I recently shared an excellent and very brief article on the Facebook page for A Clean Mind, and I realized that not everybody who reads this blog is on that page. Which is fine; I don’t even have a personal Facebook page myself. My mom says I should get one, though, to help spread this light more. And she is totally right. But I’m still scared, so I’ll wait a little longer.
Anyway, I recently picked up the November edition of Natural Awakenings magazine. Glancing at the table of contents, the article that jumped right out was one entitled, The Path to Inner Peace: 12 Steps to Spiritual Awakening. “How can I not read this?,” I thought. And I must admit that my expectations were pretty low. With a title like that, I was almost looking to see how bad it was. I think I was chuckling a bit, in fact. Twelve steps? Really? So I started to read, and it got very clear right away that this was the real deal. A very awesome article. It’s totally general and applicable to any human, so it really is hard to argue with. It’s universal, but so is the truth, isn’t it? There can’t be two truths, because then it wouldn’t be true. Keep this in mind when thinking about the different religions, by the way. There can only be one truth. Is it really that likely that one of them has it all right and the others don’t? Hell no. That’s ridiculous. When we look deeply at all of them, we start to see some commonalities. That’s where you’ll find the truth (read Religion 101). But we digress…
This article is basically about relaxing into how things are and not trying to always be okay. Realize that at some level we are okay and we don’t have to try. If you do something then do it. But don’t do it in order to be okay. You are already okay. Your life might not be exactly as you wish, but you are at least okay. I know this might sound a bit vague, so you’re best off reading the article for yourself. It’s only a couple of pages long, too. Do it!
The author is Michael Singer, and the link is here: http://bit.ly/17JP5BY. This is a very brief article that’s based on his book, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself. There’s a website as well, www.UntetheredSoul.com. I have neither read the book nor visited the website, but there are a couple of nice synchronicities here. I love them things… The first is that Singer founded a place called Temple of the Universe in Alachua, FL. Alachua is about fifteen miles north of Gainesville, where I was in math grad school from 2004-06. That’s when and where I dove head first into the spiritual world, practicing Arhatic Yoga and Pranic Healing pretty hardcore. Very hardcore. Knowing I was into all that “weird stuff,” my good friend in Gainesville told me about this temple. I think I even went there once, in fact, and then forgot about it until this article.
The second synchronicity (it takes me forever to type that word, by the way) is that days after reading this article, I connected with someone in Pensacola I had not met before. We have common friends and common interests, so we met for coffee/tea. I mentioned this article, and he said it reminded him of a book he had. He couldn’t remember the name of it or the author’s name. I asked if it was Michael Singer? The Untethered Soul? That was it! Love those synchronicities…
So check it out. And be on the lookout for any ego reactions in those first few steps, too. That would be common in most people, I think. If you notice this, simply observe it with innocence and maybe even light, gentle amusement. And keep reading. This is very simple and yet VERY powerful. So don’t be deceived… I’d read it a couple of times. It only takes a few minutes, anyway. The latter steps lay out where we’re headed. Happy reading, happy expanding, and as always, let me know if I can help.