Recently I
spent 3 weeks sharing my understanding of the Principles with four different
groups of eager students in England. How
rewarding to see their faces, their open-ended curiosity, and burning
commitment to deepen their grounding. I
was really touched to see these lovely people being so impacted on all
levels. The spiritual dimension of life
was coming alive for them in very heartfelt shifts in their ways of seeing the
world.
As I led these
trainings I found myself talking to my audiences about what it means to “deepen
one’s grounding” and would like to share my insights about this.
Actually the
word “grounding” may not be the best metaphor because it implies that there is
some place to land, some thing to get, some thing to think about. But grounding deepens as a result of an
insight into the nature of life itself.
These realizations, as Syd Banks says, lead you into a meditative state
of mind where personal thinking quiets down and wisdom reveals itself. This is simply a mind where there is less
personal thinking, more presence, more openness, and more space for new
thinking to arise.
Therefore, a
deeper grounding is not a place to land, but an intuition that leaves us with
less thinking and more interior space.
This shift typically brings with it a newfound feeling of well-being, a
new way of seeing the world that has more understanding, and sometimes it
brings, but not necessarily, new ideas.
How is it that
insights into the Principles can lead us into a meditative state of relaxed
presence and awareness, into a new world view or level of consciousness?
Here is how it
seems to me now. This is only one way of
trying to articulate how our grounding deepens.
The Principles create our feelings and experiences from the
inside-out. As we realize the truth to
the inside-out nature of the mind, we begin to be relieved of the thinking
involved as a result of our misunderstanding that the world creates our
experience. As soon as we stop attributing
what we feel to other people or our circumstances, we stop thinking about
them. Our personal thinking quiets
naturally.
With less
personal thinking we become more present.
Less personal thinking leaves more space in our minds. The chatter in our minds quiets. Less static.
More silence. Less
preoccupation. More being in the
present. More presence.
More space is a requirement for new thinking
to arise. Insights from wisdom await
space in the same way sunlight awaits a break in the clouds so that it can
shine through. More space allows the
light of consciousness to shine through.
More space creates more openness and awareness. We become more present, more relaxed, more
awake.
Fortunately,
there is no end to the possibility of us having new insights that keep “deepening
our grounding” and creating more of the interior space that enlivens us.
