Fresh Thinking, Inspiration, and Vision on the Process of Spiritual Transformation
I recently witnessed a miracle—one of many this week. Behind our house, there is a pile of bricks. Stacked neatly, like a cube, fourteen-bricks high. It comes above my waist. It has been there for twelve years or more. This week, I noticed that there is something growing out of it. The bricks are stacked where I once stored seeds to fill my bird feeders. Evidently, one of those seeds slipped down between the bricks, and sprouted! Now there is a sunflower that is a foot and a half high—growing and preparing to open to the sun, to source.
This is a good metaphor for the unstoppable movement of life that can show itself through a group of people that moves together and simply does the impossible. It is also a metaphor for what is rising in human consciousness, turning again to the sun, to source, and finding true being.
Are we not witnessing a rising in human consciousness? It was quite obvious in The Opening, a one-week residential program that we are just now completing at Glen Ivy. When we look around in our world, aren’t we witnessing a rising, an increase in vibration of human consciousness? We witness it, we participate in it and, as we play our part, we’re a living invitation to others.
This relates to purpose. During The Opening, we looked at identity: Who are we really, beyond or within the capacities we inhabit while on this Earth? Once we get a glimpse of who we are, it’s important to discover “Why are we here?” A basic question for humankind, individually and collectively. “Why am I here?” “What’s this all about?” One of the things I love about The Opening is that we look at these questions squarely. We offer our own answer to our highest, and invite others to try that on. That’s exciting, because it relates to core questions that have to do with our personal life purpose.
Our personal purpose in life is quite individual. And once we start to get that for ourselves, we realize there is something collectively going on, as well. We often find that our personal experience is buoyed and supported by others who are walking a similar path. We suddenly find that, in one way or another, we are one.
What is rising now in human consciousness is building towards a critical mass that will create a tipping point. We are getting close; and at this tipping point there will be no going back. There will be no more forgetting, no more slipping into a self-centered life. The flow will continue to completion, but its completion will be assured. We are in the end days. Not in a destructive “hellfire and brimstone” way that may be imagined. The end days are the end of having a small, limited, painful life experience. The end of that is at hand.
How do we do that? How do we have that experience individually, and then collectively? We find it when we have the conscious experience of being in a holy place continuously. We know the deepest truth of ourselves as the Truth of Love, beyond theory, in that holy place. Theory is wonderful, but the experience is what is needed. We find that experience in the holy place.
This is not a geographical place. It’s already present with each one at the very core of being. It has been masked and littered with the flotsam and jetsam of a self-centered life. That’s okay. The core essence of your nature is the Being that resides, ever present, in the holy place.
It behooves us to find the holy place. This is a journey that leads us nowhere geographically—nowhere outside of ourselves—but to the very core of our being. When the gate to the holy place swings open we experience, perhaps for the first time, the thrill of knowing that the truth is undeniable. There is no debate. One is not left with a question. It is quite clear.
We find the holy place by opening. It is already present, perhaps a bit underused. The gates may creak when they open. Grime, grit and rust in those hinges will wear off with use. Open those gates and you know the holy place and the truth of your true being. This is a requirement to fulfill your purpose.
How do you open the gates? They say that praise and thanksgiving open the gates to the holy place. I find that to be absolutely true. I have a specific gratitude practice in my life to let the presence of the spirit of gratitude build in me, so that I can evoke that spirit in any moment. As I do, I am in the holy place. Doesn’t it make sense that, when we are filled with gratitude, we find ourselves in the holy place within ourselves? I can’t hold gratitude and resentment at the same time. Resentment and other lesser spirits, feelings and attitudes cannot exist in the atmosphere of the holy place. They cannot exist when I am filled with gratitude. They suffocate. They disappear.
The other side of that coin is that the holy place cannot exist in the atmosphere that is tainted with what is biblically referred to as “unclean spirits,” the toxicity that arises in the human condition, in our human stories as we live a smaller life. There is nothing stopping that sunflower from growing in a stack of bricks. We can’t let the detritus of a misspent portion of our lives stop us. We can dwell in the holy place and let what is irrelevant to that experience be cleansed away.
