SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 200

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF DELIGHT

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When I see a dancing butterfly,

When I see a blooming flower,

Their eager wish to make this world happy,

My mind dances with joy,

My soul emerges in happiness.

- Debasish Mridha

This was the OneSpirit Daily Inspiration on 4/25/16.

+ This is the final post in the exploration of the spiritual practice of Delight.  We have explored this practice in the context of the Journey of the Soul following the practices we explored in the Journey of the Mind, the Journey of the Heart and the Journey of the Body.  The Soul is the essence of who we are.   The Soul integrates us making us truly delightful. We are heavenly beings.  We now move on to heavenly explorations which require this integration.  It will continue to take practice, practice, practice.  Dancing requires practice.  I suspect that butterflies need to practice and maybe even flowers.  I am sure humans have no choice but to practice constantly to become mind, heart, body and soul dancers in heaven and on earth.  Heavenliness is the next and final practice before we move on to the nine attributes of Heaven.  I know you are heavenly and I hope you will continue to accompany me on this journey through heavenly realms, the realms we always inhabit whether we know it or not. 

+ 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 – 101

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEALING

+ Many native cultures believe that the heart is the bridge between Father Sky and Mother Earth. For these traditions the four-chambered heart, the source for sustaining emotional and spiritual health, is described as being full, open, clear, and strong. These traditions feel that it is important to check the condition of the four-chambered heart daily, asking: 'Am I full-hearted, open-hearted, clear-hearted, and strong-hearted?'

 -- Angeles Arrien in The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary

+ Devotion to The Path of the Heart is essential if we are to master the miraculous, mysterious and marvelous practice of Healing.  Angeles Arrien teaches us to include in this practice fullness, openness, clarity and strength.  Spirituality & Practice  offers an excerpt from the book which describes a plan for developing a heart oriented spiritual practice. 

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

+ I have work to do on my Healing Page.   Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Healing” 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 – 87

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF DISCERNMENT

+ Genesis has been one of the sacred books that have enabled millions of men and women to know at some profound level that human life has an eternal dimension, even though they have not always been able to express this insight in logical, rational form. Like any scripture, Genesis points to a reality that must essentially transcend it. But the writers employ different methods from those of the Hindu Vedas or the Buddhist Sutras. The biblical authors force us to make an imaginative effort. They imply that it is a hard struggle to discern a sacred reality in the flawed and tragic conditions in which we live and that our experience will often be disconcerting or contradictory. Like Jacob, we will have to wrestle in the dark, denied the consolations of final certitude and experiencing at best only transient, elusive blessing. We may even find that we have been wounded in the course of our struggle.

-- Karen Armstrong in In the Beginning

+ The holy work of discernment is often complicated, confusing, elusive, even painful.  Courage and determination and patience are needed.  Your discernment process might be working great one day and may seem totally off the mark the next day.  Just keep working on these essential spiritual practices even if it is perplexing and wounding from time to time.  The Mind goal of Humility, the Heart goal of Healing, the Body goal of Holiness and the Soul goal of Heavenliness are worth the struggle.   

+ Karen Armstrong is one of my heroes.  She has written A History of God and other important books promoting awareness and appreciation of the world’s wisdom traditions.  She spearheaded the movement which gave us The Charter for Compassion.  Spirituality & Practice includes Karen Armstrong in their Living Spiritual Teachers Project where you can find quotes, book reviews, book excerpts, articles and interviews.

+ Spirituality & Practice offers many resources on the practice of discernment.  This includes the quote above. 

+ I have work to do on my Discernment page.   Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Discernment” 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 -- 78

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF  SILENCE

+ Somewhere in those depths of silence I came upon my first experiences of God as a loving presence that was always near, and prayer as a simple trust in that presence.

 -- Cynthia Bourgeault in Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening

+ Cynthia Bourgeault offers plenty of practical wisdom on the practice of Centering Prayer along with great insights into the Wisdom emphasis of Early Christianity which is now being recovered through  her efforts and the efforts of many others.  They are finding that the mystical approach is central to what Jesus taught and to what his first followers practiced and taught.  Here are a few more quotes from Cynthia Bourgeault to whet your appetite:

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5) The words call us up short as to what we are actually supposed to be doing on this path: not just admiring Jesus, but acquiring his consciousness. -- Cynthia Bourgeault in The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind

As we actually taste the flavor of what he's teaching, we begin to see that it's not proverbs for daily living, or ways of being virtuous. He's proposing a total meltdown and recasting of human consciousness, bursting through the tiny acorn-selfhood that we arrived on the planet with into the oak tree of our fully realized personhood. He pushes us toward it, teases us, taunts us, encourages us, and ultimately walks us there. -- Cynthia Bourgeault in The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind

+ Spirituality&Practice offers many resources on the Spiritual Practice of Silence and a wonderful photo and quotes gallery.

+ I have work to do on my Discernment page.   Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Discernment” 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 -- 65

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF SILENCE

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Earth, Teach Me

Earth teach me quiet ~ as the grasses are still with new light.
Earth teach me suffering ~ as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility ~ as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring ~ as mothers nurture their young.
Earth teach me courage ~ as the tree that stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation ~ as the ant that crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom ~ as the eagle that soars in the sky.
Earth teach me acceptance ~ as the leaves that die each fall.
Earth teach me renewal ~ as the seed that rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself ~ as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness ~ as dry fields weep with rain.

