Ten ways to nurture your spiritual life

By: Deepak Chopra MD.

The Intention is the starting point of any spiritual path. Intention includes wi
ll, purpose, aspiration and highest vision. If you direct your intention to God,
the spirit grows. If you are heading you intend to material existence, will be
that which will grow. Once you plant the seed of an intention, your soul's journ
ey will unfold automatically. Here are several basic intentions that mark a spir
itual life.
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I want to feel the Presence of God. This intention is rooted in the discomfort o
f being isolated and separate. You can hide this discomfort to develop friendshi
ps and family ties. However, each one of us needs to experience a sense of peace
and inner fulfillment. I want God to help me and support me. The Presence of Go
d brings the qualities of spirit. In the Source, each quality, love, intelligenc
e, truth, organizing ability, creativity, becomes infinite. The growth of these
things in your life is a sign that you're getting closer to your soul. I want to
feel connected to all. The Voyage of the Soul is a person of a fragmented state
, one of wholeness. Events start to weave a pattern. The small details are coupl
ed together instead of being scattered and random. I want my life to have meanin
g. Existence feels empty in separation. This will heal, only to move towards uni
ty with God. Rather than go to the outside world to find your purpose, you feel
that just being here, as you are, is the highest purpose in creation. I want to
be free of restrictions. Inner Freedom is greatly compromised when fear exists,
and fear is a natural result of the separation. As you get closer to your soul,
the old limitations and defenses start to disappear.
If these basic intentions are present within you, God takes the responsibility t
o express them. Everything else you do is secondary. But even so, can exert grea
t influence through your daily behavior. Here are the ground rules for spiritual
life that have proven effective for me personally and I feel will work for many
people.
1. Know your intentions. Do not let your false
intentions remain masked. Take 'em out, root and works with anger and fear that
keeps you tied to them. False intentions desires take the form of negligence: I
want someone to fail, yoquiero revenge, I want the bad people punished, I want t
o get something without putting mine in danger. False intentions can be elusive,
will notice their existence by the feeling that connects you with them, a feeli
ng of fear, greed, anger, despair, weakness. First you experience the feeling, a
fter quedártelo Deny and then stay alert until you find the intent that lies be
neath. 2. Set your intentions high. Have the intention to be a Saint or a miracl
e worker. Why not? If you know that the goal of inner growth is to acquire maste
r, then you, calls for this Masters is expressed as soon as possible. Do not try
to produce miracles, but do not resist them either. The beginning of the Master
's Vision: To see miracles around you, that will make it easier greatest miracle
s begin to appear. 3. See yourself in the light. The ego maintains its dominance
in making us feel needy and powerless. This sense of loss, longing to acquire g
rew everything we see. Money, power, sex and pleasure, is supposed to fill the g
ap, but not filled. You can escape this illusion package only if you do not see
yourself in the dark struggling to reach God, but you look at the Light from the
 outset. The only difference between you and a saint is that your light is small
and a saint is great. You are both of the Light. 4. Seeing everyone else in the
Light. The cheapest way to feel good about yourself is to feel superior
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other people. From this small seed grows every form of trial. A simple form can
help you here. When you are tempted to judge another human being, no matter how
obviously he or she deserves it, remind yourself that everyone is doing the best
they can from their own level of consciousness. Reinforce your intentions every
day. Daily life is a kind of swirling chaos and the ego is firmly rooted in the
ir demands. You need to remind yourself from the beginning to the end of the day
, your spiritual purpose. Some people find it helpful to write their intentions
to others, they are useful,€regular periods of meditation and prayer. Find your
center, interiorÍzate and do not let go of your intention until you feel cente
red within. Learn to forgive yourself. All of us fall into traps of self-suffici
ency and hope when least expected. The evidence demonstrates that hurt someone,
deliberately lying to the irresistible urge to cheat are universal. Forgive your
self for being where you are. Apply yourself the same rules that apply to others
: you're doing the best you can, from your own level of consciousness .. (I like
to recall the definition of a Master, the perfect disciple: "One who is always
stumbling but never falls.") Learn to let go. The paradox of being spiritual, yo
u are always wrong and right at the same time. Life is change, you must be prepa
red to let go of your beliefs, your thoughts and your actions today, regardless
of how you make you spiritual. Each level of internal growth is good. All are fe
d by God. Reverence for what is sacred. Our society teaches us to be skeptical o
f the sacred. But every saint is your future, and each teacher is looking for yo
u in the crowd you to join with him. The human representatives of God, constitut
e an infinite treasure. Delve into this treasure will help you open your heart.
Let God take over. Most people are addicted to worry, control, dominate and lack
of faith. Resist the temptation to follow these trends. Do not listen to the vo
ice that tells you
you have to have everything under control and that constant vigilance is the onl
y way to get things to be done. Let the Spirit try a new path. Your intention is
the most powerful tool you have available. Do everything possible because every
thing goes as it should, then let go and let opportunities come to your meeting.
The result so inevitably you're looking for, may not be so good for you, as som
eone who comes to you naturally. If you could give God a percent of your daily l
ife, you would be the most enlightened person in the world within three months.
Keep this in your mind and deliver something, anything, every day. 10. Embrace t
he Unknown. Through the years bundle formed likes and dislikes;'ve learned to ac
cept certain limits. None of this is your true self The unknown is waiting. A la
ck of knowledge that has nothing to do with the "I" you already know. Some peopl
e reach the edge of illusion only, the hour of death and then, with a long look
back at a lifetime seems incredibly short and transient. The part of us that we
know, is the part that makes us see everything too fast. When you feel a new imp
ulse, a thought elevator, an insight that you never had before, embrace the unkn
own. Take care as tenderly as a newborn baby. God lives in the unknown and when
you fully embrace it, be free.
Taken from the New Age Journal March-April 2000. Free translation from English t
o Spanish by: Johan A. González.