(Complete aside...I love the term "warp and woof", it comes from the threads in a woven fabric, comprised of the warp (threads running lengthwise) and woof (threads running crosswise) to create a the texture of the fabric)
These moments, or even seconds of connectedness form the very foundations of our lives and choices. Regardless of religious or faith tradition, regardless of our world view or perspective, spiritual experiences are essential to our health and a full experience of life. The secret lies in our allowing spiritual experiences, recognizing them, reflecting on them, and drawing their wisdom and peace into our daily lives.
Sometimes these moments won't fit our religious upbringing, or what we’ve been told to expect. Our response can simply be "So What?" None of us were born knowing how to run, talk, or dance, and yet with very little encouragement and an environment of support, all such expressions come easily. Opening ourselves to the plethora of spiritual experiences will come just as easily if we simply stop resisting. When we "let go and let God" (to use the AA bumper stick term) we can see and experience how deeply connected we really are.
It's helpful to start asking what spirituality means to us. The definitions are as diverse as there are people. For me it's teaching, or letting the music of the universe flow through me on the keyboards. Sometimes connecting with a laugh on Facebook, knowing that the other person is smiling too is a spiritual experience.
If something really gives you that energetic "connection" with the Universe you can authentically ask “Why can’t that be my spirituality?” I certainly affirm the value and importance of a religious community, but never at the exclusion of the direct connection to The Sacred. My pastor loves to ride her horse. I suspect thats a key building block of her spiritual life. We grow and learn by these experiences of living in our passion - and it allows us to relax enough that we are able to let down the walls that separates the Divine within us from the Divine around us. It's not frequent that this happens in church. Sad.
Another friend who rides horses shared with me some of the necessary qualities of riding:
“Focus yet relaxed; intent but flexible. You need to have firm boundaries regarding what you will let your horse get away with, and a great deal of compassion for them as well. It really doesn’t help to be distracted or get too far ahead of yourself. You need to be aware of the moment you are experiencing, with out fear. Horses sense fear.”
“Wow,” I thought. “It sounds like an amazing analysis of the dynamics of creating the space for a spiritual experience." What if those dynamics were applied to the other aspects of one's life? Wouldn't that create not just a spiritual experience, but a spiritual life as well?
Generally speaking, spiritual experiences are moments that transcend the ordinary mode of perception, meaning, and sensation. Spiritual experiences are typically absorbing, when we are involved in one we aren’t thinking about it. When we become self-aware of a spiritual experience it often causes it to change or end. Spiritual experiences are not necessarily of God or religious content, but they do typically connect you with a sense of relationship to something that defies or transcends the ordinary.
Strange as some such experiences may be, they frequently feel as “real” as any ordinary experience of day to day life. Intensity, sensation and emotion are usually altered in a very distinct or dramatic way. Different types of spiritual experience have different qualities and manners of seeing and feeling. In some spiritual experiences we have insights about our life path, in others we may encounter sacred beings, and in others we experience a Divine Presence so infinite and self-evident that we are instantly transformed.
Today, let's consider not limiting our spiritual experiences to a certain pre-defined model. Let's consider being open to the potential of all moments - and know that transformation is only a moment of relaxation away. Peace.
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