Multi-Dimensional Mastery - May 2016 - Santa Fe

How to Spot a Fearless New Spiritual Pioneer

By Dr. Judy Scher

For millennia, humanity has existed under a set of rules, restrictions, and dogma connected to every major religion. The principles and underlying values of these major religions have many gifts to share and have given support and a sense of community to many people. It’s clear many of us have defaulted to mindlessly following a series of customs, rather than engaging in a direct experience of life. However, a great number of us have become dissatisfied and even disillusioned with prescribed teachings if they are not connected with embodied spiritual values and the growth of spiritual wisdom. Spiritual wisdom has little to do with concepts and everything to do with experience.

 

What it comes down to is this: we are hungry for an authentic experience of who we really are. Ideas and rhetoric are no longer good enough. We are tired of bouncing back and forth from suffering to bliss to suffering to bliss. We are longing for the experience of alignment, the experience of love, the experience of connectedness, the experience of grace, the experience of acceptance, the experience of compassion, the experience of surrender, the experience of empowerment. This experience is what is real, and that includes both the sublime and the messy.  When we are truly present and have no fight with the imperfection of how life unfolds, we are gifted with wisdom. Growth is a natural outcome.

 

Experience has nothing to do with perfection or attaining anything. Spiritual wisdom is certainly not what we think it is. If anything it is outside of what our mind can think.  Spiritual wisdom is grown from engaging with ourselves from a truthful place.  Sometimes the hardest thing we experience is the truth of the moment.

 

I see spiritual pioneers all over. It is the person behind the register in the grocery store, the person hiking up the trail, the one working as a mechanic or electrician or plumber. It is the true artist, the musician wanting to bring more beauty into the world. It is the writer seeking. It is the various new entrepreneurs calling forth a new way to do business with heart instead of simply looking at the bottom line. It is the construction worker, the architect, and the engineer, all seeking a new understanding of life’s mysteries. It is the dance, yoga and exercise instructor assisting us to move more fully into our bodies. It is healers of all kinds, who are working in new and innovative ways even as they bring forth ancient wisdom.

 

The tide has turned in our culture. The status quo no longer satisfies for the spiritual pioneer.  For those who are not just in survival mode, there is a call toward MEANING; a call to engage parts of ourselves that have been dormant until now; those unused, atrophied parts that call out for nourishment. And the only nourishment that will satisfy is the nectar of the heart and soul.

 

The new spiritual pioneer does not reject the past but will either claim the value that the past offers or simply put focus toward the future of who he or she really needs to be. They have heeded the wake up call that living merely to protect oneself is not living at all; it was a safety net, a developmental stage. Now the present and future require a new demand - a new level of authentic being.

 

The new spiritual pioneer values a profound connection to life, to nature, to people. They understand that being able to listen deeply and be present with themselves brings a transparency of connection with others. Engaging in a more authentic life takes practice. For most of us, that practice includes stumbling around – hopefully with humor, compassion, and the willingness to explore and stay open even when there are misunderstandings. It also means learning how to show up in a proactive way, empowered with right action and appropriate boundaries when necessary.  There is no perfection to achieve. Authenticity and giving ourselves permission to feel what we must, to be present with what we must, allows for a true integration of body*mind*spirit wisdom.  If you recognize yourself here, then you could very well be a fearless new spiritual pioneer.

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