Spiritual Awakening and Well Being

Spirituality has long been believed to be a mystery for the unenlightened and a cornerstone for those you know the Source of their Well-being. The Bible speaks of natural man in the following way: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14).

Spirituality is as old as man’s existence, and since the beginning of time spirituality has given mankind or humanity ultimate meaning and purpose, fulfillment as well as a meaningful existence.

Spiritual health is dependent on what each person believes is his source and purpose for being. For many Spirituality goes beyond intellect and is part of their emotional fabric giving them peach of mind. For others sensualism, materialism, intellectualism personalism has replaced it. Spirituality is of little or no value and consequence and has no connection to their personal life.

Of course, when people face life and death, overwhelming dispair or unbearable challenges, the first thing that comes to mind, is that there must be something more to their life. Thus the beginning of spiritual awakening or a desire for a power greater than oneself to aid and rely on for comfort.

So What is Spirituality?

St Paul pointed the way when he said “ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” New Living Translation So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. 2 Corinthians 5:1

The Broader Context Of Our life.

Folk lore has it that Solomon in all his glory suffered from worry and insomnia until his wisemen gave him a ring with the inscription which read GAM ZU YAAVOR (“This too shall pass.”) At that moment, Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power which he thought would take him beyond the boundaries of mortality were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust. For the things we worry about and what ever troubles us now on the form level will soon be gone, The Zen teaching and Koans say “The Flowers die, but the beauty lives on.”

Psychology and Buddhism have also proposed that “we suffer not from things but our view of things and/or our attachment to things.” Most of the human conditioning struggles with fear of loosing what it has and not getting what it wants. Very few question the meaning of things and the larger context of our suffering. All of this (suffering) is to remind us, there is something more to us than meets the eye. We learn not to judge by appearances. In spiritual awakening the first realization is that we realize we are driven by suffering however we have choice and cn be guided by Inner Wisdom.

There have been many accounts whereby a person has transformed his entire life by awakening to his or her spirituality ie. near death experiences. We wake up from our dream of separation. We learn that we are not victims or hostages and we have freedom of choice. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”( ‎John 8:32 KJV .)

Factors Contributing To Spiritual Health

Spiritual health may, more often than not, include an active spiritual or religious practice including rituals, contemplation, yoga, meditation, chanting, and daily prayers, but it can also encompass the broader concepts of hope, faith, purpose and forgiveness of ourself and others in daily life.

It can also be a practice of finding moderation and balance with introspection in life. However Ultimate Spiritual Awakening goes far beyond rituals and doing exercises.

Spiritual Awakening can also be encompassed in an experience whereby one cultivates spiritual qualities of consciousness ie. peace, assurance, gratitude, and compassionate love or (PAGL) as a guide to live by ie. “Don’t make a move without PAGL.” and “All Good Things come to those in PAGL” `

In my training with Thomas Hora, M.D. P.C. winner of the Karen Horney Award for outstanding achievements in Psychiatry, I learned to practice the PAGL Prayer.

The PAGL Prayer
` I Am Willing To Be Open to Peace

Knowing that I am made in the image and likeness of God Genesi 5:1 Nonthing can be added or taken away. For the Lord declares : I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord … For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end. . Jeremiah 29:11

Assurance

I have Assurance,
I know God’s knows me and that my physically, mental, emotionally and financially, spiritual needs are met because Love is my only Source, God knows my needs and can meet them. It is my Father’s good pleasure to give me the kingdom. It is my Father’s good pleasure to give me the kingdom. KJV. Luke 12:32 For He has said “All that is mind is thine.” John 17:10

Gratitude

I see evidence of God’s Love every day and I am Grateful. I know that for them who have, more shall be given.

Love

Love is the way I walk in Gratitude. Having received all these things, I prayerfully become a place for God (Love) to shine, so that others may know the Truth and be Free.

