In the Spirit Hardcover - 1999

From the publisher

Chapter OneLIVING FROM WITHINThere are glorious times in our lives when we experience the peace we are seeking -- when we surrender our burdens to God, put our faith in God's love and feel the freedom of that sweet communion. I know that you, too, have felt the comfort of the Presence -- the security we have when focused inward through prayer or meditation. The sense of inner peace we experience listening to a moving sermon or inspirational tape, or reading comforting words of wisdom in a spiritual book. During these times of bliss we often declare, "I've got it, I have the key!" We believe we've finally found our inner peace, that absolute answer we've been searching for. But if your experience is in any way like mine, after a few months, weeks or sometimes just hours you've lost it again, you're back in the fray, feeling overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of your life.Focusing inward through prayer, meditation or any spiritual communion makes us feel centered and calm. We feel an inner serenity. We are one with God. But why is 'it so difficult to maintain that awareness, to live with it? My life feels anchored and peaceful when I'm enjoying sunrise meditations, my fragrant candlelit baths and spiritual readings and tapes. But little by little the rituals that sustain me are pushed aside as more and more of my time and attention are demanded by the world.Although ''getting it" can happen in a flash, "keeping the awareness of God's presence within and the peace of mind this truth gives us is never easy. Unfortunately, as the world calls us, we abandon the important rituals that nourish us, that keep us healthy and sane. The regular visits to the gym go. We have no time to sparefor daily meditation, no time to mend the spirit. No time for fun, no time to play. We're overextended. We're committed to everyone -- everyone except ourselves. So we feel evil and tired. We're cranky and fretful -- we've given all our stuff away.Being the guardian of our inner life must become our highest priority. We must never allow people, institutions or social tradition to speak to us so loudly that we cannot hear ourselves. When you don't take quiet time, time to listen inwardly, you look outside yourself for salvation and definition. By ignoring your own spiritual bidding, you dishonor yourself and risk becoming a pain-filled impostor as you give way to the pressures in your environment. You may betray yourself and settle for a relationship without intimacy or mutual support -- the very things you need most -- because you fear being alone and desperately want to be part of a couple. Or you may find yourself anchored to a bustling city when your spirit requires the respite of birds and trees. or working for a company half your life, unappreciated and undercompensated, when all along your spirit has been whispering, "Start a business of your own.When we don't nourish Spirit in us, we become estranged from ourselves and may try to satisfy our natural hunger for communion in harmful ways. There are invitations all around us to use food and drink and other life-threatening addictions to pleasure ourselves. We can't benefit from our inner wisdom if we don't take time to listen inwardly. The wise voice at the center of our being, where Spirit lives, is never silent. Thank God.Life is first an inner experience. All the peace and security we are seeking is within us. Love, wisdom,strength and beauty are the primary attributes of Spirit, the unchanging and fundamental core of our being. Love, wisdom, strength and beauty are the very substance of who we are. just as water cannot be separated from a wave, we cannot be separated from our essence, our divinity. We are never without God. But without regular spiritual communion, we forget about our divine nature, we lose the awareness of our spiritual power and ours becomes a halting, feeble existence because we are living without the benefit of our greatest strength.If we sincerely want harmony, peace and joy in our lives, we can have them, but we must be willing to do the work. We must make maintaining an awareness of our spiritual nature first in our lives. Our inner world is the architect of our external world. We don't lose faith in the goodness of life because we are angry and depressed. Rather, we become angry and depressed because we lose faith in the goodness of life, We aren't happy because we are healthy, we're healthy because we are happy. With our minds we are creating our days; by our choices we are building either the harmony or the pain we experience.The life you are living reflects the life you have already established inside. As we acquire and assimilate spiritual knowledge, we liberate ourselves. The imaginary boundary between our inner and outer lives that is drawn as we leave childhood and begin looking outside ourselves for definition is dissolved. Immediate and profound changes occur in every area of our lives as we make learning and applying spiritual insights first in importance. We begin to see that the inner and the outer are the same. We realize that continuous communion with God is the onlyway to remain conscious of our spiritual nature in the face of our constant daily pressures.When we are conscious of our divinity, we catch the light, we see the truth. We have the wisdom, courage and stamina to endure, to overcome and succeed. As we develop our latent spiritual power, we become the masters of our own lives, and we are able to create lifelines for our people, for our sisters and brothers who are drowning. When we are living from within, we recognize the potential for spiritual growth in each moment.