Spiritual Practice

Jason Chan

Your Daily Life is your Spiritual Practice

When you are awake, everyday there are lessons to learn and a purpose to fulfil, so if you are wise you will not waste a moment. Your goal is to be conscious every moment of your life. Until you take complete responsibility for every aspect of your life, many so called 'spiritual experiences' can be just self-deception. You will still not be able to make any sense of your life and true happiness will continue to elude you. Occasionally, when you are in deep meditation or on a spiritual retreat, you may have blissful glimpses of your own divinity to remind you of your true potential, but at some point you will have to return to your daily life and continue to work on yourself. You will still have to face all your personal desires, negative thought patterns and ancient hatreds and vengeances. If you do not heal these this lifetime they will be with you when you die and leave your body behind. How you live your daily life is so much more important than once in a blue moon experiences of enlightenment. What will win out when you die, a few blissful but unrepeatable spiritual experiences or your daily habits?

"How you live your daily life is so much more important than once in a blue moon experiences of enlightenment."

To help you to make your spiritual progress a daily priority in 2004, you might consider how to turn your home, or at least a part of it, into more of a spiritual sanctuary. For example, you may choose to ensure that every day you are surrounded by inspiring images, fresh flowers or uplifting music. If at any time you lose heart on your journey, listening to some beautiful spiritual or romantic music will assist you to open your heart again and reconnect to the divine within. Creating a special space within your home where you can contemplate and meditate in a tranquil, beautiful environment is also of great benefit to spiritual seekers. Many people find it helpful to create an altar in this space on which they can place divine objects such as images of Buddha or Christ.

Relax for a few moments and make a mental tour of your home. How could you make it into more of a spiritual sanctuary? Perhaps you need to clear away some clutter or to buy a plot plant for that sad corner of your living room. Maybe you need to move the TV out of the living room so that you do not watch it so much. Why not make a commitment to do something today, or as soon as possible, to create a more beautiful uplifting home for yourself and your spiritual practice?

This does not have to be a big or expensive change. Even a small improvement can be inspiring and a sign of your growing commitment to your spiritual path.

"Do I want to be right or do I want to be happy?"

In order to stabilise your spiritual light, you should give priority to your spiritual awakening on a daily basis. You need to nurture your little light and protect it. Never allow your enthusiasm for your path to be dampened. Rekindle the desire for liberation deep within your heart over and over again and use all skilful means to keep bringing your heart back to this one goal. Please do not go back to your old way of life or old ways of thinking, or you will find yourself at a dead end. If you do not honour your soul's purpose, you will cut off help to all those souls who are waiting for your assistance to awake. On the other hand, if you follow your intuition to fulfil God's purpose for you, everything you need to accomplish will be accomplished for you. You cannot even begin to imagine the richness of following your spiritual purpose; in comparison to this, worldly pleasures are nothing.

It is self-deception to use the busyness of our daily lives as an excuse to forget our spiritual path. Daily life will continue to challenge your spiritual ideals, but eventually you have to do everything as a spiritual practice rather than separating your life into pigeon holes. Unfortunately, it is not possible to be spiritual just one day a week or one hour a day. The journey home to your true Self takes 24/7 commitment. Eventually you should extend your meditative state of inner peace into 16 hours a day. You should hold your inner connection to the divine whatever you are doing.

Live your whole life with one purpose. Do not forget about God when you go to work or out to a party. Once you have established a connection with the divine through deep prayer or meditation, commit to bringing this connection into every aspect of your daily life. For example, whenever you are working remind yourself to take regular breaks to reconnect to the divine. Whilst everyone else is having a tea break why not take a spirit break? Don't merge back into an unconscious state of living, even when you are behaving like a normal human being on the surface. Only when you become a true master is there no effort involved in bringing the divine into your daily life.

Take a moment to think about the times in your day when it would be possible to take a 'spirit break'. Write down in your diary a time each morning and afternoon when you will stop to reconnect to the divine.

It is wonderful to start each and every day by connecting to the divine. When you wake up each morning you can begin with a short prayer of surrender to God in which you ask 'Where would you have me go today? 'Whom would you have me meet? 'What would you have me do or say?' Say to yourself each day 'I may miss all my appointments on earth but I will not miss my appointment with God'. It is so important to pray to God at the beginning of your day, because without this divine connection you are nothing and can achieve nothing of any lasting value. Every morning ask to be granted a day filled with peace and love. Every evening review how much love and peace you have manifested in your day. Each night before you go to sleep, ask the higher intelligence 'What lesson did I need to learn today? What is it that I need to know?' At the end of every day give all your desires and all your pain back to the divine.

"It is wonderful to start each and every day by connecting to the divine."