Spiritual Awakening: Beyond “Doing, Thinking, Having, and Being”

However Spiritual Awakening goes beyond just doing, thinkng having spiritual qualities. Ultimate Spiritual Awakening requires the ability to forgive and compassionate surrendering of all misconceptions and correcting all childhood decision making mis-educated belief system. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 1 Corinthians 13:11 New International Version

Spiritual Discernment

We can distinguish between perception which is sensory, cognition which is conceptual, and discernment which is spiritual. It implies a capacity to distinguish spiritual values and qualities from all other values and qualities.

Ultimate Spiritual Awakening requires Spiritual Discernment or to have eyes that see beyond sense perception or the ability to see the meaning of things and deny sense perception ie. reacting to form (appearance) or to know ultimate context vs. being locked into person hood content.

Ultimate Spiritual Awakening is Seeing beyond judgemental filters “right wrong” ““good bad” nine short men and yam yam yam bey0nd. Spiritual Discernment goes beyond our calculating mind (doing, having, getting, thinking) to access our spiritual faculties or our our Spiritul Mind (God’s Mind ) to understand the nature of the human conditioning / existence st to the backdrop existential reality which is the reality of Spiritual Values and Truth in contrast to the Human Condition.

Spirituality, or lack there of, shapes our view of ourselves including our beliefs, values, desires and emotional well-being base on what we believe is important. If we know our source as Spiritual Eternal, non material, beyond all time and dimension, we don’t have to worry about losing what we have or not getting what we don’t want on the form level.

I remember once going to visit Sedona Arizona. When I arrived, I rented a Hotel room on the 14th floor. I remember sitting on the balcony each morning meditating and was so aware of the bluest sky I’ve ever seen with the whitest clouds which were a backdrop to the brightest rich, solid red mountains, I have ever seen. I was so deeply touched by the beauty and glory of this “majestic oneness or all Ness.” (words could not describe it)

Then, as the morning progressed, I noticed, below me, the energy of intensity below increasing, there were tiny cars and buses moving around and people going back and forth in the parking lot way below. I also could see tiny people moving about like ants busily going through their day.

The thought occured to me, that each one of these tiny people have a made up of their own values or belief system. They have hopes and dreams with insecurities regarding their desires and fears. They all have stuggles in their ability to give and receive love, making up their own inner world.

I thought each of these people have a world view of their choosing and depending on the degree that they attatch to their story, they surely suffer but in contrast of their beliefs or world view of themselves, there is a stillness in the backdrop of their lifes. There always exisst this beautiful, majestic, Solid Red Mountain, and Eternal Beautiful Blue Sky which is always present and far beyond their limited ideas of who they think they are.

Knowing The Truth of Our Being (who we really are) has long been part of the Path to Spiritual Awakening and Enlightenment. Researchers studying the effects of stress know that when we loose or peace and contentment, our focus becomes narrower and restricted. We go into a reactive state call fovial vision, where anxiety goes up and the higher cortex cuts off and we end of in the flight,fight freeze syndrom.

In contrast, when we relax our mind, open our vision and breath releasing stress, we open up our vision and are able to maintain peripheral vision looking at whats in front of us from a broader perspective. We see life from a 180 to 360 degree vantage rather than the narrow constricted vision or fight flight reaction. So simply learning to maintain peripheral vision will improve our overall health, lifestyle habits, beliefs, and emotional well-being opening us up to Spiritual Awakening from our dream of our narrow willful self trying to manage things.

Thomas Hora MD. PC. stated that “All problems are Psychological all Solutions are Spiritual”. Spiritual Discernment is the ability to open ourselves up to a broader context to see, know and express spiritual values beyond our sense perception. Having a spiritual perspective allows us to be more resilient and flow with the day to day comings and goings and maintain our composure. It also allows us to be a Beneficial Presence in the World and be a place for God to Shine which results in others receiving the healing of our presence.