It takes focus and discipline, with praise and thanksgiving, to keep the gates open so the holy place can be present significantly in our lives, more and more consistently. The heart opens to receive what comes. But it does take some focus and discipline. The wanting it is important—our longing that gets us moving in the direction of experiencing the holy place. But just wanting it isn’t enough. We have to do something. We have to pay attention. And if we slip out of the holy place, or if we let the holy place slip away from our experience, let’s forgive ourselves. That is what allows us to regain the experience as soon as possible. Any forgetting, any small transgression becomes meaningless as soon as we forgive it and move back to the holy place. But it’s possible for people to use their own perceived failure as a way to beat themselves up. That has nothing to do with experiencing the holy place. Nothing. If we have left the experience of the holy place, the whole point is to return to it.
Joni Mitchell said, “We have to get back to the Garden.” The Garden atmosphere that can emanate from us, surround us, overflow from us and fill the world is indication of the presence of this holy place. We’ve got to get back to that garden. Who amongst us can figure out exactly how to do that? “Okay, I’m going to get into the holy place by dealing with this limitation that has always bugged me. I’ll deal with this and deal with that, and I’ll figure it all out.” No one is ever going to figure it out like that.
One occupies the holy place and has the experience, a Divine experience. What’s the divine creative command? It always starts with “Let,” doesn’t it? It doesn’t start with “Make,” and “Do,” and “Get busy,” and “Slave away” and “Struggle.” No, it’s “Let.” In this case, “Let what would flood my experience in the holy place come.” You don’t have to decide. It will come.
Let what comes, come. Let it find you in the holy place. And let what doesn’t belong in the holy place be repelled by the presence of what is coming. You don’t have to figure that out. Just ensure that you are in the holy place—heart opened in gratitude, praise and thanksgiving.
This could be called enlightened self-interest. You have a better experience and leave all your troubles behind, find peace, happiness, love, and all wonderful things. And, this function is the key to personal purpose and collective purpose. There is a purpose for mankind being here, and if individuals aren’t finding their own, there’s little chance that we’ll find how to do this together as one. We talk about oneness, unity, blending together and functioning as one. There is truth in that, but I don’t believe we’ll ever figure out how to do that. We cannot think ourselves back into the Garden. We will never make agreements at the level of form that will bring us true oneness.
But lo and behold, when we are in the holy place we find any and all others who are there. It is one holy place. Then there is no argument, no friction—only harmony.
The Master’s attitude towards what was done in his experience was “Father, forgive them; they don’t know.” They don’t know. Whatever it is, the circumstance, the thing, the feeling, the thought—it just doesn’t know. It comes to you to know. We must not push it away, divert it, handle it later. Now is the time to bring to our life the light of what we know as we are in the holy place.
This takes practice, focus and discipline, but it’s important to realize the glorious possibility of fulfilling our purpose and destiny or we aren’t likely to take those steps. And it does take steps to find our own experience of the holy place; to get used to it, to maintain it, to clean it up and to settle in.
It’s not only possible for you; it is what you are here to do. It’s why you showed up. Is this because there is a world waiting? No, the world’s not waiting. Is it? It’s rushing. It’s coming in whatever form. All form is simply a range of vibration, and we are spiritual beings who deal and live at the realm of vibration from a holy place. It’s all coming home.
The father of the prodigal son didn’t send him away because he smelled like the pigs and had committed sins. He flung open the doors, called for the best robe and said, “Welcome home.” We do that to whatever comes. We do not have to embrace the stench of pig. But the prodigal son, wrapped in tatters, deserves the chance to come home and let the tatters be sorted out. Those get put away. But if you’re repelled by the tatters or by the stench of pig, where’s your prodigal son going to go?
How do you know it’s your prodigal son? It comes to you. That’s how you know. It comes to you. It’s rushing to meet you and to be received in this generous, forgiving spirit of love and welcomed into the Garden. This is the means by which a world is restored to beauty and order, flowing smoothly back into a divine design, rather than the chaos of human design. How about it? You have a part to play, if you will play it. I thank you for all you have done and all you will do, playing your part in the critical mass—a collective body of people doing this together consciously. We may never meet, but if we are each receiving what comes into the holy place, the critical mass is forming. Then the larger work is done. What a thrill to realize that the work is easy. We fulfill our personal purpose and destiny in our work together. Every human heart has been longing for this. And, collectively, human consciousness fulfills its purpose and destiny. Only then can the planet find its place in a larger Garden, to fulfill its purpose and destiny.
Together we send this impulse out into the world and let it have whatever effect it will on human consciousness. I appreciate doing this together.