Inner  Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

 

Inner Work


For the week of September 25, 2006


Awe

A rare element of our emotional portfolio, the feeling of awe, when it does emerge, connects us viscerally with the sacred. We travel though a life in which everything and everyone occupies about the same level, a life in the material world. Nearly the whole of it comes to us familiar, expected, and perhaps a little flat. This situation, however, does not arise from life itself, but rather from our own attitude, perceptual limitations, and state of being.

Sometimes we confront a situation that shakes us out of the flatness: the sacred space of a house of worship, the majesty of a mountain, the vastness of the ocean, the power of a storm, or the birth of a child. We stand in awe, reminded of our forgotten relationship with the truly Awesome. This unique feeling, awe, has elements of fear, veneration, humility, and wonder. And it functions when our perceptions open to some aspect of the true nature of the Divine. Thus awe indicates nearness.

Now rather than wait for the unusual and propitious circumstance, can we bring ourselves near the Divine by way of awe? Can we penetrate our expectation of the ordinary and gather an intimation of that Infinite and Loving Intelligence? Can we direct our attention beyond this material world and beyond our own awareness, even for a moment? Exploring, invoking the rightful feeling of awe carries us closer and makes the ordinary extraordinary.

For this week, explore your own feeling of awe and what it relates you to.


     

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