Preparing For The Mystery

We are now in a time when there is a mighty pull for all to look inward, we are now in a time when we all are being called back to our source. Because of this, many of us have begun seeking, yearning, and searching, for a more direct and intimate experience with our inner father.

For this reason the time has now come upon us to know how to prepare our environment and cultivate it in such a way that it is conducive for healthy spiritual growth and development. Because there are many who have felt frustrated in their spiritual walk and practice, this write up has an aim of giving practical knowledge and support to assist every single one of us.

A wise man once said that "luck is when opportunity collides with preparation". In order for a seed to grow, the right preparations must be carried out in and around the soil. Within us exists a seed, a seed of light, a seed of Christ, that germinates beautifully, spontaneously, when the right environment is prepared.

It is good for us spiritual seekers to know that the states of our physical environment, emotional environment, and mental environment, have tremendous impact on our spiritual growth and development. So many possibilities arise before our countenance when we start being deliberate about cultivating these various environments.

THE MIND

The mind is a very important vehicle that we possess. The mind can be likened unto the physical body because it is a distinct body of its own. It is an organisation which possesses its own faculties of perception, and what we can call 'mental organs'. The mind has the capacity to be starved and the capacity to be overfed. The mind has the capacity to fall sick, become seriously injured, and it has the capacity to die.

It is concerning things like this that the Bible, and all those who have become very intimate with the inner worlds, speak of 'death' and 'illnesses' that transcend the physical body. Though many think that the greatest of miracles is the healing of a physical body, the healing of a broken mind, a fallen mind, is a much bigger feat.

PATIENCE

Patience is the fruit of a healthy mind. The inability to have patience for example, is an evidence of a mind that is unhealthy, or we can say 'unfit'. The word 'patience' is derived from the latin word 'pati', which means 'to suffer'. A 'patient' person is one who can endure an uncomfortable moment for a sustained period of time.

It isn't necessarily about "waiting for something". This is why in the Bible for example, patience is called 'long-suffering'.

As some of us may or may not know, a person who cannot be 'patient' will find walking with God rather difficult. That is, being able to remain calm and consistent in Godly character in a situation or a circumstance that we do not like.

Only a mentally, emotionally, and sometimes physically fit individual, can be patient. Seeing as patience always relates to the boundaries of a person's capacity, be it physically, emotionally, or mentally.

The necessity for patience, especially regarding practices like meditation and contemplation, is something that cannot be overstated.

This is why as spiritual seekers, we ought to begin to cultivate the nature of patience, through supplication to the Holy Spirit and most especially 'practice'. We can't ask the Holy Spirit for patience and sit waiting for patience to happen. Patience can only come out of us in the place of activity.

Cultivating some kind of daily practice which can help one 'exercise' their emotions and mind is something very crucial; especially for those of us who wish to prepare a healthy environment for the workings of the spirit. Many people are frustrated in their spiritual walk not because God is not present, but because their environment is not very conducive for his seed to flourish.

All throughout history, all peoples and cultures have utilized various kinds of 'exercises' to cultivate and develop the mind. This is why in India for example, people are taught to bend their bodies in very uncomfortable ways every blessed day. Some of us know this as 'yoga'.

Physical exercises for the mind.

That in itself, amongst other things, is a kind of tool they use to teach people 'patience'. Most of the 'stretches' we do in the gym before working out are actually derived from 'yoga poses'. Those of us who are able to do some kind of physical workout, such as jogging or weightlifting, know how mentally 'stretching' it is.

In the Christian monasteries in the middle ages, and even up till now, similar practices are also adopted, except they use manual labors as tools to cultivate patience and stretch a person's mind. Manual labors such as farming, cattle rearing, gardening, translating books from latin to english etc.

When one visits an authentic monastery, or maybe a spiritual retreat centre, or a prayer mountain, the calmness and stillness of the people therein become very obvious to those of us who live in busy cities. Why won't such people hear God clearly? Why won't meditation come easy for people who live in such environments?

Definitely, not all of us possess the opportunity nor intention to live in a monastery or retreat center and not all of us are actually called to live such lives. We however can still create the same results within our living environment to make our minds very functional and equipped for spiritual practice and growth.

