The foundation of our spiritual practice is the uncovering of our perfection and beauty. Life is not about becoming a more loving person, but coming to know and express the love you already are. It is not a matter of becoming a more compassionate person, but living a life reflective of the fact you are compassion. Happiness doesn't just reside within you; it is you.
How is this possible? The deeper truth is when we are reduced to our essence we are simply a point of awareness. When we are conscious of having a human body and we are using the senses of the human body it is our self as a point of awareness that is seeing with human eyes, hearing with human ears, etc.
When we return to our essence of being a point of awareness we perceive directly all that is. This direct perception finds a universe not composed of objects. It is not the universe of space and time, but the universe of personal, intimate, blissful, compassionate awareness. It is the love we searched for in this world of people, places, and things, using a human body. With the direct realization of this personal, intimate, blissful, compassionate awareness you realize what motivates us on our deepest level as human beings -- the recovery of this love.
The qualities of a fulfilling life is now very clear -- to express and receive in our life this personal, intimate, blissful, compassionate awareness. Life can be a beautiful journey filled with the possibility of doing just this. Once we have recovered being this awareness as your core identity we can avoid the distracting detours and pitfalls that come with identifying solely with our body and mind. When our mind is not in touch with our essence as awareness it reacts by creating a personality with excessive demands for happiness, love and power. It is unsure of itself, often feeling a stranger to itself and others. With a tendency to live in either the past or the future, it often feels like it is missing its own life by missing the present moment.
Adding the realization of being awareness brings balance and clarity to our thinking, allowing us to develop a personality that serves our deeper purpose, not solely its own. It works to keep the body functioning without losing our focus that we are living as a point of awareness using a human body to express and receive the personal, intimate, blissful, compassionate awareness of Being itself.
Please excuse the repetition of the phrase "personal, intimate, blissful, compassionate awareness." Each of these words expresses an important aspect of the essential nature of Being itself. By "personal" I mean the experience of "I am." This is what we will be working on realizing in the "I am" exercises. There is nothing impersonal about realization. The talk of "no-self" often associated with realization can be misleading. There certainly isn't the self we know as our personality, but when the personal warmth of realization is finally known, by comparison our everyday experience of life we now live will seem cold and isolating. By "intimacy" I want to reinforce this notion. It is so very intimate that our closest love experience in this life is only a pale reflection of the intimacy known in the direct experience of Being itself.
As human beings, achieving a state of happiness is a great motivator in our lives to say the least. This is because one of the essential aspects of Being is its blissful nature. As a human being you already know this bliss on a deep, unconscious level and are seeking its recovery in your life. Of course we often seek it on the outside, forgetting we have access to it within as a point of awareness. Our time on earth is best spent expressing it.
By including the word "compassionate" I want to express the non-judgmental, unconditional, loving care of Being for all manifestations of life -- including each and every one of us. No matter how bizarre or aberrant our behaviors we ourselves are never rejected or condemned. Behaviors less than the true expression of the nature of Being are in themselves their own loss and suffering. And this suffering too will elicit a compassionate response from Being.
We want to prepare ourselves to receive this greater realization of being a point of awareness in a universe of personal, intimate, blissful compassion. For our spiritual practice we'll use reflection, meditation, inquiry, silence, service and intention. Reflection, meditation, and inquiry give us the focus we need to uncover our inner perfection. Silence allows us to experience the reality of our self without the activity of personality. Service gives us an avenue of expression for the compassion and bliss we are. Intention gathers our energies and those beyond us to fulfill the mystery and purpose of our life -- expressing and receiving the personal, intimate, blissful, compassionate awareness of Being.
"In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it." - Michelangelo