Yearning – the energy of desire. The need deep within that can only be quenched from MORE. Many times we see yearning as a restless soul desperate to dive into the deep waters to escape the island prison we feel deserted on.
The spiritual practice of yearning is drawing out the sacredness within and finding the MORE that is without ego and lust. It is a deeper practice that allows for a fluid, boundless fulfillment found in the deep waters of the ocean. It is the spark that ignites passion. To have a yearning spiritual practice one never needs for another to spark the fires, rather you become the spark for others.
To live the spiritual practice of yearning is to live an ecstatic life even when in the practical it is mundane. To live the spiritual practice of yearning is to see the moon and experience the wings of desire that carry us there. To live the spiritual practice of yearning is to erotically dance with the sun. It is life itself.
Ask yourself if you feel a yearning? What direction does it point you towards? What do you thirst for? What will quench the thirst? Do you feel the spark? Or are you trying to ignite a fire with no spark within?
Our longing is an echo of the divine longing for us. Our longing is the living imprint of divine desire. John O’Donohue
Spiritual Practice: Give form to your yearnings. Write down what you yearn for, draw what yearning looks like to you, or dance you’re yearnings. However you are called to express your yearnings is perfect. Ask yourself how does this yearning expand or limit me? What does the expansion, the limitlessness of the yearning feel, how do you experience it? Can you see how your yearning is a Divine desire?
Meaning does not come to us in finished form, ready-made; it must be found, created, received,constructed. We grow our way toward it. Ann Bedford Ulanov
Meaning in life. Meaning in spirit. We all wish to have meaningful experiences, to have life mean something, to us and to others, but is it something that just arrives or is it something we discover or can we actually practice meaning?
Meaning has to parts – seeking and creating. Seeking is simply the action of looking for a new perspective that resonates within. Creating is simply the action of giving form to an experience. Everything in our Universe has meaning. It is seeking resonate vibrations to be created into form. Sometimes it is simply the act of creating new perspectives from our act of seeking.
A traditional Mantra to practice while breathing as a spiritual practice of meaning (try it lying down looking up to the skies, standing atop of rock looking down, any new position to give new perspective of seeking and creating)
Breath inward: Old Wise One
Breath outward: what shall we create
We must remind ourselves that, though our lives are small and our acts seem insignificant, we are generative elements of this universe, and we create meaning with each act that we perform or fail to perform. Kent Nerburn
Every action, every spiritual practice, every experience has meaning – even inaction. The spiritual practice of meaning is entwined and weaved with every thread of every other spiritual practice. The gift comes when we allow ourselves to see with a new perspective through opening of the mind and heart.
Spiritual Practice: For one week record in your journal actions taken and what meaning you experienced and record any inactions with their experiences. After one week, go back and look at each entry and seek to create a new experience by seeing the experience with a new perspective. Can you see if from another person’s perspective? Can you see it through the eyes of love? Or perhaps through the eyes of action when you took no action? What you learn from this simple practice can shift your entire perspective in life.
Existence will remain meaningless for you if you yourself do not penetrate into
it with active love, and if you do not in this way discover its meaning for yourself.
Everything is waiting to be hallowed by you. Martin Buber
The spiritual practice of meaning is fueled by actions of active love. When we actively love self, others, nature, the universe, it is then we will discover meaning in every experience.
Spiritual Practice: Create a Book of Meaning. Recycle an old book that you no longer read by pasting quotes of meaning, acts of love, or photo’s that hold moments of personal meaning. Write your words of meaning in marker. Do this weekly or whenever you come across words of meaning or pictures to include.