If it is in our heart, at all...

...Not just the wish to be free, but to no longer bring conflict or bitterness into the lives of those around us, then here is our great task.

We must learn to use the presence of psychological pain as an invitation to not just question the things we believe are valuable, but to launch an investigation into how we ever came to that conclusion.

This level of conscious work, and the invaluable exchange it heralds, begins as we realize the significance of the following truth; where the more we welcome its light -- especially in unwanted moments -- the better we’ll be able to see, and change the kind of choices we make, forever altering and brightening our destiny all at the same time:

Whatever we have become identified with over the course of our life -- and, as a consequence, find ourselves suffering over for fear of its loss -- is not now, nor did it ever possess the freedom it promised to deliver.

If all of creation didn't share something in common, something invisible... yet in some ways more real than the objects that reveal and manifest that relationship...

...Then how could the death of a tree bring life to the forest, or the storm-tossed waves that lash the sea cliffs serve to create and sustain the infinite creatures that cling to those rocks?

And were it not for this invisible similarity, the sharing of an underpinning Life that both transcends, transforms, and integrates all of creation...

...There could be no such life-giving exchange, and no life to be exchanged.

So, as dis-similar as things may seem -- the shark from the star, a hardened rock from out of which grows a delicate fern... they are far more similar than they seem.

So it holds true with those in pain we tend to judge because of the pain they stir in us, and that then judges them...

...And all the greater our collective loss for not realizing and then practicing the truth inherent in its Divine revelation.

When the soul cries out to Spirit to carry her to a New World beyond the boundaries of this earthly domain, she is calling for the Winds of Heaven to sweep down, fill her tattered, empty sails, and take her safely away.

The wait for these Winds is never too long for any soul who is patient in purpose.

And when, as it must come to pass upon any such a journey Home, uncharted waters begin breaking over the sloping bow of her deck -- and no calm anchorage is anywhere in sight -- the soul now being swept across the deep of unknown seas must keep in her heart the remembrance of two things:

She cannot know her Destination and...
She must agree to serve the Winds that are sent to transport her there.

There are many things in life we don’t know until... One fateful day someone, or something, comes along and shows us the Truth of our matter. And then, in less than a heartbeat, impelled by some unimaginable movement of reality, it’s as though we’ve always known that Truth... and have for all Time.

Such moments as these are the true spiritual awakenings and, as such, all inner awakening involves a touch of the Eternal. So that self awakening is not some supernatural realization of all knowledge, but the birth of a New Knowing; a direct perception that within us dwells the Eternal Truths, and that these Timeless Actualities must have Their Timeless places hidden in our heart, otherwise where else could they be waiting? And how else would we ever find them there?

Self-awakening is about the discovery of this Sacred Trust within; and that each of us is, somehow, and holds somewhere in ourselves, the Everlasting. To awaken is to touch the Eternal and, in that touch, to know that the Eternal holds us forevermore.

In this life, in due time, in one form or another,
and more-or-less as you’ve conceived it, you will receive
what you ask for. Of this there’s no question.

Therefore learn to guard what you request
because nothing conceived, nor otherwise created,
can satisfy the soul save the Creator Who cast your soul from Himself.

Denying the day to day evidence of your existence
doesn’t change its fact: emptiness speaks louder than insistence.
So based upon your discoveries, re-establish your priorities.

Dare to put aside all relationships
other than those which serve to reveal
what is essential to your Real Desire.

Then, and only then, will what you want from this world
be the same as wanting that Essential Relationship
for which you have been created and to which you are called:

When all you know, and see, and hope to ask for Is God;
when He is all you want
you will never know the need to ask for anything ever again.

I don’t want to walk in my own footsteps anymore.

A fog I could never see before has lifted, and now I see where these footsteps lead: nowhere.

I know now -- as disturbing as is all such insight -- that along this line through my life... the future is the past, and I’ve already been to both of these places.

Even so, I can sense, distinctly -- as if all around me -- that I am caught in the rush of time to come; it almost feels like a riptide: inexorable, pulling and pushing on me at the same time, so much so that it takes all of my effort, all of my attention, just to hold my ground.

And yet, for a moment or two... I am.

I am... no longer half a man whose half a life is laid out for him along pre-calculated lines of time.

I am here, no longer being carried off... to there.

Perhaps I will linger here for a while, holding my ground, and -- as best I can -- watch time run on without me.

The best possible use of each day’s innumerable experiences -- the secret Good that lies hidden in some moment’s delight, or that we find ourselves driven to do -- is to realize, whenever possible, this one indisputable fact: one way or another, we have been “there” before.

We experience the same thoughts.

We run through -- or have been run over by -- too-familiar feelings in a loop without end, only to do it all over again.

And... it isn’t until we actually remember this fact -- feel the truth of it in the depths of our soul -- that we realize we had somehow... forgotten it.

Then comes a deep humility, a wave of silence sweeping away all that was, or will be.

