The experience of being a human who experiences contractedness caused by past pain and suffering, who has occasional moments of tremendous release and relief, and may even experience periodic illuminations of spirit, is the human experience. It is whole and complete, beautiful and miraculous exactly as it is. Life is in need of nothing more. At the same time we are invited to a journey of ascension in which the human experience will expand beyond its current form into the unknown wholeness of tomorrow, and perhaps ultimately even beyond the experience of being human.
Initially our spiritual practice is taken up in service of our personal journey home. When we discover that we were always already home a new journey begins that places our practice at the service of something much bigger than our limited selves.
We might do a sitting practice like meditation, a vocal practice like chanting or singing, a movement practice like dance or yoga. The form our practice takes is not as important as what the practice is in service of. In order for our energy to be available for the larger journey our practice must be anchored in an unshakable conviction that we are already home.
Spiritual practice becomes potent when we are so thoroughly convinced that there is nowhere else to go other than here. Only then are we able to unconditionally let go. When we deeply relax all of our conscious and unconscious attempts to protect ourselves and manipulate the world something glorious happens. The contractions that have accumulated over a lifetime naturally and effortlessly begin to release.
We will feel this physically, emotionally and cognitively. We might feel pain in our body as tightness dissolves and passes away. We may go through emotional upheavals of joy, sorrow, fear, or bliss, as emotions that have been repressed bubble to the surface. And as our minds become free of limiting beliefs we will experience profound insight that will reveal the secrets of the universe.
We do not need to control this journey. The only effort we need to make is whatever it takes to remember that we are already home, and resist the temptation to try to control the unfolding that has begun. We will be guided through physical healings, emotional releases, and mystical revelations in exactly the form that is required for our growth. Can you imagine being loved any more fully?
As we allow the larger spiritual journey to unfold it will become clear that the effort we made to find our way home was what got us to the starting point of the true spiritual odyssey. It is like walking from the back car of a train to the front car only to realize that the real journey includes the whole train. We are not on an individual journey, the entire human race is on a journey, and ultimately consciousness itself is evolving.
Our personal journey ends when we realize that we are already home. Then we have the opportunity to participate in the magnificent journey of conscious evolution. The contractions that release in our being are not just ours, they are contractions in consciousness itself and as we all release the binds that tie us new possibilities for life reveal themselves. Then we have the opportunity to live into these possibilities and recreate the world.
As we learn to allow the larger journey of spirit to unfold through us we discover what we are here for. We are not here to suffer and contract. We are the medium within which a natural process of growth takes place. That process will release constraints and unleash our true potential as part of the larger liberation of consciousness.
We have no way to imagine where the larger journey of consciousness will take us, but that journey of existence is our journey nonetheless. When we let go of any attempt to be anywhere other than here, all of our energy is available to do the invisible work of conscious evolution. This is an endeavor worthy of devoting our life to. This is the journey we were born for.
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