Lesson 104: I seek what belongs to me in truth.
One of the spiritual exercises I have had recommended to me over the course of my spiritual seeking was this: Clean your house. This was long before Marie Kondo and her recommendation to keep only what brings you joy. This exercise was about sorting through your stuff, yes, but not with the goal of appeasing your emotions as much as clearing physical space as a sign that you were ready to let go of spiritual junk as well.
Today’s lesson is another way to get at the same idea: When we clear not just our rooms of whatever is cluttering it up and muddling up our mind and our lives, but our mind and heart of unnecessary illusions, we will make space for the Truth of our lives to emerge.
“Today,” this lesson says, “we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where God’s gifts belong.”
Those “meaningless and self-made gifts” are our grievances, our ideas about how the world “should” be and how we allow what we think is “reality” to intrude upon the peace and joy that is ours through the Holy. Again, the ego wants us to feel guilty pursuing peace and joy in a world where both seem in such short supply. Tell your ego to shut the hell up, because it doesn’t know what it’s talking about.
The peace and joy being offered to us by the Holy has no point of reference in the ego, which tells us time and again that being happy in the face of suffering is arrogant and heartless. The opposite is true. Finding our calm, peaceful center is our duty. It’s our gift to the world, because the gift was first given to us by our Creator. We can only save the world by being peaceful, joyful and happy – because that means we are living from that calm, Divine center that guides us to the right actions, the right words, the right thoughts and the right way to live in this world so that God’s light of Love is constantly revealed to those around us.
That’s lovely, you may think, but how do we do that? We get quiet. We go within, and we remind ourselves that God’s Will is already done. Remember, God’s Will is Love, and since Love is the only thing that’s real, all its goals have been accomplished. We simply need to get quiet, get centered and awaken that inheritance of peace that already abides within us.
And if you think that advice is for the birds, Hafiz says, you’re right. He writes:
“In a vision I heard this clearly whispered:
“Study those who sing the most, but are free
of criticism and praise.
“Following that advice, things turned out
just as I suspected:
“I started spending more time with the birds.”
Photo by Francesco De Tommaso on Unsplash