Challenges or Obstacles - The Spiritual Assualt Course
By Chris Bourne
Do you know the difference between a challenge and an obstacle?
Once we have surrendered direction in our lives to the governance of the soul - expressed through a deep authentic inner longing - we begin to see, feel and intuit a natural pathway unfolding before us; the one of ‘right action’ which expresses our highest truth. But it is not all plain sailing (as if we expected it to be!). We encounter many resistance's on the path. These resistances fall into two categories. Some are challenges inviting us to release attachment and unfold yet an even greater sense of genuine beingness. Others are obstacles which are not meant to be traversed. How do we know the difference between the two?...
To me, the key depends on our inner state of being. Are we coming from a place of surrendered openness or is there still a subtle inner efforting trying to manifest things we think we want? If we are sure that we are flowing from surrenderedness, then we begin to notice the natural flow of energy through all situations.
Synchronicity guides us to patterns of experiences designed to reveal where we become attached to a particular outcome. But higher guidance is not masochistic - our guiding consciousness is not having some huge cosmic joke at our expense! No, the synchronicities do guide us to a way of living that completely fulfils our needs and inner most longing.
As we unfold more of our authentic beingness, we notice the patterning through all events seeming to shape a “landscape” of synchronistic activities around us. To me the landscape begins to appear as parts of a jigsaw which accumulate in our consciousness over time and then suddenly start to click magically into place. When this happens, we truly know we are following right action (please note: this philosophy is totally contra to idea that we simply manifest our desires by bringing consciousness to them which in my truth simply leads to a new false reality).
As the jigsaw clicks into place, a linear pathway forms from our inner landscape linking our past journey to the present moment. As we continue to follow the inner pull, it immediately becomes clear what bits of the landscape fit where and the pathway unfolds before us.
The correct pathway is normally beset with challenges. A challenge is one which causes us to confront conditioned behaviours so that we may break them - it is just like meeting a crossroads with two exits. If we can pause just long enough so as not to be automatically sucked down the path of our repetitive behaviours, then we may sink deeper into inner stillness where we can uncover the authentic expression providing the key to the other pathway. In expressing this authentic action, the new pathway magically reveals itself before us. The synchronicity and inner yearning becomes so clear, we just have to walk forwards.
We definitely know that a crossroads is a challenge to be overcome when we notice our conditioned behaviours being exposed in this way.
On the other hand, we may discover that upon approaching a crossroads, even though we move into stillness and open surrender, still no new pathway reveals itself. No matter how we probe forwards and check for the obvious signs, nothing appears or it seems we are blocked and thwarted at every turn. In this case, we have most definitely hit an ‘obstacle’.
What is happening here?
It could be that the time or circumstances are not right for us to move forward yet. It could be that other parts of our life’s jigsaw still need to be created. In which case the key is to remain put - no amount of manifesting and efforting is going to remove the obstacle. Oh sure, we could use a variety of techniques (including the much talked of "law of attraction") to kid ourselves it's not there but all we really end up doing is creating a false pathway - another illusion in which to get stuck.
In my truth, the way to deal with such obstacles is simply to relax, settle down, continue with what we are doing but still keep noticing the synchronicities as they arise. If we can be patient in this way, eventually we will find everything just magically clicks into place at the right moment and it becomes clear once more how to proceed...
"Do you have the patience
to wait until the mud settles
and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
until the right action arises
by itself?"
Lao Tzu
So what is your inner landscape really saying? Have you hit a challenge by which to unfold a new facet of your heavenly beingness, or is it an obstacle inviting you to be patient? An obstacle approached in this way, is no obstacle at all.
Best wishes on your Spiritual Assault Course!
Chris Bourne
(Openhand Foundation)
Openhand is dedicated to our spiritual enlightenment providing a unique range of tools and practices for attuning to universal life energy thereby rejuvenating our being, facilitating greater self realisation and catalysing our further evolution.
This article was posted by Trinity Bourne
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