Inner Work

For the week of: December 27, 2004

Determination and Help

Determination and commitment to the spiritual path, to daily work on meditation, sensing, presence, kindness, and prayer, lie within our purview, within what is required on our part. Without determination and commitment we will not make the efforts required to move along the way. Built from our oft-renewed decision to do the sacred work of the soul, that determination is what we bring to the path.

On the other hand, determination is not enough. We need help. In the earlier stages we need help from other people to learn the how-to of the path. In later stages, we need help from above. For example, regardless of how determined we are to be continuously present, we are most unlikely to attain to that without the help of higher energies and without opening our will beyond ego toward the Divine. Both these kinds of help come through turning our innermost core toward the higher, utterly emptying ourselves in the heartfelt depths of worship or meditation. The higher stands ready to help us, if we stand ready to receive it.

But any help we do receive dissipates rapidly and wastefully, if not put to work in the practical way of sensing, presence, and so on. Here determination plays its role. We need to create an inner vehicle, a mode of spiritual readiness both to receive the blessings from above and to engage them in the work of perfecting our soul. The regular cultivation of both our ability to worship and our ability to be present gradually builds the necessary inner environment.

For this week, examine your situation in regard to these crucial and complementary aspects of the path: determination and receiving help.

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