God is Everywhere and Every Time

This past weekend has been a wonderful retreat. I have to say that comparing this retreat to previous experiences, where I went away to a beautiful setting and was taught by experienced spiritual teachers, that I feel just as wholly alive and wonderful. It’s not that beautiful settings and very profound expressions of the Divine wouldn’t quicken the opportunity for direct experience and transformation. It’s that I figured out that for all the preparations I’d been making to go on retreat, the only thing I really needed was me…and a shift in my state of mind.

Perhaps therein I can observe an interesting spiritual trap. Speaking for myself at least, I have grown accustomed to the idea that going away on retreat somehow adds to the experience. Or that having experienced spiritual masters will somehow make that difference. And yet if God truly is everywhere and through everyone then surely God will be found wherever we are? Or to put it more simply, I don’t need to be on the top of a mountain listening to someone playing the bagpipes in the valley and speaking about their methodology and mythology for living as a mystic to directly experience God. My great learning for this weekend – I found direct experience and a wonderful sense of peace right where I was.

Would it have been nice to have the retreat with James Golden? Sure. He actually delivered a 2 hour talk this afternoon. Given that my day so far has consisted of yoga, meditation, reflection at Church, and then his 2 hour session, it actually felt like the day of one of those special retreats. And in the end I found myself connecting with many wonderful people in the process.

If I were to be asked what did I learn from this retreat? Well, the answer would be a list of things:

• Looking for the right spiritual path, spiritual outcome, or right teacher (or all) is like looking for a tool, when the important thing is actually your hand. A sculptor wouldn’t say their chisel created the statue after all.
• The path is your own. Whatever you decide about the outcome is actually insignificant to how you go about living life. There are as many spiritual paths as there are individuals. The reality is that the only teaching that is for you is your spiritual journey (which really is the essence behind the idea of how I can say I had went on retreat by myself and am having a beautiful direct experience as I write this blog).
• Living your spiritual journey is not a part-time effort. Trying to take the spiritual journey as a hobby simply won’t deliver the depth. However, having walked and lived my spiritual path during this weekend has helped me make some considerable progress. 
• I had previously blogged about wanting to get clear about my goals and around business and ministry. My goal is now to have a state of mind that my spiritual practice is something that fills all of my time. I also know that I will not intentionally set this practice down. I may lose touch with Divine feeling and the inspiration I am currently aware of. There are many expressions of forgetfulness around us that Ernest Holmes would call race consciousness. I like to call it cultural consciousness myself. In short, people are very much caught up in limitations and beliefs around all sorts of things: People aren’t doing it right, politics are wrong, we’re headed into a double-dip recession, there’s not enough to go around, and the Earth is being brutalized. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to help and support others and the needs they have. Caring is an extension of giving, and giving with love means you will receive with love. And yet, living as a contemporary mystic is a delicate balance between participation and involvement. Figuring out how to bring your spiritual values, how to be impeccable with your thought, word, and deed, into every aspect of your life is your spiritual path.

I did learn more, but occurs to me that not only will I benefit from processing this weekend, but you might benefit from not having to read pages and pages in one sitting. Besides, as James Golden so beautiful pointed out this morning, as he took about 90 seconds to prepare to deliver his talk on stage, take your time. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to do, but to simply be and surrender.

I will sign off with the final thought for now. Ernest Holmes once said that ‘God is everywhere’. This is actually a foundation of the Science of Mind teachings. I’d like to elaborate on that. God is everywhere and every time.

Know the Flow as you go, my friends. You are more loved than you could possibly imagine.