-- An Ute Prayer

< http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2012/07/an-ute-prayer-earth-teach-me-2409214.html

+ With this post we begin exploring the second of four journeys of spiritual practices, the Journey of the Heart. During this exploration there will be posts on the practices of silence, discernment and healing.

We have been on the Journey of the Mind so far.  This Ute prayer is a good transition as it emphasizes practices we have been exploring: stillness, detachment and humility.  These practices will continue to be essential.  Without plenty of mindfulness, the Journey of the Heart cannot get very far.  Nor can the Journey of the Body or the Journey of the Soul which  will come after this journey.  I am so glad you are exploring with me. YOU are fantastic, wonderful, fascinating, delightful. 

Or, as Christopher Robin said to Pooh: “Promise me you'll always remember you're braver than you believe & stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”

Once again, I want to thank Elizabeth Lesser for the categories of The Mind, The Heart, The Body and The Soul and for the wisdom and practices she offers on each of these “landscapes” as she calls them in The Seeker’s Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure.

+ SpiritualityandPractice offers many resources on the Spiritual Practice of Silence and a photo and quotes gallery.

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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS -- 64

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HUMILITY

+ I will let Brother Wayne have the last word in this exploration of the spiritual practice of humility. 

+ There is no possibility of a mature spiritual life without humility. Nor is it possible to be a successful human being without it. Humility is also, most fundamentally, a relationship of truth with ourselves. Humility begins with self-honesty about our actions, attitudes, and speech. It compels us to accept the fact that we are capable of being wrong, perhaps even when we are convinced we are right. It means that we acknowledge our mistakes, not years from now, but when they are made.

We must be willing to own up to these mistakes before others and not simply ourselves. Such humility is a basic operating principle of ordinary life. Without it, we can hardly move at all, since the mystical process is based on honesty and humility of heart. Search your experience and examine if humility is at work in you.

-- Wayne Teasdale in The Mystic Hours excerpted  from http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/features/view/27978/quotations-on-humility

+ As you “search your experience,” remember to be very gentle with yourself, forgiving yourself again and again and again. Yes, examine yourself but don’t be harsh.  All too often, we judge ourselves too critically.  Humility requires diligence but not destructive thoughts and actions.

+ We have reached the final post of the Journey of the Mind section of this exploration.  Next we will build on our mind practices as we explore the Journey of the Heart.  The heart practices we will explore are silence, discernment and healing. 

The categories of Mind, Heart, Body and Soul are not new but, the idea of connecting these practices with the paths of Mind, Heart, Body and Soul came to me as I read The Seeker’s Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure by Elizabeth Lesser, a truly amazing book. She uses these four categories which she calls Landscapes. She offers great wisdom and many useful practices for each of the landscapes: Mind, Heart, Body, Soul.

+ Spirituality and Practice offers a wonderful 12s gallery of images and quotes on Humility
> http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/galleries/category/12s/2#/37/12-humility. The photo with the Roger Housden quote comes from this gallery.

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

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 45

+ February ended yesterday but Spirituality and Practice had 29 heart quotes even though this is not a leap year.  Introducing the topic, Mary Ann and Fred wrote: "We chose to salute heart knowledge because of the heartlessness of these violent times and because of the growing number of people who feel disheartened. It is possible to tenderize this faculty and to become gentler people." | Visit the Heart Map

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 44

+ updated at 10:11am EST on Wednesday, February 13, 2013

+ This is a great video. Take an hour and enjoy Peter Russell lecturing on The Primacy of Consciousness.

+ Spirituality and Practice offers A Quote on the Heart from Awake Mind, Open Heart by Cynthia Kneen:

The Strong Heart

"When we say a person has HEART, it doesn't mean they are weak and sentimental. We mean they are willing to be exposed, willing to be touched nakedly by the world. They are strong enough not to wear a suit of armor. They are not afraid of their own experience. In this sense heart is the one hundred percentness of experience. It is a strength and fullness in you that come from putting your awareness in the actual experience you are experiencing. This is true even of negative experiences. With a strong heart you are able to be gentle and sympathetic to all your experiences, not only the pleasant ones." | See the S&P map of The Heart

 + At Inner Frontier, a new Inner Work series has begun: WHO AM I? Here are 2 excerpts from the Introduction: “The question “Who am I?” in its various forms, has beset human beings from time immemorial. You would think it would be so easy and obvious, that it would not really arise as a question. But it has and keeps doing so, for good reason. Indeed, some spiritual paths and practices have this question at their center, because it is the key question of our life.” | "There is an answer to this question who am I. But it is not an answer that can be readily formulated in words. It is, however, an answer that we can become. We can be who we truly are. It is at the same time obvious, accessible, and hidden."

Last week, the series on LEARNING TO BE came to an end with Joseph Naft offering some profound thoughts on Love. Excerpts: "Love is union of the will, a union much deeper than the physical union of sex or the emotional union of attachment. Love asks for nothing in return, not even reciprocity, whereas attachment does ask. If it is union, if it is love, how could we ask something in return from our Self? Attachment competes with love for space in our heart and mind. For that reason, the inner work of love, of becoming able to love, consists of allowing oneself to be imposed upon." | "We look for and create opportunities to show our love. We act on them. What does this person want? What does this person need? What would delight this person? How can I provide something toward that?"

I know I have a lot to learn, a lot of detaching to do and humility to achieve as I continue on this amazing journey.