by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Beginning: Our spiritual understanding is often unconsciously, but strongly, influenced by our early family or surrounding culture. At times, that early influence is strong and shapes our personal beliefs. Or perhaps the family and / or culture was spiritually disinterested. Perhaps that family / culture was rigid or dominant as to a belief system. As a result, we as individuals could naturally become just as rigid or one-sided. Perhaps, if too overwhelming, we became disinterested, or perhaps even hostile to the issue of spirituality. With eight billion people on this globe that we call home, the variety of spiritual conditioning (or lack thereof) is gigantic!
Ongoing: At times, life teaches us new lessons and we need to examine or perhaps even discard that early conditioning. Perhaps we encounter new paradigms in our ongoing experience. While necessary, such demands can take us beyond our personal comfort zone. We may cling to our “knowns” and actively combat what is seen as a threat to those original values. Or we may go pensively or grudgingly into the unknown and discover new possibilities. At other moments, the variety of human experience can be exhilarating as life blossoms into new viewing portals and opportunities. Life provides infinite variety, evoking infinite responses.
Possibility: At some point in our everyday experience, we may realize there has to be more to life than this physical reality. When we open our eyes and our minds to possibility, that’s when life itself opens and reveals what is potential or possible. If that interests or excites you, that’s the key to developing more of your personal self, using life’s possibilities. Some of that will be successful, other parts not so much! Risks include success and failure. Life is infinite at that point. If we just keep exploring and expanding, life can lead us into greater experience. You are more than the physical. You are a spiritual being. You are infinite!
Misinterpretation: As we recognize that life has more opportunity and we start to change, it can cause consternation to our groups: family, friends, community. You may be viewed as acting outside your norm, perhaps unintentionally threatening those relationships. You may be thought of as misled, tempting fate, or throwing away your usual knowns. This is often from well-meaning or concerned family or friends, who will naturally attempt to influence the outcome and preserve the “knowns”.
Wrong Path? Sure, you could go down a wrong path. It does happen. If so, such rescue attempts by friends and family are done with the best of intentions. What exactly is a “wrong path”? One that inhibits your personal development or diminishes you as an individual. My personal definition includes cult-like experiences. Way-showers or good examples are outstanding experiences. However, you as an individual should not be diminished spiritually!
What is a “right path”? One that leads you into the panorama of new life possibilities. The universe is infinite. The possibilities are also infinite. Spirituality enlarges and enhances you. It encourages and supports you as you explore your personal essence and depth. Spirituality is buoyant, uplifting, continually adding assets to your beingness. It should not be difficult to recognize or evaluate the differences between the paths.
For those who are or become spiritually inclined, life is like a smorgasbord, full of newness and possibility. We can want to do all of it, all at once. That could be a bit overwhelming. In my experience, selecting from that all-ness is important, while taking some time to experience each possibility as it presents itself. I ask for spiritual guidance and then trust in that guidance I have solicited to keep me on my personal path to awareness and spirituality. Should you encounter a moment of pause… such as, “Wait a minute, I have a question”… acknowledge it, ponder it, affirm your spiritual guidance and experience the truth of it.
Amazing revelation is always possible. It is like a light bulb bursting into awareness. So welcome that revelation when it visits you. It is also okay to recognize what is momentarily not comfortable to you, to take time to review and decide if you are comfortable in incorporating it. This is your life and your development; time is on your side.
Thank of revelation as a series of stairsteps, with one moment leading to another as a natural progression. Skipping a step or getting ahead of yourself may give you pause. The universe has all the time and opportunity in the world to teach you whatever you need to learn as you advance; there is no rush. Besides, each awareness is awesome in and of itself. At times even larger awareness can occur as an overall concept completes itself.
When I was teaching live classes (I am now retired), I could observe tiny bits of awareness occur for my students. Think of a large pile of puzzle pieces. As you fit two of them together, it provides a moment of satisfaction. As I taught, I watched my student’s eyes because I could tell if they were struggling with comprehension and alter my presentation so that they could understand. When that moment of comprehension occurred, a tiny spark of light would jump from one eye to the other, a tiny “Oooohh”.
Now think of the moment when one small piece connects several groupings of puzzle pieces. Call that moment awareness. Instead of an eye spark, my students would yell “OH!” and leap to their feet. Gave me the giggles! I might not ever know what that awareness was for them, but it was visible.
That’s an important moment in our developing as it allows our comprehension to enlarge.
The crazy part is that once you have experienced that moment, it can be hard to retrieve because it instantly becomes one of your “knowns”. It is just as when you are reading and something comes together for you in an “aha” moment. When you go back to read and retrieve that “aha”, it can be difficult to locate because it is no longer the “aha”; it has become a known! I treasured both the sparks in my beginners’ eyes, and the “ahas” of my advancing students.
Know as well that the universe may show you where you do not belong. That is just as valuable as knowing where you do belong! You will be using your development time wisely.
If you are pursuing your spirituality, pay attention to all your experience. You don’t know when the universe will use some simple experience to add to your “spiritual stair steps” or your unfolding progress.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.