Aloha,
I'm Reverend Dr.
Cindy Paulus and I wanted to talk about the spiritual path that you're on when you go on in a long time.
I've been on it over 55 years now and I started when I was very young.
Okay,
I started when I was 13,
So do the math.
But,
Oh gosh,
What can I say about the spiritual path.
It's a long and winding road,
That's what I'd say.
And I meditate every day and sometimes people say,
Why?
What do you get from it?
And then I will also have people say to some of my posts on social media,
How can you do all this stuff?
And it's like,
Well,
Because I meditate every day and spirit works through you.
I think the more you get in touch with your inner self in meditation,
The more you go within,
The more aware you become,
The more connected you become and the deeper you go,
The more is shown to you.
Now,
I wrote a poem about that because I've been pondering it.
What brought this all up for me is I had a dream last night.
Something came up that had happened a long,
Long time ago.
And I realized,
My gosh,
I'm just now clearing that out.
I mean,
All this time,
You know,
Years later.
But you know what?
You have to be ready to uncover what's there deep inside.
But when you ask to go deep within,
All the stuff is going to come up and it's not until you become more and more aware that you can deal with it.
So here's the poem.
The deeper you go,
The more you will know.
The more you know,
The more your soul shows.
Now you get that,
Right?
Because you connect with your soul in meditation.
And as you connect with your soul,
Then you can actually see more of what's going on deep inside yourself.
The journey will reveal many things that you need to heal.
And it will.
Things will come up.
Things will come up all the time.
Sometimes we're not ready to see some of that stuff inside ourself when we begin our spiritual path.
But if you sit long enough,
Things are going to,
Guaranteed,
Are going to come up.
Sometimes things that you buried that you don't like about yourself,
That you thought had been cleared up,
But it's still back there deep inside that hidden closet where things you don't usually reach,
You know,
Or like that stuff in the refrigerator,
That very back of the refrigerator you don't get to too often,
It comes out eventually.
I guess it's spring cleaning time,
Right?
Then I continue with my poem here.
Yeah.
The journey will reveal more things you need to heal.
And it may not be easy to really see what it might be.
So the deeper you go,
You'll find what shows what's hidden underneath that cloak.
It's a cloak of the ego.
When the naked truth is in control,
It takes courage to see all that you've been hiding.
It does.
It takes such courage to actually see things in yourself you didn't even know were there.
It's like,
What?
Where did that come from?
What?
That's me?
That was in me?
I did that?
Well,
But yeah,
It's in the depth of your being,
In your consciousness,
In the energy field.
There's a lot there.
And it may come out a long time later,
But sooner or later it will all come out right.
So I go on.
It takes faith to have the strength to hold steady and concentrate to be able to contemplate.
Now,
If you've been meditating,
You know this is the case.
This is one of the first things people say when they begin to meditate.
It's like,
Oh,
I just can't concentrate.
My mind keeps.
.
.
Well,
This is something we all deal with.
This is not unusual at all.
I mean,
Our mind is a monkey mind and it goes drifting from here to there.
And I think social media actually has made that more of a reality because we easily can get distracted with all of the things we are dealing with now.
Then I go on to say,
On the best way to relate,
The best way to relate who you are and what it takes to make a reality a better place.
Okay,
So somewhere along,
And that goes contemplate on the best way to relate who you are.
So this comes up,
Of course,
All the time in meditation,
Who you really are.
And you can start at it when you begin your meditation and you can continue to do that throughout your whole life.
Because who you really are is an energy field and that is connected to everything.
The energy that's in you is the energy that's in everything.
That's in the source,
That's in the creator,
That's in the stars,
It's in the cosmos.
So it's a living,
Moving energy field that doesn't stay static.
It's not like you're one thing.
So who you are as you continue to meditate continues to grow,
Right?
Okay,
So you want to make the world a better place.
That comes with the term service.
Ram Dass and almost all teachers that I have seen have said eventually it's about making you and the world a better place.