Even though it is not commonly taught, the actions we carry out on a day to day are not really separate from our lives in the spirit. Our physical life is not one thing and spiritual life another, no. They interrelate with one another simultaneously and the things we do on a day to day have significant effect on our lives in spirit. This is why any kind of spiritual training must begin from our daily lives.

PRACTICES FOR CULTIVATING PATIENCE

1. We can start by listening more in conversations, especially when we disagree with someone else's opinion. Often times, through listening and asking questions to 'better understand' a person, not only do we help them give us more clarity but we can also help them see their own loopholes and correct themselves. Being quick to violently react to an opinion we disagree with, teaches the mind to lose its stillness at slightest disturbance.

2. For those of us who have spouses or are in unmarried relationships, those moments of conflict are the best times to grow our patience. Sometimes, actually listen to the other person's plight, understand where they are coming from, recognize their distress and seek for a way to ease their sorrow.

3. Moments when we are on a queue are fantastic opportunities to cultivate patience. Often times, this is when we 'lose our rockers' and maybe yell at the person who is 'taking our time'. You see, reality is not really as isolated as we sometimes like to imagine. If we are impatient in one area of our lives, it certainly will translate to other areas of our lives, most especially our spiritual practices.

4. When we read books, we usually want to breeze past 100 pages as soon as possible. This is not only unhealthy for the learning process, it is also unhealthy for our minds. After reading a page or two, we can try to recollect majority of the ideas we remember and if possible write them down. That extra effort we put in recollection and writing down is very uncomfortable, and such moment is great for developing patience. If we can develop patience in on part of our lives, it translates to other aspects of our lives. The same goes for impatience.

5. Adopting a sport or some kind of physical exercise is another great tool! Going through a regimented program in the gym is nothing easy at all, especially when we feel unmotivated. Such circumstances are most favourable to cultivate the nature of patience in the mind and heart. When the body is uncomfortable during a strenuous workout, all we want to do is give up. Such a moment is beyond helpful to teach us how to remain consistent in discomfort; how to be patient.

6. Cooking our own food is one of the most natural ways of developing patience. There is something beautiful about sitting through each process in the creation of a dish. It teaches the mind to concentrate on one thing and be more interested in fulfilling every aspect of a thing, than simply rushing to the end of the process.

7. The carrying out of house chores such as laying our beds after waking up, cleaning our rooms and homes, folding our laundry ourselves, cleaning our own dishes, are very effective tools for mental exercise and creating stillness.

(I would so much love if we could say one or two things that have helped us cultivate patience in the comment section below).

Our day to day actions and activities are not really separate from our spiritual walk. Our spiritual life and physical life are two aspects of one whole. They cannot be separated. Every physical action we carry out has an effect on our emotions and minds. The same way the mind can be used to work on the body, the body can also be used to work on the mind.

Everything we do matters, everything connects and relates to one another simultaneously. Even though these given practices might seem simple, if we are deliberate about carrying them out, we will soon find ourselves praying with ease, reading with ease, meditating with ease.

The health of the mind is very crucial for every single one of us to function normally in society. It is also something we must pay attention to if we wish to seamlessly interact with our inner Father, and elements which do exist in the realms of spirit.

Whenever God sends communication, it passes through the mind. If the mind is a wild and unstable place, the sweet and beautiful message from God will easily be distorted and misconstrued. The way the body needs to develop physical muscles to do more work, so also does the mind.

Mental Focus

FOCUSING THE MIND

The ability to keep the mind focused on one thing for an extended period of time is an important ingredient in spiritual practice. Especially when we start to talk about subjects like dreams and meditation. A mind that can be focused, still, can extract much more information from the dreams and meditative experiences. This however would be a subject we shall build later.

'Multi-tasking' is one of the enemies of not only sound mental development but also sound spiritual development. A mind that lacks the ability to pay attention to one thing for an extended period of time will undoubtedly find it difficult to look inward and hear God in a crystal clear manner.

In deep prayer and meditation, a mind that is used to day dreaming and zoning out from one thing to another, will find it difficult to retain messages communicated to them from their inner Father.

One of the greatest impediments to spiritual practice, as well as clarity in our communion with God, is a mind that does not possess the ability to stay still. I would like us to consider, for the sake of analogy, a person who wishes to develop a technical skill such as 'football'.

