An Endless Quest for Spiritual Truth: A Practical Guide to Everyday Spirituality. Eric Chifunda
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Therefore it is an inner radiance that is permeating through our entire being and yielding a good blending and coloring of one’s outer physical self. In other words, an outflow of Divine Spirit permeating through one’s physical beingness. A beingness characterized by love, an open heart, a loving heart,, an embracing heart, an unselfish heart, or a giving heart. With that as an integral part of our outlook, one will be looking good from within and without.
Cycles of Life
Life situations, experiences that are critical to our growth come in cycles. The end of one cycle often heralds the coming of a new cycle. The question is; if we have not successfully completed one cycle, does the new one begin? Or is it delayed till completion of an outgoing one, so can two cycles run concurrently. One whose eyes and ears are open may become aware of forewarnings or insights beforehand when a major cycle is about to start with prompts to start preparing for it so as to make smooth transition. Therefore, a new cycle may begin before the preceding one ends. For a new one is supposed to be built on the outgoing one.
They are not independent and isolated experiences, but more of a continuum.
Effective preparation, paying close attention to divine guidance, taking up necessary steps can result in a smooth transition through inevitable changes in one’s life. So a certain level of flexibility is required whereby you are willing to let go of the past to allow in the new. With this type of attitude you will be able to transition more smoothly from one cycle to the next. Keep in mind that in due course, changes will happen anyway, but it is either you are dragged along if you resist the necessary changes or stay flexible and go along smoothly with the new changes ushered in by the new cycle.
TURNING ON A NEW LEAF
How do you turn on a new leaf so as to move forward in life? It is to our benefit to make time to fulfill our life goals. We think about the goals, plan them, but never seem to get time to follow through with them. We plan that we will start afresh some day, maybe next month, maybe at the beginning of the new year. But time never seems to come; we always find something else to do. Divine spirit has time and again showed us time to set new goals and start working toward achieving them. But time never seems to come. There seem to be not enough time. Yet there’s always enough time to fritter away on unproductive things. There is always enough time to chill on the couch under the convenient belief that we need to rest, get some rest after a hard day’s work even when we are not necessarily tired. Or sometimes we sit and think about what to do next instead of actually doing it. Before we know it, it’s too late. Because we spent part of the free time brooding, planning, watching too much TV, making phone calls out of need to fill time. Kill time! By killing time, we are wasting an aspect of our valuable life.
It is in our best interest to attend to our talents, interests, hobbies instead of sitting around and doing nothing productive. Our valuable time goes underutilized, losing it, wasting it. We are left with nothing to show for the time spent in unproductive activities. Little or nothing is gained from unproductive activity or inaction. What is needed is a clear daily plan, daily recommitment to our life goals, doing them well and seeing them through to completion.
We can start with small manageable goals in the initial stages, progressing toward bigger goals and making adjustments as needed. Before we know it, we would have gotten where we set out to go and beyond if we let divine spirit guide us and we stay proactive. So it behooves us to move from planners to doers. With that, doors of new opportunities will begin to swing open. This is due to right action fueled by our selfless goals done for the good of all.
Let us change gears. Turn on a new leaf, waste no more time. If we plan our days and nights well, there will be enough time to fulfill our goals and some time left for leisure as well. Time well planned and spent is time well invested and enjoyed.
A Sense of Clarity
Whether we know it or not, we all have a God given mission here on earth, small or big. Therefore it is incumbent upon us to find out what it is and work towards fulfilling it. Many people fail because they try to copy other people’s dreams instead of identifying and pursuing their own. Where we are going is not always clear. Often we are going in all sorts of directions. What our goals are—our spiritual goals—we are not always sure. Often we set goals, if at all, that are influenced by fear, material gain, and sometimes we try to copy someone else’s dream instead of pursuing our own. How to achieve the selfless goals, we’re not always sure. Often we proceed in the most convenient way possible, with little effort, or in some instances so we can just to get by in life. The choices we make, are not always spiritually right. Often our choices are driven by material gain only, for most part. If we make choices that do not lead to a better place, to greater spiritual wealth, to a bigger room, they will leave us empty and unfulfilled. Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with material sufficiency for it is part of God’s plan. It is when materiality dominates our lives in such a way that our hearts close, rendering us unkind, unloving, cold and selfish that it becomes objectionable.
To proceed forward, to acquire true spiritual wealth, we need to learn to make right selfless choices, set clear goals and know where we are standing. We need a sense of clarity. In Divine Spirit, we will find clarity.
Changing to Who We Are Truly
We appear to be many things in life save what we truly are. We may view and identify ourselves in any number of ways: weak, strong, angry, ignorant, stupid, intelligent, important, better than others, etc. But is that really our true nature or illusory nature or perception society has imposed on us or an image we have acquired from society? Whether we like it or not, we’ve become what we think we are and have internalized some of what others say and think we are. These various perceptions have taken root in our psyche. They have colored our lens through which we view the world around us and how we view ourselves. Thus our vision has been affected to the extent that we no longer have clear perception of who and what we are as Divine beings.
That is the danger of embracing borrowed perceptions and internalizing negative associations and letting them define us as our true identity and reality. To know who we truly are, to reclaim our true nature, we must let go of all old superficial identity, revise our wrong thought processes, recant our outmoded erroneous old beliefs of who we are and in so doing we will begin to chart a new course toward self awareness. We will begin to gradually awaken to that which is our true nature—Soul.
STAYING CONNECTED WITH THE ESSENCE OF GOD
To the extent that we are alive, the spirit of God exists in all of us, irrespective of differences in belief systems. It is what sustains our true identity as Soul.
It exists in the manner that you often don’t recognize. Because you think yourself as merely this human being called by so and so name. Meaning your self-identity as emotions, mental and physical associations or outer Self. But you are greater than this. You are Soul to start with. You are Godlike in your true latent spiritual nature, a spark of God to put it more accurately.
When they say God is within you, that means the essence of God is within you. It’s an aspect of you that rises above normal thought processes. That tells you what