Notice so often, many assume spiritual growth means achieving some extraordinary, other-worldly, blissed-out state where we are somehow transported out of where we are. This view leads us to constantly reach for the next spiritual high, focus on futures. Or we feel that with all our commitments, responsibilities we have few ways for developing our inner nature. Both of these views reflect an error in perception. Let's step back, take another look. 

In fact, our day-to-day experiences offer raw material for spiritual development. Conflicts that arise in our families and among colleagues, the pain of losing loved ones, or our resistance to paradigms, stories, events, do not prevent inner development. Rather, they point to our ignorance and all else that hinders us from knowing and embodying true nature. We must simply be willing to surrender to the process. We are each invited to meet situations that present with compassion. This is true nature. 

Many of us do not distinguish between true nature and our personality traits, particularly our less desirable traits. Thing is, we are not the body, mind, emotions, but spirit-soul. It is the nature of the untrained mind to want what it perceives as advantageous and resist what seems painful. Discovering how the heart and mind can work together allows us to move beyond resistance and start to know inner freedom. Every situation we create has potential to reveal our true nature.

At different stages, we can feel overwhelmed by life conditions or feel bound by past traumatic events. If and when this happens, we do not see things as they really are. They are just mind-states which can be known, seen as impermanent, do not belong to us. They do not define true nature. A spiritual practice can provide insight and discipline to explore our perceptions. We each must discover what is true for ourselves. Heresay does not cut it. We can each do this right where we are. There is no need to go to a monastery or get our life more together. The intensity of our will and fears is a catalyst that propels us to go down the rabbit hole.  We can choose how to see, reframe, respond to events that will lead us to a deeper relationship with true nature.

For many years, words by Viktor Frankl have inspired me. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning wrote, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

It is crucial to understand, from a spiritual perspective, that the pain and suffering with which we work is no less substantial, or less real or difficult than those others face. The constrictions of the heart and mind cannot be measured like so many pounds of pressure; they are energies we learn to feel, harness and guide us back to true nature. Funny, the quest to reconnect with true nature is often lost in ordinary life. To be wrapped up in the mundane causes us to forget the big picture.

Buddha teaches that true nature is obscured by veils of wanting, fear, and delusion (or ignorance). He urges us to look at nature of our mind systematically and observe how these three mind-states condition what we think and value, and how we behave. He teaches that to identify with these mind-states causes suffering.
If we are not our thoughts, then what is our true nature, how do we find it, and how do we live so that it may flourish?

Well, the true nature of love is not based on ego strategy, but on the sheer openness of one heart to another. This is the kind of heart-opening that provides us with courage to face what arises.

Buddha also echoes our true nature is emptiness- a lack of a permanent Self- and when this true nature is realized, the divine states of the Brahma-viharas – loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity- emerge. There is also a state of mind and heart known as bodhichitta that leads one to completely dedicate oneself to the liberation of all beings from suffering. In the teachings of the great yoga masters, our true nature is Brahman, the universal soul, of which the individual soul is simply a part. When this is realized there is satchidananda, the awareness of bliss, from the knowing that pure awareness is our ultimate nature.

At some stage, it dawns, feelings of true nature are real. What Buddha describes are actual states of mind- body that can be physically and emotionally felt as profound consciousness shifts. For some people, these changes in consciousness have a strong physical component or a marked shift in perception. Some of us experience dramatically altered states of being. Others know subtle shifts in clarity, emotional centeredness, spontaneous acts of kindness. Every moment the body and mind experience true nature may feel transcendent, and manifestation simply occurs without effort. To know a “soft heart” is to act with selfless compassion. This is dwelling in the divine aspect of true nature. The new normal can feel like a transcendent moment.

Let go of will to control

Notice its common to wonder what determines how life unfolds. Yet, its not up to us. Its outside of our control. Feel into any resistance arising to not being in control. Everything that presents results from dynamic forces of equilibrium and natural laws interacting and creating what is seen and unseen. We do not have to know all reasons that needed to happen for everything to be as it is. This has nothing to do with us. Its completely impersonal. Everything is fine until we show up, judge it, attempt to force or manipulate. Energy flows where we are not. We are fine with that. We rarely or never complain about where we are not. Ponder this...

So, life is not about controlling energy. Its about our relationship with the force of creation unfolding outside us. We each inhabit a body and "the world" is outside. Energy is always unfolding, that includes before after time, before our birth and after body is gone.

