Welcome to the New Thought Life’s “Awakenings”
Each of these short writings are designed to be used as basis for contemplative meditation.
Simple enough; nevertheless, a solid commitment to do your best will provide more than a boost to your Spiritual Life. It may well change your life from the inside-out. It’s up to you.
Simply reading one per week or reading several in a day will undoubtedly enrich your life, but if you want a permanent shift and a new awakening, you’ll benefit by following a few simple guidelines. Like all things in the physical life we get out of it what we put in. However, in the Spiritual Life we get more out than we put in; in God’s world we are always rewarded with interest, matching funds and bonuses into our spiritual bank account.
The one caveat is to maintain what we discover—we are obliged to pass along to another seeker all of what we have found and the struggles we endured to find a new truth. Our hope is that you will do the work, find what we have found and give away everything in helping another find a deeper awareness in the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. The more we give the more we get. We are awakened.
For the best results consider:
Pick a writing to start, there is no starting point and ending point. Start with any lesson. One lesson a week is recommended, if you miss a week just pick up a lesson when ready and move forward. Prayer and Meditation should never feel forced. Meditate because you want to calm down, not so you can say “I did it” and receive your meditation merit badge.
Sometimes we pursue the spiritual life because we want to and sometimes, we pursue the spiritual life because we have to. Never should we approach the spiritual life because we are supposed to, because others want us to, nor to have others see us in a certain light. The great fourteenth century Persian poet Hafiz wrote “Some people come to God dancing and others are carried in on a stretcher.” Come to the lessons dancing with a smile on your face or come because life is without meaning and you are at the end of your rope. The point is once you start, put in the lust and zeal towards understanding and experiencing each lesson at depth.
In that light there is some definite and valuable suggestions for each lesson. Read, mediate and write, each day, in that order.
1.) For each day: Read
- Read the chosen lesson each day for one week.
- Read the lesson at the same time and at the same place each day.
- Read the lesson out loud.
In this way you will be creating ceremony and a sanctity to the work. Ceremony and sacredness do not bring the Spirit of God any closer but they do remind us that we are doing something important. I move closer to God when I set a time aside for ceremony, prayer and meditation. I am nurturing my relationship with the divine. When I read out loud I am reminding myself that this is a special time I have set aside to seek the truth about myself.
2.) For each day: Meditate
When you are done reading, do a few minutes of contemplative mediation on what you have read. Consider open-mindedness above all else. Time in meditation is up to you and is based on your abilities, generally two to five or ten minutes is plenty for a realization. Consider both what you liked and what you were not attracted to. Consider how the lesson has application in your own life. Ask the question, what is my experience with this?
This is your opportunity to be thoughtful and have the applicable lesson for the week become a part of your thought life. It is your chance to remove prejudice, resistance and close-mindedness; to become a free thinker on the lesson at hand. You will find your own experience in the lesson and the lesson will become a part of your being. Spiritually blow through the overall lesson and find its essence in your own experience.
3.) For each day: Write
When you are complete with your meditation, take pen to paper (to use the old term) or pull out your tablet and type out your thoughts, experience and realization with the lesson as it came to you in meditation.
Keep it simple. Write a paragraph or two each day at the most. On day seven before going onto another lesson write a short summation on the lesson. Be unattached, be inspired and find your own voice, put the thoughts you have about the lesson
into your own voice. How would you articulate the lesson yourself?
Have fun, the object of these lessons is to strengthen your contemplative life, to find your voice and allow you to clearly define the elements of your spiritual awakening. You will be amazed as you experience the flow of the Sprit into yourself and the flow of the Sprit from you into your writing.
Each of these lessons were inspired by my daily spiritual practice in the way just described.
Send your final writing into New Thought Life to be shared with the community.
With your permission, we may post it to the website, we appreciate your willingness to help grow the community by sharing a bit of yourself.
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