Persons of every religion and no religion report discoveries of the wonderfulness within. Their language and concepts differ, but the transformative presence is the same: a source of energy, power, insight, wisdom, love, mercy, peace, joy, creativity, purpose, and guidance—not necessarily all at the same time (smile). There is a party going on inside, we are all invited, and some of us embrace the adventure of joining the party.
Here’s the 14:27 video and the podcast episode
My adventure with the wonderfulness within culminated this morning after years of seeking and finding. My journey has included the Buddhist practice of conscious breathing, the Christian practice of Centering Prayer, other prayer methods, and a practice of worship that involves mind, soul, and spirit. Conscious breathing promotes harmony of mind and body, so desperately needed today. In the peace of that harmony, the wonderfulness within can reach us far more effectively than in a mind that is distracted and distressed. Centering Prayer recognizes that the wonderfulness within is the spirit of God; we name it with whatever word symbolizes our consent to its presence and activity.
My mind-soul-spirit practice of worship can be the simplest and quickest of all. It can also take more than three hours to be completely fulfilled. My culminating experience this morning of the wonderfulness within began with waking up, sitting up in bed, and leaning against the wall to begin my communion time.
Immediately, I perceived before me an image of myself: I saw myself as a small, clear and distinct entity with no visible structure or characteristics. Next, the word son was immediately impressed upon my mind. (This means to me that who I am essentially is a son of God.)
Next, the spirit of worship immediately permeated me; and there I was, in the simplicity of Presence. I was still gazing toward to the self as son, but that son-self was surrounded and illuminated by the pervading presence of God. This stage illustrates the conscious mind responding to spirit.
After a while, I wondered how to relate better with the spirit within. I turned to my soul. What I mean by soul is this.
- My deeper self, my true self.
- That part of me which God is continually creating, especially as I cooperate by making personal and wholehearted moral decisions and carrying them out.
- The self-reflective, truth-discerning and spirit-perceiving part of me.
As this morning’s experience was unfolding, I sought to become conscious of its truth. I turned to my soul—and identified myself with the soul and as soul—seeking to know what truth I could discern. Immediately two truths came up:
- This spirit gift (the wonderfulness within) is the loving Father’s approach to me.
- I am to become eternally one with this spirit gift.
By that time, the initial image that had been projected self as son outside me was gone. Now in its place was a centered experience of beholding the spirit, the wonderfulness within—at no distance from me. I was enjoying worship in its simplest definition, contemplation of the spiritual.
There’s more to the story, but this is enough to give you an example.
What difference has it made in my life to develop spiritual experience along these lines? My career as a teacher of many subjects, mostly philosophy and religion, has been transformed by the approach which I will share in a moment. My personal growth has accelerated and gone to the depths. My ability to bless others has grown. My conviction of finding the will of God has blossomed in a new major project in my life. And now I am identifying with the passion for justice expressed by so many young people; I think of the justice of the eternal God, and how justice becomes actual in our world through an evolutionary process.
- The process cannot be forced; certain things need to be in place before other things can occur. In each generation, in each segment of time, we need to choose our agenda wisely.
- Planetary civilization is in trouble. A lot of change is needed soon.
- Spiritual motivation is essential in order to win hearts and minds and gain cooperation.
The way that I have communicated the spiritual adventure in the classroom is by having every course centered on personal growth projects. My philosophy of living is based on concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness. Most of philosophy’s disciplines are in the truth area—and I would bring in truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience to the degree that fits the course topic. Philosophy integrates the truths of science and spirituality in decisions graced by wisdom. In the beauty area, I taught aesthetics; in the goodness area, I taught lots of ethics courses. But let’s say that we are studying world religions together. The first project goes with our study of Hinduism and Buddhism. The assigned project is on centered and compassionate living. We study the Bhagavad Gita with an eye to the concept of the atman, the eternal spirit self (wonderfulness within); and we study the Dhammapada, connecting with student projects on compassionate living. Students select or create a centering practice and a focus for compassionate living. In designing a project, each student is encouraged to tackle the most important challenge in his or her personal growth—the most difficult situation, relationship, or growth need—if it is psychologically reasonable for the person to do so now and if the student chooses to work on their biggest challenge. After about three weeks of the centering practice, some students begin to report transformative experiences. By the end of the semester, 10% report nothing special; about 20% report good experiences; and the rest report transformation. The students creatively apply concepts discussed in class to the problems that they have chosen to focus on. Their papers include a report of what they did, what happened, and what they learned in their experience, plus a commentary on that report, which they construct from the perspective of the religious or philosophical texts that we have been discussing.
One last thing. I always encourage students to work with whatever concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness fits their language and concept. Instead of truth, they may prefer to speak of intuition or insight. Instead of beauty they can talk about what is awesome, cool, or amazing. And for goodness they might want to speak of making a difference or giving back. I never have to deal with skepticism or relativism about truth being just a matter of opinion; beauty as merely in the eye of the beholder; and goodness as a mask for the power interests of a person’s gender, race, of class. When youare part of a group that is exploring diverse and uplifting interpretations of these meanings and values, and at the same time creatively taking on a significant challenge using your own current best interpretations, then you progress beautifully in truth and goodness. These values are becoming meaningful in your daily experience.
I regret that a long search uncovers no information that would enable me to give a proper image credit. The woman is from Ethiopia.
