[00:01] Intro: You're listening to the Real Enneagram podcast, a Spiritual Quest, brought to you by the Institute for Conscious Being.
[00:11] Joe: We're saying goodbye to 2022, and we're saying hello to 2023. What a year it has been for so many others, with the pandemic, and with the political situation, and with the other things going on, and all of our private lives. Celebrations, wonders, losses, and many other things that make up the daily substance of our lives, we have a lot to look back on. And we also have a lot to look forward to.
[00:51] In the spiritual life, we have more to look forward to, than those who don't choose that life. Because in the spiritual life, there is always the mystery. And we do not know the answer to the mystery. It is great and deep, and beyond our comprehension, but nevertheless, we all live in it. We do not know fully what anything is. We may know that it is all made of love, but we do not know exactly how it all happened, or where we are all going to end up.
[01:45] We have hopes. We have a theology. We have dreams. We have inclination. But the great mystery is beyond the human mind to conceive of. We live in a mystery that doesn't tell us when new things will happen. New people that will meet. New opportunities that will make their way into our life. New insights that we will have, and new activities that we will come upon. These are serendipity for sure. Because there is no planning to the mystery. And all of these wonders, and all of these miracles fall into our laps. Many of which are not planned for.
[02:52] Some of which of course are, but the ones planned are not part of the mystery. The mystery is waking up and being in a dream that still is going on while we are awake. And that dream is telling us something. It gives us nudges and shows us through characters and personages, parts of ourselves and parts of the Divine. The mystery is walking down the street and bumping into somebody you haven't seen for 10 years. And the conversation starts up, and you speak with each other as if only a day, not a decade, has gone by.
[04:04] And when you speak to each other, the relationship takes up where it left off, and the depth of it is still there. And to make the mystery even more special, that relationship takes up where it left off in being a meaningful relationship forever. The mystery is not knowing when we face trepidation, how we will get through it, if we will get through it. And the mystery unfolds for us strengths that we never knew we had. Many of us will or have met the unspeakable that which we thought was not ever going to be flawless but it does.
[05:15] Losses, health issues, surprises, shocks, betrayal. All of these are part of life and part of the mystery. But they evoke the soul in ways that bring out qualities in us that were in our depth, but we did not have conscious access to them. Therefore, courage arises. Endurance arises. Sobriety arises. Veracity and truthfulness arrives. All of the qualities of soul deep within us are emanating because of what we face. And even though we are in the face of danger, or shock, or loss, or grief, or intimidation, we are surprised by the joy of our own soul showing up.
[06:42] This next year, is a mystery facing us. Yes, we may have plan, and we may have resolution. And we may think that there is much we can count on. And I'm sure most of these will come true. But there is the unexpected ahead of all of us. Unexpected emotions, unexpected thoughts, and unexpected feelings and inclinations that are hidden within our bodies that come to light. Are we prepared for this mystery? Are we open to the mystery? Are we welcoming of the mystery?
[07:55] The answer to that is that our soul is but our ego not so much. Why is that? Because the ego really doesn't like mystery or the uncertain. The ego loves to have things planned out because the ego wants control over our lives and our environment and circumstances in relationships. But the soul is open to this mystery, because the soul knows that it is part of it, and that it unfolds as do the mysteries. And as the soul unfolds, we come closer to our true nature.
[08:53] The fulfillment of the seed which was planted in us at our making. We come closer to being our true selves. Our original being which was our original blessing. The mystery of 2023. Where will it take us and what will happen? Of course, we don't know, but it is not best for us to know. If we did know everything that was to come, we may think we have control of it, but our lives would become dull and boring and rote and definitely not adventurous. There would be no surprises. There would be no a-has. There would be no things just around the corner for us to savor, enjoy, love, rejoice with.
