Sunday, July 12, 2009

What Is Your Next Lesson?


When one makes the conscious decision to live a spiritual life, a conscious life where you start to become more of the observer and co-creator of your own personal universe and less a victim and pawn, the pursuit of spiritual lessons become ever more important. When ready, these lessons serve as the building blocks for enlightenment as they slowly reveal themselves to you. We then begin to take on and work through these lessons in the ever-elusive pursuit of spiritual upliftment and perfection. Now some consider this aspiration for perfection to be an unattainable milestone. I kind of tend to agree with this and personally have no problem with the assertion. Within the course of my own spiritual journey I have come to recognize that my true identity is that of Soul…who inhabits a physical body to serve as a vehicle while still on this coarse plane of existence…but am in fact a divine spark of God awareness created in love by All That Is… for the purpose of gaining experience and enlightenment. Within this fundamental understanding of Soul is the realization that I am eternal; that I will never die. Knowing that I live in eternity bodes a very basic question; what do I do with all of this duration (…see, time is an illusion)? There is a saying that goes, “There is always a plus (+) element to spiritual unfoldment.” What this basically means is that there is always a next step, a new challenge, something more to learn and that we will never stop growing. I believe this to be a good, good thing because truth be told, we need something to do. So I have no problem with the probability that I will never reach ultimate perfection because then what would there be left, floating on a cloud playing a harp (or in my case a saxophone) for eternity? I think not.

So within the premise that there is always something more to learn, how do we determine what our next spiritual lesson might be? In the initial personal audit of our own respective character defects, some of the lessons may be quite obvious. It is up to each of us to have the courage to look at that “man/woman in the mirror” and call it like you see it. Admission and acceptance is the first step, then daily maintenance and the replacement of one habit or action with another that is more in alignment with Spirit. I won’t go into any details in this entry on what this might entail because that is a personal journey for everyone, and I will leave you to your own introspection and insight. Suffice it to say though that much of the initial self-critique is often low hanging fruit. Over time however, these lessons are learned and adjustments are made, and things that were considered negative in nature begin to fall away; you simply don’t need them anymore. Karma is one of our best teachers and serves as a major catalyst for bringing to our attention what we need to focus on. As we come closer and closer to the God-loving life however, the lessons tend to become more subtle and intimate in nature, and we may need to use other measures besides karma to make us aware of what we should focus on next.

There is one very close and simple barometer for determining what your next lesson might be. This measure has always been with us and often times has been an unforgiving nemesis during crucial times in our life. If you want to know what your next lesson might be, simply ask yourself, what are you most afraid of? Your answer may very well be your next lesson. I have mentioned in earlier blog entries the nature of fear (see March 16 blog) and how it can often cause you to shut down and become unable to accept divine love. Fear takes on many forms, and it is incumbent on us to really examine what we are afraid of. Fear, in truth, is an opportunity for growth. Another way of putting it is something I heard once, “…pain is a sign that soul is growing.” We must again have the courage to tackle the fear within us that is most pervasive and find ways to overcome it. Once achieved, you will be stronger and wiser for having taken the journey.

Having said all of this, I feel it only fair to mention here that nothing really occurs in a straight line, but within waves of unfoldment. There are good days and there are bad days, peaks and valleys to life. Daily maintenance of spiritual lessons learned becomes important. There is another saying that basically states, “Heaven must be re-won everyday”. What this basically means is that vigilance is always important, and that you must be mindful to practice what you already know and have already learned (remembered) on a daily basis to maintain where you are so as not to slip backwards in your own personal unfoldment. Remember, you can only coast in one direction.