We are suddenly senseless... because another set of senses rises like the dead from out of the shadows of passing time -- to stand as an Instrumental Witness to an unknowable eternity, yet... that knows itself.

Only there does experience provide, and prove what is truly fruitful to the one within whom it unfolds; for only then does he awaken to see he has always, and forever been there unseeing. But now... his eyes have been opened.

1. Learn to see your attention as a form of "currency," for it's not just where you spend your time, but upon what you spend it that determines what you receive -- or don’t -- from this life.
2. The wandering, inattentive mind, directed only by unseen desires that drive it in ever-descending circles, is not just lost in the maze of its own false conception of life; it is destined to wander, aimlessly, through this life until it loses, altogether, the possibility of entering into Real Life.
3. As surely as an abandoned house is slowly taken over by invasive forms that have nothing to do with its original purpose for being built, so too must the unattended mind become the host of lower forces whose unconscious nature prevents the entrance of any higher presence.
4. As long as even the smallest breeze that passes over this world can take, and then turn our attention to what we don't like about it... so that we feel conflicted by its direction... we are a prisoner of this world, and playing an unconscious role its ceaseless conflict.
5. Attending to, completing what the present moment asks of you... is the business of real Life. In the silence of this relationship is revealed and received, all at once, the wisdom and wealth of your immortal Self. A few of these timeless riches include: a faith no fear can shake, an innocence no temptation can break, and a freedom that no unwanted moment in life can ever take from you.
6. The spiritual body that alone can stand the buffeting of unconscious opposing forces -- that ultimately learns to use them for its own development -- is further developed each time we struggle, as needed, to remember that nothing in this world (or the next) has the right to turn our own attention against us.
7. So much depends upon taking the time to attend to that Still Small Voice within... whose gentle urging is that we should learn to listen to its secrets... instead of telling it what we want, or must do in order to be at peace.
8. Be wise. Stay attentive to all that you do, for there comes no second error that doesn’t follow on the heels of a first.
9. What attracts the attention of the Divine isn't what you want from life, but rather what you are willing to give up in order to share Its company.
10. Love is effortless attention.

We begin to work for ourselves when we are awakened to, and then start to struggle -- consciously -- with our negative reactions, including all their finite forms created by identifying with the useless suffering they engender.

We begin to work with others, our “neighbors,” as we realize the following truth: they are not responsible for our negative reactions; rather, each troubling relationship is created to reflect and reveal the presence of a lower level of consciousness that would rather see others suffer... than have to suffer itself.

We begin to serve the world as we realize that who we are -- our true Self -- is our “neighbor,” and that living only in the service of our self-centered interests... serves no one, let alone ourselves. Only then do we discover that serving a greater Good is the same as serving what’s Good for one and for all.

Mind is not intellect itself, nor is (our) heart the seat of emotion alone. Real mind is the marriage of a higher order of intellect, heart, and body, wherein feeling is wisdom -- and wisdom is, in turn, the (awareness of) feeling all of what one is moment to moment.

These seemingly different parts (of us) were never intended to be separate... as they now are for the majority of humanity.

The purpose of contemplation, of meditation, is to reunite this essential, crucial relationship... of mind, heart, and body, calling this holy bond what you will: enlightenment, liberation, or simply being a whole person.

Throughout time, the great sages and saints of the ages have taught that letting go is an inside job, a work of rigorous self-awakening that begins with self-honesty. The following quotations hint at the possibility of an unspeakable discovery that awaits all those who persist with their wish to be free.

“The first step to self-knowledge is self-distrust. Nor can we attain to any kind of knowledge, except by a like process.” -- Diogenes (circa 412 -- 323 B.C.E.)

“An empty mirror and your worst destructive habits, when they are held up to each other, that’s when the real making begins. That’s what art and crafting are. A tailor needs a torn garment to practice his expertise. The trunks of trees must be cut and cut again so they can be used for fine carpentry.” -- Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207 -- 1273)

“We owe a great debt to those who point out our faults for they humiliate us... They prepare for us the exercise of correction and freedom from fault.” -- Blaise Pascal (1623 -- 1662)

“Never let us be discouraged with ourselves. It is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked, on the contrary, we are less so. We see by a brighter light, and let us remember for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins till we begin to cure them.“ -- Francois Fenelon (1651 -- 1715)

“Consciousness of error is, to a certain extent, a consciousness of understanding, and correction of error is the plainest proof of energy and mastery.“ -- Walter Savage Landor (1775 – 1864)

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” -- Carl Jung (1875 -- 1961)

“Some of the greatest discoveries we will make in our life begin with understanding the beauty, the necessity, and ultimately, the freedom of letting go.” -- Guy Finley (1949 -- )

To read more inspiring quotations from great minds similar to those above please visit www.onejourney.net and enjoy Life Of Learning’s uplifting, award-winning short video on the homepage. You can spend countless hours reading and researching the most important ideas of spiritual masters through the ages and up to the present time.