Hire the person, not the job description. Someone helped you. Go help someone else.
The other day, I receive a call from an old friend. I have not heard from her for quite some time. Nor do I get, this year or two, to chat with her much. Still, there is this amicable connection. We have both moved on so much to develop our own path, separately.
Those days, we use to chat on the phone for hours and meeting up regularly. We use to share a lot about our personal things. We use to talk about our spiritual inspirations. We discuss about our spiritual journeys and share our profound spiritual experiences. We speak about our dreams, our works and our family.
Let's just call her 'Angel' to keep her anonymity.
I have known Angel for fifteen years, or probably more. The first time I get to meet her was through a qiqong session. Since then, she has been a constant good friend. There is 'no air' about her. She could be vocal - which I truly like about it, and would just speak her mind but always rationally. When she speaks, often it comes from her conviction, her kind caring heart. I can always feel her honesty and sincerity. Some people might find that she is too vocal, perhaps 'bossy', but then again, it is her voice that often brings out situations and place them into reality.
It is her gift to command such. Not many people that I know are capable to do that, to speak the truth even when it can be unpleasant. It makes me to feel blessed to know her and that I am fortunate that we become close.
Taking on to walk further on a spiritual journey can be daunting. Especially when one is going through profound spiritual experiences. Such intense experiences, say to talk about a light coming into you and feeling it expands or an ability to hear God's voices, can sound crazy to many. There are times when a spiritual seeker wonder just how much of his spiritual journey is he supposed to share with others. Does he have to keep his experiences to himself? Does he share them with others who are going through the same things?
Angel has always been supportive, and respectful, when I take up both Reiki and Karuna Mastership. Right from the very beginning, she lends her hand to encourage me to grow and to keep doing things that I have always wanted to do. She understands my spiritual calling and has always been there to strengthen me.
We attend few other spiritual works together. We participate courses in Miracles Healing, Magnified Healing, So'Hum and Pranayama Breathing, Static Qiqong, Tibetan Geomancy and attended few other talks. Few years after my Mastership, she walks on that path too and become a Reiki Master. Those are the days that we really enjoy doing all the spiritual works.
Angel stimulates positive change whenever there is doubt in me. In fact, she does that to everyone that she cares. Angel always has something meaningful to share and give and I would never risk being maliciously bombarded of encountering negative responses.
She encourages me to open up and raises my Higher Self to reach out for more. And, she does that to many of our common friends too. It is such friendship that produces beautiful and wonderful life changes. It is such selfless individual that creates a huge difference in people's lives. I am very grateful to be able to connect with people like her.
The other day, Angel calls to bring about the topic on spiritual shopper. She remembers that I often use this phrase to describe an individual who would never seem to end seeking for more spiritual quests. Where one feels it is never enough to be involved with specific disciplines. There is just a general tendency to seek all kinds of spiritual paths, or spiritual teachers, and nothing much takes conviction in one's being.
She admits that she finally understands what I have been trying to imply all these years. She has started to see that, in the many of life choices, people have become confused in this chaotic choices and slip away not knowing what is really the right thing to do for themselves. Particularly, in regards to our sense of discipline and our spiritual path.
One of the things that spiritual seekers do is to gain more knowledge. They try to combine all kinds of spiritual disciplines together. Sometimes, these disciplines conflict and sometimes they work but we keep shopping hoping to find for more and higher truth.
For one thing, when the going gets rough and there is no immediate result to gain, the temptation is always to pick up something else and move. Somehow, rather than they sit and work deeper, their natural state leads them into a zigzag path. Such an approach is unavoidable as there are more centers and schools offering spiritual works now.
Angel shares with me that when one truly feels his Higher Self, there are so much from within him that will guide his intuitions. There are no necessity to keep hunting for the best teacher, the best path or the best place to enhance any advanced spiritual works. Truly!, this is something that I have felt long before. The only thing that is making us to think otherwise would be when we are not making real efforts to find the quietness and peace within. To find our natural state of being in bliss.
From all those years of spiritual shopping, I manage to pick up a thing or two. It is about staying in focus. It is not about consistency but to be simply true. There is a wonderful phrase from the book 'The Vegetable Root Discourses' that says "Life is like an earthen pot. Only when it is shattered does it manifest its emptiness."
There is also a wonderful saying from Lao-Tzu 'The Book of the Way' that says "The greatest accomplishments seems imperfect, yet their usefulness is not diminished. The greatest fullness seems empty, yet it will be inexhaustible. .. Movement overcomes the cold, and stillness overcomes the heat. That which is pure and still is the universal ideal."
I am not advocating that one should just find one Master, or stop at one spiritual discipline, to fulfil his spiritual needs. Afterall, Buddha went around in zigzag paths to finally find his true self on his own. We need to gain a very clear sense of what would not work and also a small faith of inkling of what would. If we are to get anywhere with our practices, we just have to make a choice and take a stand.
Fact is, when we have not spent all the time to shop around, we might never have figured it out at all. That is the way things work and that should be the way for someone who has just spiritually awaken. We need to try this and then to try that before finally it all comes together by itself. The thin line here is, are we just going to try this and that without spending more time to find about it? Without letting our energy to settle to find more?
Where is all this taking us? How do we find our way through such a maze of offerings? It is the same when we are to dig for oil - we just have to dig deep to reach it. If we dig too many different holes, we will never get to the source of the oil. In the same way, when we are to hop and shop much or learn too many techniques, we will never get to the essence of the teachings.
I am glad that my spiritual shopping has not been extensive. I am glad that I save a lot of money, lots of time and lots of superfluous thinking. I am happy to make Reiki a way of life. Reiki, in itself, encompasses many more spiritual outlets and experiences. It encompasses one to meditate, to expand and to acknowledge the sparks of God. It leads one to enter a discipline of choicelessness as it is a Life Force.
I believe that Reiki is a great gift from God. It has a gentle universal energy of transforming my life and the lives of my loved ones. It makes my understanding of God better. Reiki is a way of thinking that fits beautifully with all doctrines and with all denominations. It empowers my thoughts, my intentions, my subtle energies and my prayers. Importantly, it makes me to recognize my being.
Reiki works for me and a Life Force Universal Energy that I can relate to. It exists, and a part of, every spiritual works that I do. It assimilates with all other spiritual teachings that I have partaken. I breathe Reiki energy every day and go on to heal others every chance I get.
Angel makes me to believe that we just have to listen to our wisdom and to be self empowered. We need to know at what point, in our search for meaning in our lives, must come to a point to stop and simply be still. We just need to look within our own mind and heart for what we know to be true.
It is, when we have both our feet grounded and our consciousness integrated, made all the difference. In 'The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism', there is something that is worth to ponder:
"It should be clear at this point that those who become involved with the teaching in this way are quite different from spiritual shoppers who have the luxury of drifting from one involvement to another. For those who are really engaged in working on themselves, there is no time to shop around. They are simply concerned with getting some basic treatment. They have no time for philosophizing or analysis: they are stuck. Help is desperately needed because the pain is so intense.
Spiritual shoppers might acknowledge that there is a problem, but they feel the problem can be patched over until they can get service to their liking. Spiritual shopping is a naive and simplistic version of the fantastic project of spiritual materialism - a project which simply creates and perpetuates suffering in its attempt to achieve egohood. Spiritual shoppers are looking for entertainment from spiritual teachings. in such an approach devotion is nonexistent."
I offer Reiki Distant Healing