We've all heard of "walking the talk", of living out in daily life those ideas we claim to believe deeply. This kind of living requires a psychological walk that infiltrates all the moments of our lives. This walk is the spiritual journey.
The prelude to this walk for most of us is initiated by our response to a yearning deep within, a dissatisfaction with the standard view of the world handed to us by our culture. A search for deeper meaning begins, devouring books, encountering individuals who seem to have gained wisdom, taking literal journeys to far away places where reality is seen differently. This search can last for years, even decades. But there comes a time when we must put the books down, stop looking around the next corner for some new experience or bit of knowledge, and start living out those ideas that we deem most significant.
Here is the point at which many people fail to move forward. There is always another book to ingest or workshop to go to, anything to avoid the hard work of actually incarnating our deepest beliefs in every day life. Such efforts require that we go beyond intellectual curiosity and interesting conversations. They deal with decisions and choices in the ordinary moments of our lives. This is the true start of the journey that will lead to our blossoming into the best of our potential.
This walk requires that we confront ourselves and deal with our habits and ingrained attitudes which cut us off from living a more spiritual and meaningful life. We have to get out of our comfort zone and do things differently, or more precisely, become different at the root of our character. A key teacher in this process, which is often called "The Work" because it is difficult and demanding, has stated: "How can we change if we remain the same?" This seemingly simple question gets to the heart of the matter – If we want to apply the wisdom teachings we have studied, we must take those baby steps out of our old behavior into a new way of functioning in the world.
Another teacher speaks of thedisease of tomorrow, always putting off until some other time that decision and determination to move off the dime, to apply the teachings. Many of us will spend a lifetime thinking about undertaking the journey that leads into a spiritually conscious and mature existence. We may put our energy into other disciplines such as dieting and jogging, but we will not actually make the efforts to resist our impatience or bad temper. We may get wound up over the political issues of the day, but we will not commit to the timeless issues of awakening to our true spiritual nature. We will work night and day to make a living for ourselves and our families, but we will not stay calm or be kind to the person who dares to offend us in some way.
The work on ourselves required to enable this walking of our talk is certainly hard psychological labor. It begins with a self-awareness that enables us to see where we need to make changes. The power of self-observation lies in the fact that it teaches us that we neednotbe fully captive of our behavior. Just becoming aware of muscle tension begins a process of relaxing them. Many of the great teachers state that this simple process of relaxing tense muscles is directly related to our spiritual state in the moment. One can only begin that kind ofinner liberationby a separation between our deeper Self and the internal and external stimuli that is causing distress and dysfunction. Here we come upon the idea of detachment which is found in all spiritual teachings.
We must realize that there are certain aspects of our being that have no interest in spirituality and will actually fight against it. One of them is our instinctive nature, which is interested in eating and staying warm. It handles our digestion and is a mind that has its own way of doing things. We cannot claim ownership of it or control it much. Quite often it is in control of us and most often gets what it wants. As we apply spiritual teachings and try to make choices against forces within that have always had their way, we will experience resistance.
The more we develop that inner space that is not entirely ripped out of us by automatic reaction, the more we begin to enter a new dimension of presence and awareness. The early teachers of Christianity were aware of this phenomenon and developed a complex methodology for dealing with the inner life. They called itthe watch of the heart. They recognized that when thoughts enter and feelings bubble up, we have a choice to catch them at the point of recognition. If we are aware in the moment enough to say -- "Here is a thought that I am not going to go with because if I let it enter further, it will eventually become an action manifested in the world." To cut that thought off at the source requires that it must be caught before it has such an impact on us.
Walking the talk and applying the ideas we cherish, eventually grounds us in a deeper reality. Though it is long-term inner work, we are blessed by moments when we experience freedom from our usual reactions to the world and are able to taste an experience of higher consciousness -- or awareness of the Presence of God -- where peace, release, joy, gratitude can exist.
We have no control over these brief higher states, how long they last or when they come. The efforts of engaging in walking out (or working out) these spiritual insights leads to these higher states occurring more regularly and lasting longer. To make this possible, we have to set our psychological house in order. We need to stop the massive hemorrhaging of our energy which takes place from the moment we get up to the minute we go to sleep. If within fifteen minutes after we get out of bed, we are wired or all caught up in some unpleasant reaction, we are done for. It is going to be a momentum lasting, most likely, all day long.
This walk, this living out of the beliefs we claim to hold, gives us true integrity and empowers us to be a blessing in this world. No book, no fancy talk will do this for us. We must hold ourselves accountable to become that which we profess to hold sacred. Then our walk through this life will generate miracle and delight and we will truly understand why we are here and where this journey takes us.
