SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 220

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

-- Jalaluddin Rumi

+ From time to sacred time, silence is definitely a holy response to the wonders, the artistry of creation.  But so is noise.  Make a joyful noise.  And I am sure that Rumi would say that too. Sing, dance, move, play, write, speak, listen, dream, hope, pray, run, jump, paint, love. It’s all art. Enjoy the creative process which is happening all around you, beyond you, and deep inside you at all times.  Find all kinds of ways to participate in the creative process.  You are an artist. You are fantastic.  You are wonderful. Enjoy the moment.  Establish your way to be creative.   

   

+ 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:

·         SevenSteps of InterSpiritual Meditation (11 minutes)

·         15 minute introduction to InterSpiritual Meditation and the Mandala Process

·         2 hour lecture & conversation

+ Spirituality & Practice emphasizes the practices of Beauty, Creativity, Imagination & Wonder: The Practice of Beauty | The 12s Gallery on Beauty | The 12s Gallery on Creativity | The Practice of Imagination | The 12s Gallery on Imagination |  The Practice of Wonder | The 12s Gallery on Wonder

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice.  And, I have work to do on my Heavenlinesspage.  Maybe you can help.  Send an email with the subject “Heavenliness” 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 – 95

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF DISCERNMENT

+ To base a religious philosophy on questions instead of answers increases the likelihood of wonder and amazement.

-- Lawrence Kushner

+ Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

+ What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

+ Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

-- Rumi

+ Making a Vision Quest is a Native American tradition which has inspired many of us in recent decades.  Elders teach their adolescents that such a quest is a necessary passage into adulthood.  This wisely teaches adolescents to find answers within themselves even though this may be much more difficult than getting answers from others.  

Perhaps all of life can be viewed as a Vision Quest since we always have plenty more to learn and many changes to go through on this amazing journey.  Isn’t it wonderful?   

+ Spirituality & Practice offers many resources on the spiritual practice of Questing and a Twelves Gallery on Questing.  The meme above comes from that gallery.

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

+ Spirituality & Practice offers 37 Spiritual Practices with an abundance of ideas and resources for this essential practice. Some of my favorites are Attention, Being Present, Connections, Enthusiasm, Imagination, Listening, Meaning, Openness, Questing, Reverence, Silence, Transformation and Vision. Pick one or 2 and see where you are led as you continue to discern your purpose, your path, your mission, your next step.

+ 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 -- 79

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF SILENCE

Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

-- Jalaluddin Rumi

Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.

 -- Ansel Adams

+ We are surrounded by art.  Maybe immersion is a better word since art is within every one of us as well as beyond.  Art is immanent and transcendent.  The artist gets to the heart of the meaning of life and, even if dealing with the shadow side, pushes us to realize how beautiful, how  wonderful, life really is. 

+ 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 -- 66

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF SILENCE

+ Where we have stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories, or finding comfort in silence is where we have experience the loss of soul. Dancing, singing, storytelling, and silence are the four universal healing salves.

-- Gabrielle Roth

I welcome what I like to call the Joyful Noise movement which has been sweeping through religious communities and society as a whole. Communities of faith are in great need of renewal and celebration.  Making a Joyful Noise can be very healing and inspiring. 

But just as important is what I like to call the Joyful Silence movement.  Let’s dance.  Let’s sing.  Let’s tell stories. And let’s create in our lives many periods of silence.  Wisdom teachers have been telling us for millennia how important it is for us to establish silent spaces in our lives. 

+ 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 -- 60

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HUMILITY

+

Knock. And He’ll open the door.

Vanish. And He’ll make you shine like the sun.

Fall. And He’ll raise you to the heavens.

Become nothing. And He’ll turn you into everything.

-- Rumi.

found at http://theislamicworkplace.com/positive-quotes/

+ There are many great wisdom teachers in all traditions who offer the same basic message as Rumi did, as Jesus did, as The Buddha did, as Muhammad did.  You become your Real Self when give up your false self.  These practices are essential.  The Real Self is a given but it is received only by the humble, those who vanish and become nothing. 

