Inner  Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

 

Inner Work


For the week of July 14, 2008

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Partial Practice

(Part 4 of 9 in the Inner Work Series: Stages of Inner Unity: I )

Having learned a personally suitable and effective set of spiritual practices, we put them to use as best we can. The early rush of enthusiasm gives way to our limitations. What limits us primarily is the very fragmentation of will addressed by our practices. Most of our will accords greater concern and respect to externals than to our Self, the Self of others, and the Great Self of the Sacred One. Some days we lose almost all contact with our true nature; our wish and commitment to practice wanes to near extinction. Great gaps of unaware, uncentered hours punctuate our life.

Nevertheless, in this vast desert of experience, we seek to create oases of spirituality. Gradually these oases in our day, perhaps periods of meditation or prayer, walking in presence, and the like, attract an inner coalition. Subsets of our fragmented inner world join together in the decision and commitment to practice. More of us appreciates the potential of Self and the benefits of practice. More of our inner impulses, wishes, and desires align behind the work of understanding and spiritual growth. This gathering nascent Self coalesces to become the one in us who sees, the one in us who prays, the one in us who chooses to be and is present, the one in us who seeks and wishes to serve the higher, the One Who loves.

But our sense of self remains a mixed bag, with other, many other, ones in us who have no interest in spirituality. So we, the one who does seek the path, must act accordingly. Whenever an opening presents itself, we take it. Unbidden moments come during the day when, in the midst of all our other interests and activities, we remember the sacred. The seeker in us temporarily returns to our center, temporarily awakens. This is our one opportunity, so we value it appropriately. We act.

At that moment, we return to our inner work, sensing our body, becoming present, breathing consciously, repeating a prayer, responding with kindness, or whatever our practice is. Knowing full well that some other part of us will soon take over and drop us back into uncentered unawareness, we practice now with vigor and with heart, especially heart. The heartfulness of our practice attracts and welcomes more of our desires and interests, more pieces of our will, to join the seeker in us, the one who wishes to know and to serve the higher. As more of us coalesces, our centeredness grows more stable.

Yet our current station allows only a part of us to practice and only for part of the day. But even transitory presence supports the dream and intermediate goal of continuity and wholeness, of I. For those precious moments as an awakened seeker, our heart tastes the possibilities of drinking at the sacred fountain. The quality of that taste suffuses our inner realm, setting the stage for that day when the whole of us merges into a lasting unity of intention, action, and heart.

For this week, notice that only a part of you practices, and only for part of your time. What would wholeness mean and how can you work toward that?


     

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