In order for an individual to become an effective soccer player, such a person's physical body ought to be trained along a specific regiment. The muscles must be taught how to be quick and reactive through various soccer drills, the heart must be taught how to pump more blood with less effort through cardiovascular training etc.

Imagine if someone wanted to be a soccer player but only trained once every two weeks, on other days he trains to be a painter, welder, dancer, cook, sculptor, mason etc. Do you think his body will be able to learn anything definite? I think not. Because the body has not been subjected to the consistent focus on 'one thing', the body ends up learning nothing.

Years will pass, and such individual would have not developed sufficient skill to function sufficiently in any of those fields. This here is similar to what happens when we let our minds wander to 20 things in 5 seconds. It is a kind of laziness, it is laziness.

Staying focused on one thing takes energy, it takes effort, and we will rather 'zone out' because it is easy. This is very similar to laying on the couch all day and not doing anything definitive with our physical bodies because "it's easy". We have to begin training our attention span and encourage it to stretch; we have to start being deliberate about focusing on that which is in front of us.

If we are walking, walk! If we are eating, eat! If we are laughing, laugh! If we are reading, read! We can't be reading one thing and be imagining another, it is time to begin training the mind for definite and accurate use.

The ability to be consistent and continuous in 'one thing', is a prerequisite to building anything substantial. Rome was not built in a day, but it was built by people who were consistent in putting a new stone atop another everyday.

James spoke about this concept of 'consistency' when he said:

'But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and CONTINUES in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.' James 1:25

Consistency, perpetuity, continuity, is what matters. One day on and one day off of anything cannot produce anything substantial. The one who is blessed in what he does is the one who is continuous, not he who begins today and ends tomorrow. This principle exists in every sphere of life.

PRACTICES FOR MENTAL FOCUS

1. We can begin teaching ourselves how to focus, right here on our mobile devices. Whilst we are engaging in a chat with one person, another chat might pop up and it is very possible that in the middle of replying the person we are speaking with, we jump to a new chat. This is something we have to discipline ourselves against. If we are watching a video on YouTube, unless it is urgent, we must finish that video before jumping to Instagram or Whatsapp.

2. We need to observe ourselves and notice when we are 'day-dreaming'. When we find ourselves day-dreaming, we have to stop it. This is because this act of day dreaming is not limited to when we are awake in the physical body, but it will extend when we are in the dreams or while we try to meditate. Instead of seeing what God might want to be communicating to us, we'll instead see our fantasies and wishes.

3. We can carry out a retrospective meditation practice at the beginning or close of day. We can sit in a comfortable chair and recollect as much detail of the past day as we can remember, focusing on each detail of the day. During this process, we will notice the mind trying to wander off in laziness but we must catch the mind back and complete the practice. Depending on our various capacities, we can do this for 10, 15, or 30 minutes. Doing this every day will serve as a fantastic exercise for the mind.

4. We can take a Bible verse or story and sit on it for some minutes, thinking on each element of the story and seeing how it relates to our daily lives; restricting our thought process in that period within the boundaries of that story.

5. When talking with people, talk with people. It is such a bad thing for the mind, when we are having conversations with a person in front of us while watching a video on YouTube, replying an Instagram comment or Whatsapp message. We need to begin to be deliberate about restricting our minds if it is going to serve us properly.

6. Fasting, whether it be a food fast, digital fast, speech fast, is another powerful tool for teaching the mind to be focused. Those of us who have embarked on any kind of fast before know that staying faithful to a fast is no easy feat. It is not only tasking to the mind but it is tasking to the emotions as well. Such moments, when we are under such intense pressure from our body to eat, or from our minds to watch that tv show, is perfect to train the mind to be consistent in will and purpose.

These tips and guidelines we are now giving are absolutely crucial to prepare us for deep and direct communion with God. God wishes for us to develop the capacity to hear from him and it is time to know how. I will encourage everyone of us to take these practices very seriously, they might appear simple and without much merit but things are not always as they seem.

This is a series that we shall continue to develop over the coming weeks. We are presently dealing with this topic from the angle of the mind. Over the coming days, we shall venture into the emotions, the physical body, dreams, meditations and a plethora of spiritual practices.

I would so love to hear from us all in the comment section. God bless you!