And as you develop,
You do want to serve,
You do want to help.
And then I say to live with it,
To love it,
To be it,
And to believe it.
You can share the truth of who you might be.
Okay,
So that's what I got in this morning in meditation.
And when I meditate,
I get these things that are like messages and that was this morning's which made me bring this into a talk here today because it's an interesting path.
And I think sometimes on the spiritual path,
People may become aware of things they don't like and they're going,
Oh,
Why am I doing this meditation if I'm going to see things I don't like?
Or maybe they get close to seeing something they don't like and they back off because they don't think they're ready to go there yet and see that inside themselves.
I did Zen meditation in the temple at Genjo-ji for years.
And when you do a two or three day meditation,
All kinds of stuff come out when it's a silent meditation.
And things will come up.
I mean,
There's no doubt about that.
Things come up when you just sit and you sit for hours on end.
You'll see it comes out in so many fascinating ways.
But it's going to anyway,
Just that you're accelerating it when you stop diverting yourself and distracting yourself from who you really are.
And our life is a reflection.
I mean,
So many people know and realize that what you're seeing outside yourself is a projection of what you are inside,
Right?
So we are going to see in our life what we need to see to learn to grow.
And when we meditate,
We do indeed see that so that we can deal with it.
So it's revealed so that it can be healed.
It can cause a lot of issues if we don't reveal and heal what we need to heal.
It can cause relationship issues.
It can cause work issues.
It can cause,
Oh gosh,
That ripple effect,
Right?
Can cause a lot of things with the family,
Etc.
,
Etc.
,
Because those are the things in you that you need to deal with.
Now,
Some people kind of realize that when they begin meditating,
But they don't maybe know how deep that goes.
I think that in the beginning,
It's like being in love.
It's like meeting your soulmate,
Right?
And everything's beautiful and you feel the bliss and you're all like,
This is wonderful.
But then you realize that that's just the beginning of the relationship.
The relationship you have with yourself and with your soul and with God,
It lasts forever,
Right?
So it is also like that time you go through in relationships with other partners,
That there'll be a power struggle.
Sooner or later,
Your ego will try to get more control and you see it and you'll have that power struggle like you have in relationships with people.
And you have to deal with that.
And then there will be things just like in human relationships that you'll have to forgive because you will see things in yourself that were revealed that you'll need to heal.
And that takes deep diving into forgiveness,
Right?
So this is a very deep process that you may not have realized you were signing up for when you began to meditate,
But it's a beautiful process.
It's an amazing process.
And as you go deeper and deeper and deeper into yourself,
You also develop other things that compensate,
Right?
For the work that it takes to be on that spiritual path.
You develop your creativity,
You develop your awareness,
You develop your insight and as you learn to look within,
You can see what's going on outside with others because we are all human beings going through a lot of these same issues,
Right?
So you basically are doing this deep dive into yourself and then you start to see what is going on in the world.
I'm doing a course on being an empath and I had an interesting comment,
Which I think is a very worthwhile one that I wanted to share from someone who said,
When I meditate,
I fall asleep.
Well,
First of all,
Let me say that's very common,
Right?
Which I told her,
I said,
In the beginning stages of meditation,
Many people do fall asleep.
You're relaxed,
Your eyes are closed,
You know,
You're going into that state that feels good and it's very easy when you get into your subconscious part there that you will fall asleep.
And I said,
You can do certain things that we do.
You know,
You can sit up straight,
You can use your mind to count your breathing and your breaths as you do to keep your mind focused and stay awake and as you develop your concentration,
You're able to stay in that meditative state.
And she said,
Well,
Yeah,
That helps.
She responded and said,
I like the way it feels.
I like the astral feeling or feeling I get when I go into that sleep-like state in meditation.
And it's so true.
It's interesting because when I began meditating after some very deep meditations in the beginning of my path,
I got into these experiences of such bliss that I wanted to meditate more and more and more.
But it's interesting on this path that teachers,
In fact,
The Zen teacher that I had followed the path of with Suzuki Roshi,
Says that this is actually a trap.
