Episode 82
Cultivating our Personal Essence & Embodying our Unique Contribution
In a society that reveres doing and neglects being, how can we allow the two to inform each other in a way that leads us to ever increasing wholeness and purposeful contribution in the world?
In this conversation with spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas we explore the different stages of spiritual inquiry, the relational quality of spirit and how it can inform our attunement to our clients, and the distinctions between the concepts of purpose and contribution.
The Four Turnings
For something to be spiritual it must be inclusive. As one begins to immerse oneself in spiritual exploration one moves closer to wholeness, towards integrating all aspects of ourselves so it is inherently a process of increasing inclusion.
The spiritual universe is not just one state of being; there are many different dimensions of experience, all of which are available to us as various points of learning and flavours of experience. The four “turnings” of spiritual evolution that Hameed has identified are:
- Individual (insights, visions, presence)
- Non-dual (oneness, universal consciousness)
- Realization of the non-dual within ourselves (holographic perspective)
- View of totality (non-hierarchical, completely inclusive)
The Relational Quality of Spirit
Spirit has a relational quality; by being ourselves we are in contact with other, because pure being is a manifestation of spirit. The more we bring our personal essence into contact and into the world, the more we can be deeply in contact with each other and access deeper levels of creativity and innovation collectively.
Being with our clients in this kind of deep contact is the key to refined attunement and facilitating them coming into greater alignment within themselves. Our ability to be in contact is independent of what we say or do; simply by being authentically ourselves we are necessarily in contact.
Attunement is required so that we can meet our client where they’re at in their development; tuning into how they experience life, what makes them tick, what their values are. The question is always, “What’s happening in you right now” and accepting that rather than trying to change it.
Purpose and Contribution
Soul is what we are all the time as an individual consciousness and this is what goes through the transformation of consciousness. How this consciousness develops will express itself in a unique way, which one could call the purpose of the individual.
The word purpose has the connotation of a point of arrival, which can create pressure and a sense of lack; we might not see what we do as our purpose but simply that we are doing what we do naturally. The more we actualize our deepest potentialities, the more our contribution will show itself.
To be is both knowing and being at the same time; this is the meaning of gnosis. Our uniqueness is embodied, so in a sense we contribute simply by being here. The more we are able to express ourselves in wholeness, the more our presence in the world is our contribution.