10:28] Also, if we knew everything that was to come, we would have to know the sorrows, the losses, the shocks, the disappointment, the failures, and all of the despair that naturally befall every human being at some time during their lives, and a little bit each year at a minimum. And so, if we did know all of those things, we could possibly be paralyzed with emotions concerning those things, and we could not live life to its fullest. So the mystery is life giving. The mystery causes us if we aren't to enjoy it and embrace it, to live in soul and to live in the now. Because the now is the only time that we really have to live. And the now is when the mystery reveals itself.
[12:12] Just think of what you're doing in this now. What's popping up for you? What is being revealed to you? What, as you're thinking, and feeling and looking, what is arising? What is inciting your imagination? What's igniting your motivation? What are you able to plan for because of the thoughts that are coming into your mind just this second. This is the harvest of the present moment. Living in the present is an action of the soul. The ego can't really live in the now, because it's split between thinking about the past and planning for the future. It doesn't really know how to relax and take it all in, because it thinks it's responsible for manufacturing the now.
[13:38] So while it's manufacturing what is to happen right now, it misses the now. But if we sit and relax, if we enter the stillness, we look at things and experience ourselves, life, others in the divine in totally different ways. These ways take us to our depths. They take us to where we're anchored to the part of us that springs from the ground of our being, where we are inextricably linked to our source which is the one true source of all-being God. And though God is part of the mystery, there is much about that amazing origin of ours that we can perceive. And one of the major things that we can perceive directly and a felt sense is love. Love which is compassionate, benevolent, truthful, merciful, full of grace and abounding with hospitality. A welcoming God that embraces us and supports all life in many, many ways.
[15:45] So as we sit and contemplate this coming year, we know that contemplation comes out of stillness, which is the place where the soul arises. And in that stillness, so much comes to us. We become reflective. We become meditative. And these give us a transparency to the world beyond. The veils lift, and we see in stillness what we could not see in our frenzied actions. We perceive in stillness what we could not perceive when our eyes are darting from here to there. When we are in stillness, our hearts are not pounding with fear or ecstasy, but they are beating to the rhythm of this universe.
[17:21] And in that coherence, there is spaciousness, spaciousness for the divine to manifest in word, in coincidence, in dream and serendipity, in epiphany, in revelation and signs, and then wonder. The transcendentalist called this the truths that go beyond. This coming year will be a transcendental year, because in your spiritual practice, you will be perceiving that which is beyond yourself, and in so doing, you will reach the doorstep of heaven. And when heaven meets Earth in that liminal space, we are transformed, and little by little, that ego is chipped away. And as it is, more of the soul emerges.
[19:10] In 2023, those of us who have community with like minds and like spirits, like hearts, the common bond being that we are searchers. We have a community that represents all of the faces of God, and it takes community for us to see all of the aspects of God. And in community, we are an aspect of God, and as this happens, there is wholeness. And with wholeness and completeness, there is healing. And with healing comes peace, and with peace, we can become the loving creatures we were meant to become in all the many aspects in which we bloom into consciousness.
[20:48] So whatever is on your mind for this coming year, whether it has to do with the mind, the body or your heart, those concern even though they're part of the mystery can be placed right now in the hands of the Divine. All that you have to do is to take everything that you are concerned about, anxious about, worried about, and right now form it into the shape of a ball. Just take those thoughts and spin them into a yarn of ball, and it's going to possibly be a ball about the size of a volleyball or a kickball, and hold all of those concerns in there.
[22:04] And now, take that ball and go outside. And with your non-dominant hand, hold the ball out in front of you with your hand. And with your dominant fists sock that ball and watch it enter the great abyss, flung far from you, into the hands of the Divine. The relief can already be felt, because we are not alone with anything we face. We have the companion that created us to be their companion. And anything we face, whether it be celebration or grief, we have the supportive heaven. And just knowing that worry and fretfulness, dismay, anger, disappointment, all of those feelings can be healed once we sock that ball of concern into the hands of God.
[24:19] Lark and I wish you all tremendous and fruitful, faithful 2023. Our love goes with you. Our faith goes with you. Our hearts are with you.