One of my Mormon friends considers herself a spiritual person because she follows her Church's rules even when the obedience makes her miserable.
She expresses occasional frustration experienced from the intense requirements of service to the Church in the form of money and time, but she continually obeys, as she fears loss of prestige and her eternal reward.
She also takes Prozac.
I used to believe that obedience was essential in creating a connection with God.
I felt that every outward action was like a step closer to approval, love, and a connection to God and Jesus Christ.
But the connection never happened and dissatisfaction became a constant friend.
Later in life, I felt the desire to meditate.
I don't mean the pondering sort of meditation in which thought is involved.
I wanted to sit in lotus position, close my eyes, empty my mind, focus on my breath, and just be silent.
I didn't ask, plead, or beg for anything.
I didn't have a goal.
I didn't even know what I would gain from this inward action, but I felt it was necessary for my spiritual development, health, and well-being.
It became the force for much needed change in my life.
Through the years of meditation and going inward, I developed a unique understanding.
I have and always will be connected to God, Source, and All That Is.
I never was disconnected! My head was filled with too much noise.
I was too busy outwardly obeying someone else's reality of spiritual growth.
I finally admitted to myself that I was obeying man - not God - because the God I had come to know was not wrathful but kind, unconditionally loving, supportive, humorous, sweet, and, dare I say, soft.
Going inward was the balance I needed in my life.
I connected to God and I now feel joyful in everything that I do.
I feel happy in a way that goes beyond this world, beyond approval, beyond attachments, beyond need, beyond worries, beyond suffering.
I have opened my heart to love and this love makes it easy to love myself as I am.
This love makes it easy to love humanity as humanity is.
David Hawkins said God is immanent not transcendent, meaning God is not outside of ourselves but rather within us.
Jesus Christ said the Kingdom of Heaven is within.
Rumi the Persian poet and mystic said, "I looked in temples, churches, and mosques.
But I found the Divine within.
My heart.
" Joseph Campbell said that we choose to live in ecstasy but that ecstasy is not "out there" in some other place or person but within.
"It is here.
It is here.
It is here.
" "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
The goal of the hero trip down to the jewel point is to find those levels in the psyche that open, open, open, and finally open to the mystery of your Self being Buddha consciousness or the Christ," said Joseph Campbell.
"That's the journey.
" The mystery of becoming a Christ or a Buddha is hidden in your heart.
The "here" is a shift in consciousness that opens a doorway or a portal within your physical heart that links you to that which you have forgotten but was always there.
You experience God as God truly is.
God or Source is truth, love, generosity, peace, equanimity, joy, completeness, connection, understanding, sovereign, wholeness, masculine, feminine, and stillness.
In Kundalini yoga, a person chants "Sat Nam" throughout postures.
Sat Nam is a Sanskrit phrase for "Truth is my name.
Truth is my identity.
" My truthful identity is not based in a belief of a fearful, wrathful deity who sees me as a sinner or righteousness being.
God, Source, All That Is does not look at me or you through dualistic lenses for God sees our innocence, beauty, and truth.
My truthful identity is based in the belief that the atonement is here and now with Source God, meaning that I choose oneness with Source at every moment.
I am truth, love, generosity, peace, equanimity, joy, completeness, connection, understanding, sovereign, wholeness, masculine, feminine, and stillness.
I am that, I AM.
She expresses occasional frustration experienced from the intense requirements of service to the Church in the form of money and time, but she continually obeys, as she fears loss of prestige and her eternal reward.
She also takes Prozac.
I used to believe that obedience was essential in creating a connection with God.
I felt that every outward action was like a step closer to approval, love, and a connection to God and Jesus Christ.
But the connection never happened and dissatisfaction became a constant friend.
Later in life, I felt the desire to meditate.
I don't mean the pondering sort of meditation in which thought is involved.
I wanted to sit in lotus position, close my eyes, empty my mind, focus on my breath, and just be silent.
I didn't ask, plead, or beg for anything.
I didn't have a goal.
I didn't even know what I would gain from this inward action, but I felt it was necessary for my spiritual development, health, and well-being.
It became the force for much needed change in my life.
Through the years of meditation and going inward, I developed a unique understanding.
I have and always will be connected to God, Source, and All That Is.
I never was disconnected! My head was filled with too much noise.
I was too busy outwardly obeying someone else's reality of spiritual growth.
I finally admitted to myself that I was obeying man - not God - because the God I had come to know was not wrathful but kind, unconditionally loving, supportive, humorous, sweet, and, dare I say, soft.
Going inward was the balance I needed in my life.
I connected to God and I now feel joyful in everything that I do.
I feel happy in a way that goes beyond this world, beyond approval, beyond attachments, beyond need, beyond worries, beyond suffering.
I have opened my heart to love and this love makes it easy to love myself as I am.
This love makes it easy to love humanity as humanity is.
David Hawkins said God is immanent not transcendent, meaning God is not outside of ourselves but rather within us.
Jesus Christ said the Kingdom of Heaven is within.
Rumi the Persian poet and mystic said, "I looked in temples, churches, and mosques.
But I found the Divine within.
My heart.
" Joseph Campbell said that we choose to live in ecstasy but that ecstasy is not "out there" in some other place or person but within.
"It is here.
It is here.
It is here.
" "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
The goal of the hero trip down to the jewel point is to find those levels in the psyche that open, open, open, and finally open to the mystery of your Self being Buddha consciousness or the Christ," said Joseph Campbell.
"That's the journey.
" The mystery of becoming a Christ or a Buddha is hidden in your heart.
The "here" is a shift in consciousness that opens a doorway or a portal within your physical heart that links you to that which you have forgotten but was always there.
You experience God as God truly is.
God or Source is truth, love, generosity, peace, equanimity, joy, completeness, connection, understanding, sovereign, wholeness, masculine, feminine, and stillness.
In Kundalini yoga, a person chants "Sat Nam" throughout postures.
Sat Nam is a Sanskrit phrase for "Truth is my name.
Truth is my identity.
" My truthful identity is not based in a belief of a fearful, wrathful deity who sees me as a sinner or righteousness being.
God, Source, All That Is does not look at me or you through dualistic lenses for God sees our innocence, beauty, and truth.
My truthful identity is based in the belief that the atonement is here and now with Source God, meaning that I choose oneness with Source at every moment.
I am truth, love, generosity, peace, equanimity, joy, completeness, connection, understanding, sovereign, wholeness, masculine, feminine, and stillness.
I am that, I AM.