I am an advocate of InterSpirituality, particularly as offered in the pioneering work of Ed Bastian of Spiritual Paths.  But Rumi, back in the twelfth century, was definitely a much earlier pioneer of InterSpirituality.  I believe it was his humility which made it possible for him to be radically open to the teachings and traditions of other cultures and religions.  In the early twentieth century, in that same Sufi tradition, Hazrat Inayat Khan also promoted what we are now calling InterSpirituality.  You can see it blossoming in his Ten Sufi Thoughts:

There are ten principal Sufi thoughts which comprise all the important subjects with which the inner life of man is concerned:

1) There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save God.
2) There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads all followers towards the light.
3) There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, which truly enlightens all readers.
4) There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life's purpose of every soul.
5) There is one Law, the law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6) There is one human Brotherhood, the Brotherhood and Sisterhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood of God.
7) There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8) There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9) There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without which is the essence of all wisdom.
10) There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality and in which resides all perfection.

+ 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 image and quote above is found in that gallery.

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

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS -- 41

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF DETACHMENT

+

If you could get rid

of yourself just once,

The secret of secrets

Would open to you.

The face of the unknown,

Hidden beyond the universe

Would appear on the

Mirror of your perception.

-- Rumi

+ Beyond yourself.  That’s where we are going.  That’s where we want to go. This is quite an adventure.  Heaven is beyond the fear, the anxiety, the doubt, the insecurity, the demands and expectations of our very limited egocentric self.

This heavenly realm we are seeking is not actually a destination.  Destiny is a more accurate description. We are always exploring this glorious realm whether we know it or not.  It is a mystery most of the time.  With a few exceptions, we humans don’t get to know “the secret of secrets” fully but we can get to know it partially and even have glimpses where we get to know “the secret of secrets” fully for a moment or two.  

Complete detachment is not what we are after.  We have to be attached in many ways here on earth.  But we don’t have to be attached as much as we are.  We can let go of a lot of unnecessary baggage.  Some of us might let go of more, even a lot more, than others.  We are free to decide moment after moment how much attachment to relationships, things, beliefs, opinions, etc. we need now.  We all can detach from a lot if we think about it and pray about it.  As Thoreau said: “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.”

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

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 39

+ It has been 6 months since the last Joyful Wandering post.  No excuses.  No explanation.

+

If you could get rid
of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear on the
Mirror of your perception.
-- Rumi

I found that quote at http://www.allspirit.co.uk/sufism.html

+ Joseph Naft continues to inspire, illuminate, guide, challenge as we seek to become truly mindful and aware.  In Inner Frontier Inner Work, he has been expanding our consciousness in the project of Learning To Be.  This week: Affirming Presence. Here is an excerpt:

So how do we get engaged, get involved? It begins with attention. The secret quality of attention is that it is driven by our will, it is our will. The practice of active attention is the road to coming into our own, our own will, our I. When you pay attention to what you are doing or seeing or touching or thinking, your I is there; it is you who are doing or seeing or touching or thinking. Not paying attention, allowing our attention to be drawn hither and thither, to be distracted easily, with no staying power, indicates that we are not here, that our I has withdrawn beyond our reach. We can learn to affirm our life, our living, our presence.

And we do that first by affirming our attention, by being our attention. It may sound abstract, but the actual practice of it is simple. We just pay attention to what we are doing and/or perceiving and we get fully behind that attention. We are there attending, wholly and completely, simply and directly. If you try this, you may see that you can do it. You may see how it is different than letting your attention just wander wherever it is drawn. We bring our power, the power of our will, our I, into our attention. We become our attention for that moment. Though it is simple, this is not so easy to maintain moment-to-moment over time. To do so, we need to continually renew our attention and our being in it.  | Read it all.

 

+ The current Spirituality and Practice Newsletter has great stuff, like usual, including:

 

• Remembering a great spiritual storyteller and interfaith pioneer. New in the Remembering Spiritual Masters Project is a tribute to Anthony de Mello, including a quotation sampler, links to reviews of his books, and video clips. More profiles in the Remembering Spiritual Masters Project.

 

• A prayer for forgiveness of our daily pollutions: We're "Praying the News" by focusing on what's behind the extreme weather happening all over the world. More prayers.

FREDERIC BRUSSAT IS TWITTERING WITH GREAT QUOTES

+ This tweeter alone should sell you on Twitter! FB is a longtime spiritual guide and offers immense wisdom at Spirituality & Practice.

I am participating in a fantastic internet retreat right now. It's called Love's Universe: "A Seven-Week Online Retreat with the Sacred Poetry of Rumi. Led by Kabir and Camille Helminski, Friends of the Threshold Society, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat."

Today is day 4 and its not too late to sign up. The cost is $40 and it is worth every penny, not only for the retreat but to support the best website on the planet!

• Go to http://twitter.com/FredericBrussat
• I twitter at http://twitter.com/Abundancetrek