My biggest spiritual realization.

We all can be a little hard on ourselves. How often do we think that we should have figured this or that out by now, or that surely we should have been more successful here or there, had we just made better choices.
Don’t we all wonder at times whether we should be doing more, or whether we should back off, and this evaluation process we become just a little frustrated with ourselves and the level of progress?Ok, maybe not all of us deal with these internal judgements, but I am pretty sure that a large number of us do.
After being dedicated to spiritual pursuits for so many years, and still not “having it figured out“, the spiritual ego can start chipping away at our self-confidence for not having maintained a certain level of happiness, for making bad choices, causing  emotional dips or for misaligning our thoughts, resulting in feeling depressed at times.
This actually has nothing to do with the spiritual ego, because a person dedicating so many years to business pursuits and still doesn’t have that successful business to show has the very same internal voice, so does the artist who keeps on creating and still is unseen and misunderstood.
Now you may say that we all know that happiness lies inside and that spirituality has to do with finding happiness inside while continuing with what you are doing. The business enthusiast simply has to focus his attention on feeling good inside and trusting that the universe will provide. This is spirituality, this is the true practice and then his business will flourish, not that it would matter, because he would have found happiness.
You may say that the artist’s focus should be on the fulfillment he gets from the actual creating, not from the recognition he gets. This would be his practice and the enjoyment of his work will reach the public through the vibration he project, and the by-product of his enjoyment would be recognition and resonance.
What is the obvious answer in the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment?
Be happy and you won’t go through emotional dips anymore? I have heard this taught. I have seen rooms full of elated spiritual seekers forcing bliss upon themselves making inner promises to be in bliss from now on always. When your elated, you project good energy to the world and the world will meet you back with good energy. Which is true.
However, often what happens is, we’re not able to maintain an elated state of mind. We feel like we’ve failed. Our confidence gets crushed a little, we maintain a happy face for the sake of it and the gap between what we feel and what we show increases.
Spirituality is NOT about being happy all the time. In fact being happy is the by-product of living according to spiritual values, it is not the goal or the practice. Being fulfilled is what happens naturally when we live in accordance to the higher truth that we are not our experience, we are not our thoughts, we are not our mind.
Anything can happen to anyone. Your circumstance may be shit or it may be great. Yet you are not your circumstance, you are not your experience. You are not your mind, even if you have a mind that likes to create wonderful things. You are an infinite being, not as some new agey concept, but in actuality.
Thus approach every part of your experience with NO judgment, and with a deeper knowing that you are perfectly where you’re supposed to on all levels, to be met at a place where you can most effectively overcome your sense of separation and create a greater sense of love and connection.
Whatever difficulty you experience, there is no judgment. You have not failed at being a spiritually enlightened being. It is impossible to fail at, because each experience is only there to facilitate your understanding that you are not your experience. Your experiences will persist until you come to true understanding of the nature of it.
With this knowing there is a deeper sense of happiness that doesn’t necessary look like a happy face all the time, but that feels so calm and peaceful to be around with.
Be really accepting. Be really patient. Be really compassionate towards your every experience as it passes and take that break to feel true peace and love and harmony before again following your mind to the next experience it wishes to create.
xo

Compassion

 
Compassion. I often hear it in context of feeling sorry for another.
The quality of compassion, is quite the opposite of feeling sorry for another. Compassion derives from experiential understanding of another’s situation or position. Compassion is developed from knowing a certain place first hand. That place may be a situation of jealousy, rage, pain, turmoil, blame, greed, fear, or any other limiting condition.
Compassion is different from feeling sorry for another, in the sense that compassion feels only love, positivity and trust in the evolutionary process that brings us all closer to love. A person experiencing compassion knows that after an experience of intense struggle, comes an experience of love.
The experience of compassion is one of hope and gratitude – gratitude for our suffering, knowing that it diminishes the walls between us. Compassion knows that we are one as species, as living beings. Compassion is in full support of another’s journey, understanding its purpose, and feeling grateful for the shared responsibility.
Compassion is much bigger than having sympathy, or empathy for another’s suffering. A compassionate person understands another’s suffering, because he/she has been there before, and has come through the experience with forgiveness and love.
Often we see things in the world that is so wrong, that makes us angry, that gets us upset. We seek justice and want others to be pushed. To have compassion for our enemy, and those who trigger us is far from easy. Just for a moment, put yourself in their shoes. Feel how they must have felt before committing such a crime, the crime you condemn. – Perhaps extreme anger, extreme lust, extreme insecurity, extreme shame, extreme fear. Are these feelings within themselves not enough of punishment, of hardship to go through?
If still you cannot come to a place of compassion for having felt such intense emotions in the past, and currently having a much more balanced life experience, then humbly accept these people as your teachers.
May all living beings come to a place of love and understanding. ~ Peace ~