Quote from Dan Millman's book "The Journey of Socrates"
When I was young, I believed that life
Might unfold in an orderly way, according to my hopes and expectations.
But now I understand that the Way winds like a river,
Always changing, ever onward, following God's gravity
Towards the Great Sea of Being.
My journey revealed that
The Way itself created the warrior;
That every path leads to peace,
And that life has always been,
And will always be,
Arising in mystery.
Are these words that you can relate to? Perhaps they are . . . Perhaps not. I wrote a poem and wound like to read it to you as an further introduction to my subject this after noon titled Spiritual Path?
A path of light
A path of joy and happiness
A path of spiritual awakening
Filled with a multitude of ups and downs
Criss-crossing the paths of others.
Searching for the one that is right
Overflowing with love and compassion
A striving for perfection, but fail to acquire
Working and working to no avail.
Bumping into every obstacle
Longing for relief
And hoping for the best
Making our way thru life not knowing where to turn
To find that which We believed We lost
But never did
Here We are and so it be
We've found our path so great
Right here inside of us where it needs to be
A spiritual path of never ending joy.
What kind of path are you walking on? Is it made of snow, dirt, sand, stones or perhaps concrete? Did you leave any foot prints behind?
When we look at a field full of newly fallen snow we see a beautiful carpet of whiteness that sparkles in the sun light. Then the children come out and start running in the snow creating paths and foot prints that criss-cross each other. Some of the paths appear to be overlapping one another or two paths or more side by side. Some of the children's paths seem to go in circles for a while then moving from one circle to another finding themselves in a rut that they can not seem to get out of. However, the path that each child makes is unique to him/her and can be followed from start to finish.
The overlapping and side by side paths show the close relationship that one person has for another. Two individuals or more walking together and yet separate in every way. We live our lives as individuals who have earned the right to express ourselves in our own way. We not only live different lives that is due to our constantly changing will, motivations, efforts and habits. Our way, for us, is the only way. In fact, a persons personal definition of there individuality define who they are and no one can say that he/she is right or wrong.
What about our spiritual path? Are we really on a path? Or is it just a metaphor that we've heard that sounds good to us?
I believe it is true that when we think about our spirituality and spiritual growth we can say that we really are on a spiritual path. A path that it is an outward expression of our love for God and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our life is an expression of our divinity ─ the God within. We strive to let God's love shine forth from our very heart and soul so that all who come in contact with us knows that here is a true son/daughter of God. One filled to over flowing with God's love.
True spirituality is an expression of God's love in us through our divine nature ─ the God within. And true spirituality is an expression of going from knowing about God to knowing God personally
As a spiritual person we will always choose to do good towards others while the materialistic person will always choose what is satisfying to him/herself ─ the ego self. The materialistic person only believes in what will make him or her happy or better than another person.
Should we be striving to be just like another person? No.
We go through life learning and experiencing a multitude of life's challenges and making decisions that are unique to us.
We call our life experiences parts of the path that we are on, Parts that makes us who we are. A unique individual amongst 7 billion others.
Spirituality is being able to express God's love in and through us ever striving for spiritual perfection. To be God/Christ like in everything we do and say. It doesn't matter whether we go to church and Sunday school each week. Even though going to church is a reflection of our religious side and may help us be a better person spiritually.
True spirituality is a striving to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. We also strive to love our neighbor as ourselves.
If we can daily practice giving to others a little love and compassion, we have come a long way in being a true spiritual person living a spiritual life not a religious life.
Our physical life path ends with us taking up residence in the Spirit World. And there we will continue to experience and prosper our spirituality that is unique to us, ever growing to perfection. We will then enter into the abode of God with a pure heart filled with God's love.
There is no other person just like you or me and our spiritual paths meet and criss-cross each other's so that we can help each other grow spiritually.
We can and do walk our spiritual paths together and the path which makes the most coherent sense becomes the correct one for ourself.
Silver Birch said "You cannot be given immunity from the difficulties and problems of your daily life. That is why you are on earth, to encounter them, to overcome them and to emerge triumphant, stronger in character and in spirit".
Sent from my iPad
