Being "spiritual" doesn't "save" you

Being “spiritual” doesn’t “save” you

What has drawn you to spirituality?  For many people it is fun, something to do over lunch and wine. It has become a substitute “church” community for those dissatisfied with Christian (or other organized religions) churches but still longing for a “community” or sometimes just contact with “like-minded” folks.  Like the yoga industry, the new age industry also offers so many cool things to buy and wear and great retreats to attend.  These are certainly much better pursuits than drinking in a bar and not everyone finds community in sports.  This article is not for you.

Others are pursuing what they consider a spiritual path because they think it will make them a better person, or give them a career, or because they dislike themselves and think (or hope) that by being (acting like) a  “good” girl or boy they will be forgiven, that they will be rewarded (hopefully in this life), or perhaps because of low self-esteem they hope they will win the attention, good graces, or “love” of some spiritual teacher which will hopefully  make them feel better about themselves. If you resonate with this, you are in for some wonderful complex lessons.

First off, everyone is spiritual. Why, because they are alive, living a life as a human. All souls designed their lives while they were their higher self, working with their Spiritual Guides before they ever incarnated. However, not every soul incarnates to become awakened. Each life teaches us and is part of our soul evolution journey. Every spiritual path says that the life of the soul, not the human, is eternal and that each life here is part of that eternal soul evolution. So being “spiritual” means to live the life you designed, for your education and growth as a soul, to the very best of your ability and to be the very best version of “you”, the person you chose to be in this life. Sounds so simple, right? And of course it isn’t, at least for most.

Living an awakened life as a conscious spiritual being means that you are aware of your choice to come into this life, the way you are and to accept that you incarnated with all of your blessings and gifts as well as all of your “faults” and life challenges as The Path, The Way (the Tao) to your continued soul evolution. As Pema Chodron states “Start where you are”, own this life and own you. Where to start?  To me, one place to definitely start is your childhood not only to look at abuse or neglect, but also to re-discover what your “natural” loves, tendencies, and preferences were.  Your childhood was what you designed, you chose, to set up your evolution in this life. You are challenged to take on, overcome, heal and move forward from your childhood issues, abuse, or if you were born into a war zone or extreme poverty or even slavery (race or sex trade). So why ignore all the valuable information available to you from your childhood?  You also had natural loves as a child and that shows you in part who you are in this life. Did you collect dolls and make them do what you wanted or dressed them up to look beautiful?  Were you obsessed with animals and often thought you were one?  Did you sneak around and hide or were you the life of the party? Did you talk to spirits? If so, did you do so to escape or did it occur when life was good, peaceful, and joyful? All of these revelations help you to accept this life, to accept who you are in this life.

So why have a Spiritual Practice? For some, they simply cannot imagine life without it because they are more aware of the other dimensions of soul existence. For some the appeal is that life on Earth is simply not that appealing or it is not fulfilling. For others it relieves their anxiety and gives them hope there is something better “out there”. Having a Spiritual Practice is essential if you are someone who has chosen to live a conscious awakened life. People who have chosen to have an awakened life (before they incarnated) want to be self-aware and they want to experience life fully. They want to see, feel, experience all the joys and challenges life has to offer and are willing to accept the life they designed for themselves (with Guidance) and seek the work as living this life to the best of their ability. So how do you do this?

Again, start where you are.  Look at your life, see you, your life, and experience your life. Experience you in your life, with curiosity and kindness. Then yes, sink in. Go home, inside of you where your soul, your Higher Self and your liaison with Source resides. Feel around for the “knowing” and then do what the “nudging” pushes you towards. Repeat. Forever.  That is the Practice, a series of steps. One foot in front of the other, chop wood, carry water. But what about my “destiny” and my purpose”? Well you arranged for all of that to come and get you in this life. Your job is to be prepared to meet all the circumstances that come to you to get you to your destiny, both the challenges and the successes.  Then why meditate?  To be able to go home more easily, to build up the “home base” energy field, to strengthen your ability to “feel the nudge”, and to get direct help via energy teachings and healings (this will not be words or “signs”) from Source because every time you meditate (in the manner taught at Life Path Healings) you are asking to be a Student and every time you ask, you shall receive. Source will help you, guide you, strengthen you, comfort you and inspire you. So you are living your life “connected”, as much as possible, and taking on the Journey you constructed before you came here.

How do you know if you are doing the “right “thing?   You don’t. When you take a class in college you don’t know the subject matter that is why you are taking a class in that subject. The way you earn an “A” is to learn to the best of your ability.  You are “taking” this life course also to learn, perhaps to learn about poverty, or selfishness, or wealth, or being “amazing” or average.  When you are taking a class you need to study, try things, look at yourself, take risks, seek support, use self-care, fail and fail again, succeed. Life is your degree and it is a series of classes. Just like college, you risk burning out, dropping out, are tempted to cheat, take short cuts. Or you can joyfully decide to learn, to rise to each challenge, take note of your progress and successes, dust yourself off after each failure and continue to learn and take risks.  Just like college you make friends, you lose friends, and with each class you learn more about yourself, what you like and don’t like, what is fun and not fun for you at this time. You will master self-care because you have to. You become more self-aware, more skilled, more mature, and you leave behind you a trail of “mistakes” that are always a necessary part of learning so you become more tolerant and compassionate towards yourself and others.

This is the process of life for everyone but awakened people do all of this knowingly, and with an extra level of “knowing”  which does not make you superior in any way. Perhaps is makes you more responsible. The extra level of knowing is that there is something more than this life and that has more reality and more meaning to you than the flags of success here on earth (money, beauty, power, popularity, fame etc.). Having this “knowing” will not make you “better” or smarter. It does give you a completely different lifestyle, different priorities, different criteria for success and contentment. That doesn’t make you an “advanced” soul. You won’t know if you are an advanced soul or Special Ed until you cross over and the desire to know if you are “advanced” is an ego agenda. An awakened life means a connected life and that means to be in a deep complex and real relationship with your Self, this you are living, and with Source. It does not mean you get to “feel connected” all the time so you don’t have to face unpleasant or scary feelings or situations.It does not mean that you have to have a cool new age career or even a career at all. It means you have faith, faith that you are doing your work and that Source is there with you whenever you ask for that connection and that you trust what you are learning, what you are being shown, what happens to you and with you when you ask to operate from a Higher Source.

So if this turns you on, you want to live an awakened life. If not, you will still “awaken” in your evolution as a soul. An excellent book based on Eastern tradition (which is The Tao, which is Life Path Healings) is The Kin of Ata by Dorothy Bryant. It is Sufi philosophy presented in the form of a fictional novel. The beginning is rough as it has to thoroughly build the human character for the reader so you comprehend the process of transformation that occurs to him.

If you cannot bear the thought of living without a connection to something bigger than you, consider joining us at Life Path Healings for classes and workshops, or private sessions.

Journey On
Dr. Marie
MarieFeuer.Org