Many people seek peace. Thing is, right now, we can be in a state of acceptance, awe, respect, honour, experience this moment as fresh and new. Insodoing, we gift ourselves whatever arises. We are the only being standing right here, now. From this view, no problems exist, simply experience we accept (or reject/ resist). For most, their relationship with life and self is not always peaceful. Why is that?

Well, we decide in the mind, develop ideas, of what life should be doing today, tomorrow, and beyond. In truth, we limit possibilities, make it all up, create a vison, goals, dreams we must realize and specific steps to get here. Ego decides what should and should not be, what we like and dislike, what is right and wrong in relation to our own self-created points of reference. A problem is that unfolding realities are not obliged to meet our expectations. Business projections are not always accurate. When what we want to happen, doesn't happen as we want it to and when, that is viewed as a problem. Yet, reality does not behave this way. We make up an alternate version of reality and get upset when the unfolding does not happen as ego wants. This brings suffering. We are the source.

In essence then, Buddha's Nobel Truths are simple. Everybody is suffering because they do not have the right understanding of the way things are, they have expectations for life that reality does not meet. The cause of suffering is desire, preference, our idea of ways things ought to be. We make it up and want things to happen, our way.

As it is, moments exist independently from the rest. Everything is interconnected. To end suffering, end attachment to desire and outcomes, stop being rigid about the way things must be. Come back to simplicity. The way the world is does not have to be the way you want it to be.

A key question to ask is what prompts us to fear things will not be the way we want? It evokes tension. A wise person does not renounce all desires. Yet, why do we insist on imagining an alternate reality instead of savouring the one that exists? Rather than struggle with life or ourselves, go deeper. Everything does not have to be a certain way for us to be loved, lovable, accepted, successful. We are a witness, guest and observer.

The Truth cannot be Forced

(Cosmci sacred geometry by Endre Balogh)

Notice the brain is a transceiver of vibrational frequencies. If you are in an energy field that evokes resistance or discomfort, or you attempt to integrate information too quickly, your body may not be able to handle a level of differential frequency. (Imagine the brain as a circuit board, and you do not wish to overload your circuits) The common response is to withdraw or get away from the intense energy source. For example, if music is too loud, you turn volume down or leave the space. A similar thing happens when you are offered levels of "truth" energy you are unable to assimilate. You only receive what you are ready and willing to accept. This is why people are meant to be initiated, receive guided info in progressive stages, in forms they can digest, and also why some people refuse to accept certain info as truth. They may not be ready. More than one process is going on. A self-purification process is necessary to integrate progressively higher vibrations. If the body cannot handle an influx of energy (data differs too much from baseline frequency reference), the body can respond with imbalance, rejection, health issues or other blocks. Hence, it is said one ought to take everything with a grain of salt. If "it" resonates, take it onboard. If not, let it flow in one ear, out the other. If it is meant for you, then you hear it. Layers /levels of Truth cannot be forced. They unfold from inside- out. (Cosmic sacred geometry by Endre Balogh)

Accelerate new life shifts

Notice the sense of holding yourself back is a pointer to the root of your own fear and resistance. Its not who you are that actually holds you back, but who you think you are not and the influence of this identity over your choices. You may forget what you are made of, forget how to access it or tune in. Much like the penguin is aware of the significance and benefits of ice water, yet does not always jump right in, we are each aware that our discomfort holds the key to our own salvation. Deep down, we all know what feels right yet the question is, do we always listen or simply cling to "the familliar"? We are each like a seed that contains all genetic material to transform into a progessive seedling, plant and tree. We can continue to produce our own seeds and stay in a karmic cycle, or, come "full circle" and embrace a new way of being. Just as the branches of a tree strengthen and grow upwards to the sky, we too grow stronger, striving for greater knowledge, wisdom and new experiences as we move through life. We hold the seed of our own energetic and crystalline light body transformation. At what point do we cease to resist and recall what feels natural?" As we meet guides on the Path, they can assist in different capacities, depending on what we allow or resist. Sufi poet Khalil Gibran reminds us, 'the teacher who is indeed wise does not invite us to enter his house of widom but rather, guides us to the threshold of our own mind' so we awaken.

Get Direct Soul Access

Notice that energy follows the path of least resistance. Imagine you are a mini tree hopper, soaring through the dense jungle in search of the perfect spot to land. The best way to guide your flight, like life, is to go with flow, or wind direction, to take what feels like the most natural or easiest Path, rather than go against the current. Going with the flow is acting in alignment with our Soul. Tuning into Soul accesses aspects of self typically unseen. Certain knowings act as our reliable compass. Listen closely. Anchor into the natural consciousness. Everything, inluding the miniscule, points to the perfect Path right now. We each allow or resist what nature intends