Practical spirituality
A spirituality that doesn't change how you treat people is a hobby.
There is a spirituality for escaping and one for arriving. The first is recognisable: it uses elevated vocabulary to avoid making the difficult phone call. The second shows in small things, in patience, in how you disagree, in what you do when nobody is watching.
What I call practice here has nothing mystical about it. It is noticing the thought before obeying it. It is being able to disagree without being at war. It is dropping a defence and finding that nothing bad happened.
It is for people who have a religion and for those who have none, because it does not add beliefs, it removes automatic patterns.
For presence to take deep root, it must be tested in the fire of relationships.
To love is to recognise yourself in the other.
Eckhart Tolle
- Notice, don't correct
One week simply watching what the mind keeps saying.
- Choose one situation
The one that repeats most. Not the most serious one.
- Practise there, and only there
Depth in one place beats surface in ten.
- Check it against others
The change shows first to the people who live with you.
From idea to practice
If you are looking for a concrete way to bring these principles into your relationships and the ordinary situations of everyday life:
Miracles (almost) Every Day
Book
A Course in Miracles
Subject