There are also Spiritual Principles and Biblical Truths that keep us on high grownd. Thomas Hora, MD,PC. in his writings on Spiritual Development had Eleven Parameters of Spiritual Progress that goes as follows:

1. Thou shalt have no other interests before the good of God, which is spiritual blessedness.

2. Take no thought for what should be or what should not be; seek ye first to know the good of God, which already is.

3. There is no interaction anywhere, there is only Omniaction everywhere.

4. Yes is good, but no is also good.

5. God helps those who let Him.

6. If you know what, you know how.

7. Nothing comes into experience uninvited.

8. Problems are lessons designed for our edification.

9. Reality cannot be experienced or imagined; it can, however, be realized.

10. The understanding of what really is, abolishes all that seems to be.

11. Do not show your pearls to unreceptive minds, for they will demean them.

— Thomas Hora, MD

For a great many, spiritual health includes a belief in something greater than ourselves. All religious traditions have a term to represent “God” beyond ourselves such as God, Allah, Baba, Father, Shiva, or a Supreme Being, The Field, Higher Power or simply as God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM – Exodus 3:14 KJV – What ever name you give God it is That Which Encompassing All of life.

When we are in alignment with That Loving Harmonious Intelligence, beyond ourselves, we experience wholeness and unity with a greater love intelligence or force; which can guide us in the ways of spirit and help us see things in terms of life’s meaning and integrative values.

`
This brings to mind what Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11: 28-30). When we surrender ourselves to something greater the part of us that believes it has to control or manage life finally can rest and enjoy life on lifes terms. We become responsive rather than reactive.
`

A perfect example is teaching someone how to swim and learning about an invisible power call bounancy. When we use our own will we will thrash or try to manage the water eventually exhausting ourselves and drowing. If we are afraid or have the idea that we don’t have to do anything we will become passive and deny bouncey exists we don’t do anything in the water and of course sink and drown. But an enlighten swimmer will become responsive to the invisible power of bounency and with a sense of actionless action can glide through the water neither being passive or fighting the water.
`
While different individuals may have different views of what spirituality is, it is generally considered to be the search for meaning and purpose beyond our sense gratification, ego-confirmation and material attachments or our conditioned human experience which we learned growing up.

Spiritual health leads to desiring to be in the world but not of ti. It’s a desire to go beyond our human existence toward a state of increasing harmony with oneself, others, and “all that there is in life.” Spiritual Health is also a sense of inner harmony and balance within oneself while working to balance ourselves with the rest of the world.

Having a clearly established value system, beliefs, and morals also helps define an begin the awakening process of connecting to our spirituality. Spiritual Awakening or Spiritual health also provides a basis for integration, resulting in healthy emotions such as contentment having experience the fruits of the Spirit such as a capacity for Compassion, love and forgiveness, altruism, joy, optimism, appreciation of the natural forces in the universe, and a sense of peace and personal fulfillment.

Each person’s path to spiritual wellness may involve a variety of processes to help him or her in spiritual awakening or simply be reflecting on the ways one receives meaning in life such as talking about spiritual values with close family members or friends. Or, you may find value in various natural practices such as prayer, meditation, yoga or other specific spiritual techniques that support your connection with nature or inner wisdom and Source of Creation as a higher guiding power.

AIWP Miracles Ministry has been devoted to healing separation and conflict for the past 24 years. We teach simple, concrete healing, self/other connection and intimacy building skills which will help you live more compassionately and authentically. Our mission is to help you renew and restore your all your connection with self, others and God as you define it to free you to be able to maximize your ability to give and receive love.

In all of our programs at The Association For Integration of the Whole Person (AIWP) Miracles Ministry, we are committed to bringing individuals, couples, parents and children, the latest most powerful, spiritual transformation, personal healing and relationship enrichment principles and skills available.

Our mission is to help you to increase your authentic self/other life connection and ability to give and receive love, as well as to heal and enrich your relationships. In this way, we hope to support each and every person we work with to realize their Spiritul Potential and become a Beneficial Presence in the World which will promote conscious intentional living for a more compassionate world. See AIWP Miracles Ministry.

In providing you guidance in terms of spiritual health, we will encourage you to use your own connection to Compelling Peacefulness, Assurance, Gratitude and Love to explore what you believe is True for you. In this way, you develop your own sense of meaning and purpose. We also will support you to live each day consistent with your values and beliefs. In our experience, you will empower your physical, mental, emotional and relational health recovery and well-being by living in a way that is “true to your authentic self.

Spiritual Awakening and Well Being