What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Getting through all the classes to the 20th class is a great
achievement - well done! We'd really like to thank you for letting us into
your spiritual life and we hope that you have enjoyed the discussions and
meditations so far.
This class is all about assimilation. How you can live your spiritual life
most effectively.
How to take that next leap of
faith
I am sure by now
you see yourself as a meditator, as a spiritual soul on a journey of
discovery. That vision needs to be constantly updated.
For us, to create our
highest reality, we need to constantly reveal the current highest vision of
ourselves from within, and simply become it.
We burn daylight.- William Shakespeare
By its nature,
this is not a static vision, it evolves, it grows, just as heaven, the
divine, is constantly progressing.
All faiths constitute a revelation of Truth, but all are imperfect and liable to
For us, this
means practise, practise, practise.
A human being is only
interesting if he's in contact with himself. I learned you have to trust
yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do
it. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it. - Barbra Streisand
This is important. Sometimes
meditators have a powerful experience with perhaps overwhelming visions or
feelings. This is fantastic, but you must realise that this is just one way
our highest meditation presents itself to us.
For most of us,
the last time we had perfect faith was when we were very young children
having perfect faith in our parents. The faith that they would always be
there, they would always make us feel safe and that we were totally loved.
This is done by
no other process than revelation. The revelation of our heart.
So for us,
trying to live this reality, there is one simple truth, the only way to
reveal the heart is to be there. We cannot reveal the heart by being in the
mind or in the body, our awareness must be constantly in the heart. This is
what is meant by consciousness, how conscious, how aware we
are of our own heart. A high consciousness is where we are very much in our
heart, whilst a low consciousness probably means we are in our mind or body.
Practise our meditation, and then
practise some more. Practise being in our heart when we walk down the
street, do the dishes, when we smile, when we laugh, when we study or work.
We need to simply increase the time we spend being in our heart. Reflect upon
this. It's important.
By now, your
meditation practise should be at least 30 minutes a day. Once a week, you
should spend at least double your daily meditation time in meditation.
You are probably
aware that it is possible to take huge leaps in your spiritual life. Great
revelations can instantly supersede months of very slow transformation.
These leaps take place most often when we spend at least 3-6 hours in
meditation or in extremely spiritual practise. Perhaps you have attended a
meditation intensive or have tried this yourself.
This does not mean
necessarily that you just meditate for this entire time, it would usually
mean that it would be broken up into numerous meditation exercises of 15-25
minutes each. Each might be different to help keep it inspiring and
interesting. Every month I go to the forest or beach to practise in this
manner.
I might do a slow walking meditation for 25 minutes, than sit and
silently meditate for another 20 minutes. Then I might have a piece of fruit
and relax for 10 minutes, read a spiritual book for 15-20 minutes and then
go back to a silent meditation for 25 minutes or so.
Rest again for a few
minutes. Put on my headphones and meditate to music or to a guided
meditation I like. In this manner, time passes very quickly, and you will be
amazed at how after each of these ‘intensive’ meditations you will
realise you have made a huge jump in your spiritual life.
But do you know
what is undoubtedly the most profound help to our meditation practise? It is
effortless but it's true - meditating with others
There is simply
no surer way of meditating well than in a group. There is a very powerful
force that meditating in a group generates. If you haven’t tried it, you’re
in for a treat.
Have you felt that feeling that you get when you enter a
really sacred building or temple? Well there is no other source than the
spiritual aspiration of the people that inhabit it. So like this when we
meditate in a group, we can sometimes feel that the meditation is extremely
powerful and focussed with very little effort on our part.
Ideally, we would
recommend that you meditate in a group (even as few as 3-4 people) at least
once a month, but hopefully more like every week or even twice a week.
Your highest meditation
Now firstly,
don't imagine that you have one style of meditation that will always deliver
your highest meditation. It simply will not.
Realise that
your highest meditation really is defined not so much by your experience, by
what you feel or even see for that matter, to experience your highest
meditation what you really need to do is immerse yourself in your heart, a
little deeper and a little more every time.
If you try and force your
meditation experience into a particular mould you will be missing the point.
Sometimes our highest meditation will offer an experience as that is what we
need at that time.
Some would say that ‘experiences’ or ‘visions’ are often
not necessary if we are ‘getting’ all of the messages of our heart.
Sometimes our highest meditation is blissful, sometimes enlightening,
sometimes a perfect stillness, sometimes a chaotic movement.
To get to our
highest meditation every time, requires enthusiasm and inspiration (class
19) practise and perfect, perfect faith.
This is the basis of perfect unconditional love which is a prerequisite for
our highest meditation. So how do we get that faith again?
A man who doesn't trust himself can never truly trust anyone else. - Cardinal de Retz, Memoires
Faith is about trust. Complete and perfect trust. We must have this perfect trust in our own heart. The trust that knows that ‘all the answers to all of my questions are inside my heart’. That if I have a question, any question, I will find the answer within me. That there is heaven within me, there is infinite love within me, that I can make myself do anything I choose to.
When I'm trusting and being myself... everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously. - Shakti Gawain
Do you get
this? It';s really, really important. Perfect trust leads to perfect faith,
which leads to perfect love, which leads to your highest meditation, which
is perfection or the divine.
Read this slowly.
Your highest meditation is defined by the
height of your love.
The more perfectly and unconditionally you love
every soul, every atom in the universe, the higher your love.
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1. Grounding In