Inner  Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

 

Inner Work


For the week of: February 9, 2004


Managing Our Path

As our spiritual practice continues, we notice all too many tendencies that impede our way, such as overeating, substance abuse, too little sleep, laziness, limiting assumptions, emotional reactions, self-centeredness, fear, anger, greed, jealousy, busyness, distractions, defeatist attitudes, and so on ad nauseam.

On the flip side, we also can see what helps us along the path, such as meditation, eating well, sleeping enough, physical exercise, calm and equanimity, body-mind-emotional awareness, kindness and generosity, prayer, determination, fasting, energy breathing, sacred music, spiritual reading and contemplation, spiritual companionships or community, work at presence moment-to-moment during the day, letting go of the identifications revealed by self-awareness, acting in accord with the promptings of conscience, and so forth.

We need to be intelligent in managing our inner life. This requires a clear understanding of the particulars of our situation with regard to what helps and what hinders our path, which of course changes over time. To acquire and maintain such understanding demands continuing cognizance of our inner state coupled with experimentation to fill in the gaps, balance and harmonize our inner world, recognize unexpected openings, and discover and capitalize on new opportunities to deepen our inner work.

Having discovered which practices are most effective for us individually, we persevere with those, letting them act on our soul until the creative promptings once again show us what to change. In this way our practices evolve as we do, leading our way toward ever-deepening presence in every moment, kind-heartedness, and intelligent action toward our goals.

For this week, look at what helps you along your path.


     

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