Contemplation: Divine Experience of the Inner Heart

WEEKLY CONTEMPLATION

This week during your daily meditation, contemplate the following:

"What are the things you can do to experience the Divine presence in your own heart?"

Dear Friends,

I recently visited a friend who shared a very inspiring and beautiful story with me. It involved a time in his young life when he stood at a crossroad, searching his heart for the guidance that would ultimately lead him to fulfilling his destiny.

One of his choices seemed obvious and easy. His life would be all laid out for him, and it promised great fame, success, recognition and total security. He received constant pressure from his greatest teacher, his family and dear friends, to pursue this path. To make his decision even more confusing, it was a vocation that he embraced with all his heart, one that had brought him an inordinate amount of success in the past, as well as a great sense of fulfillment deep within.

But the other choice was equally compelling. He felt torn inside, completely unable to get clarity. The first choice would be easy, he thought. He had everyone behind him and it was something he had already done with great success. The other choice was much different. It was an unknown and there were no guarantees. It was shrouded in uncertainty.

What he decided to do was put his life on hold for a few weeks and go off by himself to contemplate. He set out with his back pack and went climbing in the nearby mountains. When he found an appropriate campsite, he set up his tent and made an intention to meditate until he received an answer from within. He let go of any expectations with regard to time.

Days went by, yet nothing came to him. He continued to meditate. On the third day, he found himself sitting on a big, flat rock, immersed in dazzling sunlight. In that moment, he glanced down and noticed that there were some tiny yellow flowers growing right out of a little crevice in the rock. Instantly, his attention was drawn to this almost surreal vision.

As he sat looking at the flowers, a gentle breeze began to pass over him, and as it did, he noticed that the little flowers began to sway in rhythm with the breeze--bending, yielding, without resisting, and remaining unharmed. Suddenly, in that moment, it all became clear; he knew the answer. It came spontaneously and with complete certainty.

As I drove home that day, I reflected on the story he had shared with me and was reminded of a similar experience I had in a maximum security prison, while meditating for the first time in my life out in the yard. When I first opened my eyes, I sat staring at the wall surrounding the prison compound: cold, stark and unyielding. Yet, from a crack a few feet long, toward the bottom of the wall, a few blades of green grass had somehow managed to take root and break through the seeming impenetrable concrete façade.

As I sat there mesmerized by this apparent dichotomy, I became immediately aware that this scene was a perfect metaphor for Shaktipat, spiritual awakening. I realized that the Divine nectar within me, like the seemingly fragile and delicate blades of grass, had been endowed with enormous power and strength, a strength and power that went far beyond my logical mind, enabling it to crack the hardened, unyielding wall enclosing my heart, then breaking through, revealing the beauty, power and love it contained, transforming my whole life.

Contemplation: Beyond all the distractions, turbulence and difficulties we face in the world, there is an eternal essence, a Divine experience of Freedom and Love that cannot be held back or contained by anything in this physical universe.

What are the obstacles in your life that prevent you from experiencing this Divine presence that is always there? How can you prioritize your life in a way that will enable you to move beyond these obstacles and live in this incredible state of Freedom and joy forever?

Please contemplate this deeply, keeping a journal of your experiences.

We have all been given so much.

Love and blessings,

Alan