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Post by Del on Oct 6, 2009 23:19:32 GMT -5
This isn't much of an article; just an essay in progress.
I am currently reading 'Riding the Ox Home' by John Daido Loori [which I highly recommend btw] and going through another transition.
What resonated with me the most is when Loori mentions that our practice is usually a separate activity of our lives, which is where the romance of a spiritual practice begins to taper and we lose interest.
What's needed is the intimacy with the practice; seeing that there is no separation between the object and subject.
And so, it caused me to take a second look at my so-called 'transpersonal/spiritual discipline/practice'. There have been many times where I've lost interest or would find it a task to do a particular aspect of my practice.
One might even ask: 'To what end?'
The spiritual practice shouldn't be a means to an end, but a means in and of itself.
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Post by KG on Oct 7, 2009 18:10:17 GMT -5
Hi Del,
Thanks for the interesting perspective. It's interesting to me, because this is so opposite of my own experiences... or at least very different in POV.
How does one live without practice? Life without practice is just going through the motions, like a zombie. I do that occasionally, but I get really really weak if I do not have my practice. Then it is a vicious chicken or the egg type cycle of feeling bad, and not having that full on relationship aspect... I guess for her metiphor of romance, it is the not tonight God, I have a headache. LOL
Not practicing means feeling bad, and feeling bad means not being able to practice well... I mean if you are just standing there trying to feel that energy rush, and no gun to your head as far as events pushing on you, and you feel like today tomorrow and the next day are all going to be the same, and life is unbearably dull, and no one cares if you are powerful anyway... what the heck... I can't get all excited about this ground,and it really isn't happening... there is no urgency. However if urgency happens, I know that I can ground, I can pray, and I can pull power from all directions to feed myself enough to pick myself up by the bootstraps no matter how I felt five minutes ago.
I admit, I might not feel like doing one preticular thing all the time. Everyone has at least one thing in their practice that although it may yield results sometimes seems like too much trouble.
Grounding for example for me, I find I always get a rush if it works right, but I am very careful WHERE I ground, and even so sometimes it just doesn't seem to connect right... usually when I am in a bad mood, I can't ground properly, so instead of psyching myself UP so I can ground, I just wallow in my bad mood, and don't pray in tongues, or ground... but I still meditate and vision, cause those things come easy for me... and don't require a straight to God to Kim Link... and when I am wallowing in self pity the last thing I want to do is allow God to make me feel better. LOL
Really pity parties are the only thing that keep me away from any sort of practice... pity parties, and feeling to sick or lazy to walk out into the yart to ground in the spot I prefer.
However Life and Practice are very very closely related, I have a need to practice if I even want to pretend that I have life in my physical form, and astral/spiritual practice done in meditative states is a constant, because I live there all the time. I've been down a few times to the point that I was physically almost gone, but still the inner person was fighting to keep contact with Jesus, Gary My angel, or the Mothers... some kind of hanging on by a thread to spiritual even more than physical.
To me seperation is just a miserable feeling in my body, and I can abandon my body a lot easier than I can abandon the spiriutal entities that hold my hand. I can however pull that force that holds me down into the body with me, and make myself feel better, but that is very very hard sometimes.
Yes, sometimes certain ASPECTS of practice might feel like a chore, usually the ones that will help you the most, but also the ones that take energy. Still practice is the only way I am ever going to feel better. LOL
Spiritual practice is just who we are on the inside, seeping through for a moment to the outside, where we display it. It's always the inner practice... though... that is where we never stop. The inner practice continues more powerfully and constantly than the breath or the heart beat. I am a bit confusing about inner and outer space sometimes, but the heart, and it's links to heaven, and heaven itself are all the same place, and yet light years apart... and it is in that single place that spans the galaxy that our power comes from. Spiritual practice can be a means to an end, and it can be a source of great power when you need it. IT can take my old dry bones which feel like they belong in a graveyard sometimes, and they can empower me to be strong, and put the fight back in me. One of my favorite scriptures is, "They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength, they will mount up with wings as Eagles, and fly, they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint." Waiting on the Lord, means spiritual practice... and seeking God's face, while not going forward with action till one has confirmation that they are going in the right direction... some people call it praying through and some times it means a "wake" staying awake all night till an answer comes, and renewed strength comes, and power infuses you. This tradition is also echoed in Buddaism. Sometimes you might wait five minutes, and sometimes it might be five hours, other times it might be longer, but once you decide that you will not move till you get an answer and set aside a time to open yourself up, then that power will come. It can take months with varous interuptions too, but in the end... it happens. Frankly sometimes it can take years, for certain things, but the time frame has to do with the condition of our own spirit, and our rediness, and on the other hand sometimes our own stuborn heart, and inner conflict, sometimes fear, but that is where practice comes in. Perfect love casts out all fear, and once the heart opens, one can receive strength and guidance.
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