Choose
A Path
“Every
tradition offers multiple paths for the spiritual life, and we take
the one that resonates with our temperament, capacity, understanding,
and maturity. No hard and fast rules determine the best path; no
how-to manuals apply to everyone's situation—or even one
person's...Books and teachers can be wonderful aids at certain stages
in our inner development, but our own nature must determine the best
path for us.”
Wayne
Teasdale (The Mystic Heart, pg.79-80)
My friends, Harry and
Sharon, and I facilitate a Spirituality Group together, so we often
converse about spiritual practice. They meditate every day, and
observe holy days by fasting. They study the writings of the masters
in Taoism, Hinduism, Sufism, and interpretations of Christian
scripture from those points of view. They belong to a group that
meets regularly with a teacher for long days of meditation and
instruction. That is their spiritual practice.
Several friends belong to
a Shambhala meditation group, another follows the Diamond Approach
and goes every New Year's Day to a sweat lodge. I have two friends
who meet weekly with Centering Prayer groups, and
one who goes regularly on pilgrimage to an ashram in India. “The
paths are many, but the goal is the same.” (Hindu) That goal is to
acknowledge Divine Presence in your life, and to actively engage with
it in a disciplined way. That is the definition of spiritual
practice. It is a regular practice that puts you in touch with the
Holy.
I am most connected to
the Source when I immerse myself in the natural world, and write from
that place of grounding. I don't travel to distant sites, to holy
shrines, or to places of particular harmonic convergence. I just sit
on my porch every morning at sunrise, and listen to the birds sing,
or take a walk and watch the trees dance. A spiritual practice does
not have to be difficult, or distant, or transcendentally mystical.
It can consist of closing your eyes and dropping deeply into prayer.
What is important is not the means, but the connection; the openness
to Spirit's guidance on a daily basis. That alone is
transformational.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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