Spiritual Tides
There are alternating tides in Life, different currents come into play. Day and night; the waxing and waning Moon; seeding and growth, give way to harvest and assimilation. Exertion is followed by rest. Inner vision brings about physical action. Everything in life, is a flow and ebb, experiencing progress and regress.
And in our spiritual practices too – there are highs and lows, and this is normal and unavoidable. So sometimes, in our interior life there will be a ‘low,’ a dry-spell. We shouldn’t be disheartened by this - it is all part of the process, and we can trust that process. If we do not trust this ‘up and down’ of the spiritual journey we will not get very far, because we will become discouraged, and may even give up. The Path of Return is not a rigid straight ascent, it is undulating – ascents are punctuated by slight descents – up and down, gradually higher. Until one day your current ‘lows’ are higher than any of your previous exaltations.
In archery, a bow must always be drawn. If the bowstring were to be always drawn taut, it will cause the bow to become warped, and then there would no longer be any tension or pull.
Living is a process, a ‘becoming’ – living is is a verb. And the same is true of our inner life, we may think that enlightenment is some fixed or static state, but it isn’t; it is fluidic, flowing, and dynamic.
And paradoxically, it is the dry-spells that bring the greatest benefits. After all, we can all meditate or pray when we are ‘in the mood’. But is the gentle persistence of meditating when we are ‘not in the mood’ that takes us further. Because we need to reach a point when we can meditate ‘at will’. Why? Because emergencies do happen! Then we need to be able to enter the inner state regardless of external events – be they accidents, deaths, or even war zones.
Your meditation space is your 'spiritual gym' – the place where you train your mind to become a Light prism.
from the weekly Letter toYour Spirit by DG