Humility is an attitude of honesty with God, oneself, and of all reality. It enables us to be at peace in the presence of our powerlessness and to rest in the forgetfulness of self.

 -- Thomas Keating in The Sun and the Moon over Assisi by Gerard Thomas Straub excerpted from  http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/features/view/27978/quotations-on-humility

+ We are all humbled by events from time to time and that’s a good thing, isn’t it? But as we practice humility, we can go deeper and deeper and find an amazing intimacy with God and all creation.  This is bliss. This is peace.  This is heavenly.  

This practice moves us into presence.  For plenty of wisdom on the practice of presence, I invite you to explore the Spirituality and Practice practice of Being Present and, also, to ponder the illuminating reflections of Joseph Naft on Presence.

+ Spirituality and Practice offers a wonderful 12s gallery of images and quotes on Humility.

+ You can always find a link to any of the Spiritual Explorations posts by going to http://abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html