SOMETHING HAS CHANGED

Those living the Mystery, carry a spiritual presence with them that has been able to grow because they also honor the Mystery. They have been discreet.

They have not tried to use their spiritual experience for personal gain, and instead have let it grow stronger and more intense within themselves.

You will not find this in idle dabblers or in people who are like tourists in a spiritual universe. However, you will find this in those who have had to face their own thresholds, who have had to cross their own rivers, and who have had to experience and face their own doubts and fears and the wasteful consequences of their mistakes.

These are people who are following something inexplicable that they do not attempt to define or use. Their silence is profound and inviting. They are with the Mystery. And the Mystery is with them. Through them a greater comfort and a greater power can emerge and abide. Someone who is with the Mystery can share the Mystery without words, without conversation, without debate and without self-glorification.

To attune to a spiritual presence you must first recognize a certain fundamental need within yourself. You must feel this need and separate it from other needs that may be more personal or immediate in nature. This basic need represents the yearning to discover your real purpose in life.

Along with the recognition of this need must be the realization that your many attempts to fulfill this need through love, through affluence, through excitement or through stimulation have not satisfied the greater yearning of your heart.

Something greater must be given to you to satisfy this — something that you cannot invent for yourself, something that you cannot piece together from all the various teachings and religious practices that you may encounter in life. Here you realize the limits of even your own independence, for in truth you need life tremendously. You need others tremendously. Realizing this, instead of becoming dependent, you will learn to become interdependent.

As you proceed down your chosen path to spiritual enlightenment you will value things that others do not value, see things that others do not see and know or will not know. What seems obvious to you will not be obvious to them. You will see both their gifts and their disabilities. They may see neither. You will have higher standards for yourself, but these standards will not be shared by other people. You will value a deeper experience of honesty, but you will not be able to communicate this freely with others.

Again and again you will find out the limits that other people set before you and around you. And again and again you will feel other people’s influence. You will feel yourself being pulled into idle conversation. You will feel yourself being pulled back into a state of mind that you have worked hard to emerge out of. You will feel the weight of their concerns and preoccupations, but you will not want to be encumbered by them.

Something has changed at the very core of you in a way that you cannot describe. You feel different. Your values are changing. Your priorities are changing. Your emphasis in life is changing. This steers you away from people who are not experiencing this and towards those who are. It brings you specifically towards certain individuals who share your journey. Some of them will only go a short way with you; others will travel with you for a lifetime.

You’ll find yourself avoiding many people and situations, and in fact, after a time you will look at the general activities of most people with disinterest. Perhaps you will feel lonely and estranged. Congratulations! You are beginning to find your freedom. You are starting to value something that is valuable. If this sets you apart, great. You need this freedom. You need this liberation. You need to be free of the bondage that other people place upon themselves and inadvertently place upon you.

To be continued…….

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