Hearts Awaken...Spirit Connection, Part II 

Advancing the Spiritual Life 



Review of Part I: 

 Creating a Spirit Life, The Basics, includes:      

1. Knowing we have the desire and the need to Connect-- it is built into us, and we can nurture that and help it to grow. This need of ours is Spirit's First Law.



2.* Coming to Believe: Doubters can test the realness of Spirit by "acting as if" there is a Greater Power-- that way, we open to information that may confirm this belief. Many seekers of spirit find themselves confirmed of the existence of God after doing this for a time. Of course, anyone who finds no further proof is free to discontinue the experiment. 



3. Communicating with Spirit--Talking, asking, Giving thanks, and listening. 



4. "Thy will, not Mine": Learning to step down from (Gods) throne and let Spirit be the major player -- relinquishing self to Open to Spirit's Bigger View... 

____________________________________     



Spirit's Foundation -- The True Connection 

Advancing the Spiritual Life 

        In the beginning, anything that connects us to Spirit is great because it is such an improvement over what we had before... But just as a teacher expects different work from a kindergartener than from a tenth grader, so we must grow. As our "spiritual I.Q." and capacity increase, our Spiritual foundation must grow, to receive and be able to give more of Spirit's bounties. 

  

Beginner's Tools 

          Two tools are helpful to beginners in finding a first connection with Spirit. ( described in more detail in Part 1) They are: 

1. The "Acting as if" there is a Greater Power, until experience confirms it. 

2. "Creating", "imagining", or making up in one's head what "God" is, or what He/ She might be saying. If Spirit truly is all powerful, then it can work in the form we imagine as well as many other forms. 



Small Foundations, Small Gods 

            

         Most of us, in our worship, are connecting to some kind of image or idea from our own head, and what our minds create is a great start to the newly developing spirituality. Spirit wants to help us and is happy to go along with our agenda if that is what we need. 

        

    A "God of my own Understanding" (or mis- understanding) 



    ....is great as far as it goes, but it is placing mortal limits on an Infinite Power. This limits my own understanding, and more: it keeps me more under the sway of "ego- direction" rather than being truly Spirit- directed. 

            How can I expect to find truth regarding Spirit if if i am still in the stage of "making up" a god ? I am relying on my own mind for direction rather than tapping into that Infinite Good and giving it full and free reign in my life. 



Spirit's Law:  "Let Go"-- of all that is not of Me



        We don't know what Spirit is. or what Spirit's will is, until we let go 



A Mature Spiritual Life

     A mature, truth-loving view of Spirit & our place in the scheme of life admits: 

   

  ... that Spirit is Infinite and we are finite: How can the mortal truly comprehend the Immortal? "I cannot, but by Spirit's strength I can." The knowlege that we are powerless to understand, without Spirit's help, moves us to admit: 



    .. that we must ask for help from the Great Power of Spirit if we are to break out of our own mortal misconceptions. 

   

       The more deeply we make the admission that our minds do not "know it all", and that, "of myself alone, I am powerless to comprehend this Amazing Power", the more wholehearted will be the request for help and Openmindedness. 

   

    More simply put: Humility is needed, and this the key to a life of Spirit. 



To be Humble is to be teachable. 

To be Teachable is to avail oneself of truth. Truth is the Healer. 

Spirit and Truth are one. 



Truth Calls -- and the Road narrows 



  Truth or Consequences 



       There are spiritual consequences to all our acts, as well as to our non- action. In Part I, we saw that there is a place in us that must be filled by Love & Spirit-- and that if we try to fill it with anything else we can find ourselves in a bottomless pit of addiction.         

         Our souls will accept no substitutes for Spirit-- and that same spiritual law also dictates that  

          Our souls will accept no substitutes for truth-- the soul knows truth and when we reject or discord with that, it grieves.  

Spirit/God loves us so much, that it will do all it can-- even providing calamity, chaos or insanity in our lives -- to bring us home to truth. 

    

Peeling the Onion 

          

       When Spirit calls, we must go to the next level, seeking greater truth than we were capable of at our previous stages of development. Spirit will get us to this new level of truth any way it can. Some of us go willingly, lovingly, others wait til the very last minute, then go kicking and screaming...     Our tests and difficulties-- individually and as a world-- may be Spirit calling us Home-- to Truth, that Healer of Power. 

    

 "Pay the Price"--  There's No Hiding  

  

       Our perception, misconception, attention or negligence in relation to Spirit affects virtually  every area of life, including our collective life on this planet. Our honesty or dishonesty; our ability or inability to move away from our own imaginations and the limits or distortions we place on Spirit:  our attentiveness or lack of attentiveness to truthfulness, especially in regard to Spirit, may be the single biggest factor in our lives on this earth...  

      It makes sense,, then, that we would want to give up anything that stands in the way of unfettered Spirit- truth; self- centeredness, the need to have things our way, conscious and unconscious fears; pride; our self- image as a rebel, destructive habits, complacency: ,all of this-- the trappings of self-- add up to one big ZERO when held up next to the immense rewards and benefits of a Spirit centered life, and the deficits of a life that is not so centered.    

        

To be Humble is...

 

             The willingness to listen, to Open and learn from Something Wiser-- even to admit that there is Something Wiser-- is a first step in learning to be humble. To hold one's tongue until Spirit has spoken; to admit that we don't have answers or that we need help, or, perhaps, the willingness to see ourselves as we truly are-- these show a healthy and powerful humility.

 

             Humility as a value is highly underrated in Western society--  We can learn much about it from the indigenous cultures, where it is valued and cherished as a personal attribute.   It seems to go hand in hand that these cultures also tend to focus on inner values; humane and and human values rather than "things or outer appearances. These cultures honor and foster respect for the gifts of Spirit, for their elders and for the land they live on: they have much to teach us about the way of Spirit.

    

      In Summary, in keeping with Maturing spirituality, I have come to believe that: 



1. Mere mortals, we cannot ever fully understand "God", "Spirit", etc.; for the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite... 



2. Whatever we imagine or create "Spirit" to be in our own heads, is from our own (mortal) imagination, and therefore must miss the mark (ie., is a faulty perception).



3. Our own imaginings, including unconscious ways we have of shutting out the truths of Spirit, are limiting, self- limiting, and constitute a loss of true spirituality. Although we may not know of its effects, they can be detrimental and far- reaching. 



4. Of ourselves (this human. mortal stuff), we are powerless to move out of our own mind's limits. 



5. In order to move out of the mind's dictates, we must ask for help from the "great Powers"; nothing less can bring us to a higher and truer conception of the great Spiritual Power and its workings ... 



6. The price -- letting go of self-- is well worth it, for inevitably, we will have to "let go;  the longer we hold on to cherished opinions or old ways the greater is the price paid...



                 If it is true that our tests and difficulties-- individually and as a world -- are Spirit calling us to truth, then let us cling to that Greater Reality... and move beyond Self...
 To A Space  Beyond the usual Limits of the mind where we see More Clearly, Freely, Creatively... 
 
 
  This is our Journey... 

 

 
      Yet, without some action on our part, Time itself will close the "Window" of our knowing! 

Only doing Something can we keep in touch with our Awakening..
 

 
Doing nothing-- ie., no "decision" is still 
 
  a decision , & Detours & wanderings can go on for years…   
 

  That's why we offer a blog & tools for ongoing engagement and awakening the Spirit- Mind, and investigation of truths that are of import to ourselves and our world..
.

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