- - - - - - -    REAL LIFE = CONSCIOUS LIVING    - - - - - - -

                                 by:

                      Sandy Penny - September, 1993


Many people think if they attend enough workshops and talk about
spirituality enough, they will automatically become more spiritual.
Some think if they develop their psychic abilities that they will
automatically become more spiritual.  This is partially true, but
neither of these things is totally true.  There are no instant answers
for us.  We live in physical bodies, and there is some amount of time
and effort required to change our lives.  For some people, it is a
shorter time than others, but spirituality requires practice.

      REAL spiritual life =
      R = Recognize    E = Experience    A = Acceptance    L = Love

R, we have to become conscious of our actions and stop living our life
from preprogrammed like robots and drones.  We have to pay attention
to our life, to examine our interactions with others, to observe what's
happening there.  We recognize the darkness that lives in each of us. We
stop examining other people's lives, blaming them for our lack, and
focus on ourselves.

E, we have to experience what we have recognized.  We have to be fully
present, fully active and fully own our strengths, weaknesses and human
parts.

A, acceptance of ourselves, our lives, others, and all that we
experience as an integral part of our learning move us to new depths of
spirituality.  That means that we accept that our lives are not just
the easy times, they are the hard times too, and we commend ourselves
for sticking with the hard lessons when we need to.

L, love is the result of the rest of REAL life.  Once we recognize,
experience, and accept our entire lives as being our spiritual path and
stop separating spirit and matter, because there is no separation, we
begin to love life, ourselves and others. We acknowledge the importance
of everyone in teaching us more about ourselves, even those who seem to
create negative experiences with us.  When we come to this place of
love, we have spiritualized our whole lives.  This does not comes easy
or fast, and it requires honesty, patience and faith.  It truly takes
our whole lifetime to accomplish this because when we graduate, we
don't need to be here any more.

What exactly is conscious living?  Aren't we all conscious except when
we're asleep?  The truth is that some of us are much more conscious
asleep than awake.  We walk around in a daze, doing things because
they're expected of us, or because we learned to do them a certain way
in childhood, or because we believe we have no other choice.  Throw
that notion out immediately..we always have a choice - to act or not to
act, but we participate either way.

Have you ever walked into the house, put down your keys and five
minutes later started searching for them because you couldn't remember
where you put them?  Of course, we all have, but that's an example of
unconscious living.  Think of some other examples in your own life.
When we take actions without awareness, we may cause ourselves and
others pain or discomfort (time and agitation looking for keys).
What's worse is that we may not even know we've hurt someone because we
were not conscious of our actions (creation of karmic debt).

Conscious living is being aware of each moment of our lives,
understanding the significance of each event, and taking right action.
Conscious living involves being able to look at our lives and admit
that we play a part in the negative situations as well as the positive
ones. The next step is taking responsibility for our own right
action. Right action means taking steps to ensure that what we do is
in the best interest of all concerned. It does not mean becoming a
doormat and allowing everyone to manipulate or take advantage of you.
That is probably not in the best interest of everyone or anyone concerned.

Conscious living views each moment as a meditation and a contemplation.
Thinking before speaking, feeling before acting, looking before leaping,
moving carefully (full of care) and knowing you have done your best toward
right action, right speech and right attitude.

How do we live life as if it were a meditation?  What do we do in a
meditation?  We first consciously direct our attention inward to our
self and our source. We pay attention and attribute significance to
every element of the meditation: our surroundings, sights, smells,
sounds, words spoken, conversations.  We examine every aspect of the
meditation and try to comprehend the meaning for ourselves.  We listen
to the guidance we receive.  We acknowledge the wisdom gained.  We feel
the joy, the freedom, the love. We give thanks for what we learn in
meditation, even if it's a painful realization.  We learn and we grow.

This is meditation and it is truly living life in the fullness that it
is meant to be.  This is also the path to karmic resolution and the
healing of the planet. We must heal our own lives.  If each of us work
on healing our own lives, all the problems of the world could be
solved.  We are co-creators of the Universe.  Until we begin to live
consciously, we are adding to the chaos.  Conscious living could create
a very different planet.  We often believe that we are powerless in
this huge system of society, but society is made up of individuals.
Every action an individual takes affects someone else, that someone
affects someone else by their actions (which were affected by your
action).  This process continues until we have affected every person on
this planet with every action we take.  There is a saying that if a
butterfly flaps its wings on this side of the world, the wind generated
eventually contributes to a hurricane on the other side of the world.
Energy is transferred in ever widening circles, so the positive steps
we take in our lives ripple out into the farthest reaches of the
universe.  If this isn't motivation enough to begin your conscious
living and self healing, what will ever be?

  Live and Share Your Sanctuary,        Be Happy!