Inner Work

For the week of January 10, 2005

The Three Domains

In our usual, ordinary state we are neither active nor open. Instead we are passive, swept along in the stream of thoughts, emotions, physical impulses, and sensory perceptions. But when we rise out of that stream and turn toward spiritual inner work, we have a choice. What approach shall we adopt: inwardly active, inwardly open, or some harmony of the two? Our answer depends on the domain in which we choose to work at that moment.

The outer domain of body, thought, emotion, and surroundings, a region on which we can have some influence, calls for an active approach to inner work. This includes focusing our attention, sensing our body, energy breathing, acts of kindness, working against destructive habits, not clinging to thoughts and reactive emotions as me or mine, doing the right thing, and so forth.

The inner domain, the higher worlds, calls us to receive, simply and directly. In moments of prayer and deep meditation we open ourselves, heart and soul, utterly and completely, toward the higher. Perhaps we are allowed entry, or better still, we allow the higher to enter us. Either way, in approaching the spiritual worlds, inner openness is the path upward.

Of course, it's not always so absolute: openness plays a role in the active, and vice versa. In the outer domain we open to physical sensation and we listen to our neighbor. On the inner side, we actively turn toward the higher, inwardly calling out to the Divine.

But between all of these, between the higher and the lower, the outer and the inner, the active and the open, we stand in in harmony in the center of our being, in the place of presence, in “I Am,” in the stillness of consciousness. Inhabiting this center, we work actively toward the outer, toward our surroundings, our body, and the habitual patterns of our personality. Inhabiting this center, we open toward the higher, toward the realms of ecstasy and love.

Sometimes we work actively toward the outer. At other times openly toward the higher. And when possible, we rise to all three simultaneously, active toward the outer, open toward the higher, and fully present as our own true conscious nature in the center. At those times, the higher flows through us and into this world. And in the process, we begin to emerge as a whole human being.

For this week, find the balance in your inner work.

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