The Ground of Daily Life

“There is always a tension to living in a physical body. Our mind and spirit are often at odds with each other and we struggle to balance their desires. The spirit within us has faith that our needs will always be met, but our mind perceives that there is not enough to go around. Our spirit inherently understands that we are all one with other people and the universe, but our minds find this difficult to maintain….

It takes a real leap in our spiritual evolution to see ourselves as one with humanity and to act in accordance with that insight.”

Carolyn Myss,

Invisible Acts of Power: Channeling Grace in Your Everyday Life  (2004).

In a recent conversation with Julia Day, the Light Tree group joined with other Mighty Companions to explore the experience of being ‘grounded’ more fully. We wanted to share ways we retain our ability stay joined with the flow of Universal Oneness when we are tempted to lose our sense of connectedness with Spirit in everyday life.

It was clear from our discussion that grounding is an experience that emerges from the heart. This is easy to accomplish while resting in deep peace and calling upon gratitude while joining with the cosmic heart, or as some call it, the Heart of the Earth.

This illustration by Christine shows how important it is to sink as deeply into the earth as possible when allowing the energies of cosmic love to flow through the physical and light bodies during meditation.

One of the simplest ways to feel grounded is to join with trees and moist earth and feel our roots sinking deep into the soil. We are reminded to be unlimited in feeling how far we can drop into the earth, or how high we can rise into the sky above us. As we surrender to the guidance that Spirit offers us, stories of fear and self-limitation may appear to emerge. This is an excellent opportunity to forgive and release them. These are simply the obstacles to the awareness of Love’s presence coming to the surface for healing.

Being grounded simply means that we rest in our true self and expand ourselves into the Oneness of all-that-is. When we surrender all our stories and accept our true nature we can easily trust that there is nothing to defend ourselves against. We become fully immersed in the Universal Love that we inherently embody by sinking ever more deeply into this truth.

The Perfect Self

“We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but loving an imperfect person perfectly”

Anonymous

image courtesy of facebook

A common theme in our discussions at The Light Tree is wondering why we spend so much of our time and energy projecting our unmet needs and uncomfortable feelings onto others. It’s as if by blaming or finding fault outside ourselves, we distance ourselves from hurt and find some kind of temporary relief.

Before we know it, the sick feeling comes around again. Instead of pushing it away and imagining it’s the fault of someone ‘out there’ why don’t we spend a bit more time getting to know it? After all, it shows up often enough. Everyone has feelings of fear, anger, hurt, loneliness and betrayal they just want to get rid of so they can be happy and return to peace. Its not a secret.

Quite often we are ashamed of these feelings because we judge ourselves harshly for having them in the first place. Until then, our bodies are like pyjamas we sleep in until we start to awaken from our dreams and illusions. What we resist persists, so pushing them far away, onto others or situations we don’t like just make them hang around even longer. 

For example, if we have uneasy sensations when we spend time alone, we might sit with the feeling, instead of finding something ‘to do’. Keeping busy just makes us avoid the situation even longer, only to return another day. We have found that deep feelings of dissatisfaction stem from judgements about what appears within our realm of experience. If we are honest with ourselves we are holding all sorts of grievances about some of the people and events that show up around us. Deep looking reveals they are all projections of our mind that arise to distract us.

 
When we take time to sit, many of our grievances expose themselves. It can be helpful to forgive them and let them go. “Let all my grievances be transformed into miracles” is a great way to bless them on their way out. It is likely that we have been listening to our ego and its eternal list of complaints, instead of resting in our True Self and trusting that what we need comes to us.

We can be sure that our ego is losing its grip is when we stop wanting advice and feedback from others. We don’t want to be taught. We don’t want our bullshit complaints to be validated. This only gives them permission to stick around for another ride. Rather, we can sit and honestly and ask Spirit, our true self, to show us what we need to know. It’s great to share our insights, but not so that they can be judged to be especially good, or especially bad. Just the practice of going to our own pure inner guidance whenever we feel a disturbance is all we need to do.

“My disciples learn to look upon all that happens with an open heart and an open mind. They grow increasingly willing to surrender their narrow beliefs and prejudices.

They refrain from condemning themselves or others for the mistakes they make, but try to learn from these mistakes so that they will not repeat them.

My disciples grow more respectful and intimate in their relationship with God every day. They learn to let the indwelling God lead the way in their lives. Thinking of me and attending to my example helps them do this.”

Jesus: Love Without Conditions (Paul Ferrini, 2009)

Our practice at The Light Tree has enabled us to reflect upon what it means to be guided by Spirit in our everyday lives. We strive to take the experiences that appear before us and see them as opportunities to deepen our understanding of love. Sometimes we stumble and find ourselves treating outward events as if they were real in themselves, as opposed to opportunities for healing.

When we notice this happening we stop and notice the bodily sensations that accompany the event. The felt sense immediately brings clarity to the situation. We become curious about what is unfolding and let go of trying to make sense of it ourselves.

We call upon Spirit to show us the true meaning of events and guide us about how to proceed next. The pace of this process may seem slow because we have less of an automatic, defensive response to everything that appears before us. Insights might take milliseconds or weeks to unfold, but they always seem to reveal themselves at the perfect time.

This week we described what we noticed when we are ‘grounded’ in our True Self. We agreed that a sensation of being grounded makes being in the present moment very easy. Our mind is not racing about and trying to make up stories about what it perceives around it. We are relaxed and energized. Our attitude is open and receptive to guidance from Spirit because we are willing to learn new ways of acting and reacting to the world around us.

Being grounded in our True Self means that we are resting in our Soul body and trusting its wisdom. We are not hooked into making events in the world seem real and threatening. We only want to rest in the Peace of God which dwells within us and guides our every move. We are Whole, safe and fully protected by the projections and fears dreamed up by our minds.

We are reminded of the Buddha who saw the arrows that rained down upon him as harmless flowers. We know the world is not perfect, but with time and patience we are learning to step back and perceive it perfectly.