This is one of the pitfalls that you have to watch out for,
Which shocked me.
That's like,
Why would being in bliss and meditating and enjoying and feeling that love and that light,
Why would that be a pitfall?
I was shocked.
It's like,
Wow,
That's feeling good.
It's wonderful.
But the idea is that you shouldn't just be meditating to get high.
Okay.
I mean,
We all know you can get addicted to any kind of drug that you take that makes you feel high and makes you feel good.
So is it okay if you're not taking a drug and you feel high and you feel good?
Well,
It's certainly not dangerous,
Except that you need to be able to take that bliss,
That light and that love and bring it back into your life.
And here comes the beautiful lessons of turning that bliss into seeing what is here in your everyday world that won't happen unless you start looking for it.
You can start looking for the beauty in nature,
Which is easy.
You can go for a walk and take a look at the sky and listen to the birds.
You can look at the beauty of a tree or the ocean,
A stream,
You know,
That is a similar beauty that you get when you go deep within.
You can look at the stars.
The stars are so beautiful,
Right?
Or the sunrise,
Right?
Same that you would feel that spirit.
What it is is that spirit that you see in life that you can see that is reflected when you go deep into meditation.
Now from there you can try to see the good that's in people.
You know,
You look at things in life from,
You know,
Like it's a wonderful life and you see the good that is going on in the world.
You don't necessarily have to try to jump onto the news of the bad news wagon,
But there is good news going on out there.
I mean,
I have a great network on social media.
It's called the Good News Network and it's got amazing stories of what people are doing,
Inspiring stories of what's going on that's good out there in the world.
So then that makes you feel good about yourself and the world and also good about what's going on inside.
Because as you do grow,
You can learn to change the focus of your energy field.
You become a magician of sorts.
You learn as you grow on this path that the energy you learn to work with inside,
You can use that same process of using that energy in your daily life.
So if you have an issue that comes up with someone and they're,
You know,
Trying to engage in like an ego battle or a fight or something like that,
You go through the same thing you would go through inside.
You know,
If you're starting to go down a rabbit hole of your thoughts taking you to places that really would not necessarily be good for you,
You can take that same energy of learning to focus on the good and put it to work in your life in a situation like that.
Instead of being drawn into a situation that's going to go nowhere,
You decide to take the high road and not engage in a negative energy situation,
But focus on a good situation.
Or what you may learn from what came up from that situation because life is always a lesson and as we spiritually get stronger,
We're going to be shown more intense lessons in our life.
That's part of the revelation,
Revealing what needs to be revealed so you can heal it.
So all of these things,
All of these things are such fascinating things to me.
It's a long and winding road.
I love that song,
Of course,
By Sir Paul.
It is a long and winding road and we learn so much along the way,
But you can't give up on the times where it gets a little rocky and difficult.
You just have to have that faith.
You have to call upon that inner strength to continue on to see what's next.
You know,
There's always some rewards as well as some challenges.
And I hope you have learned on the spiritual path that to take the time to accept and celebrate your rewards that come from this long and winding road.
There are always things you can learn from and also celebrate in your life.
And it's sometimes the subtle things.
Sometimes it's a small,
Small subtle thing that will really reach you.
Maybe a comment or maybe just something beautiful that you come across that will touch you in a way that is huge,
You know,
In a way that makes a difference.
So I just wanted to encourage you if you're on this long and winding road,
This meditative path,
That you need to always continue.
There's so much help out there.
So many wonderful ways you can call upon help and get the support you need,
Not just with friends,
But in the spiritual community,
Inside time or people,
People who are also on the path.
And you can always find that there's a way to share what you get from inside on this journey to help others as well.
You know,
It's all one beautiful energy field.
And as you express what you get,
Others then get the courage to express what they get as well or get inspired,
Which is what inspiration is all about.
So I pray that you find that inspiration and that spirit and that wonderful chance at learning the lessons that you will learn as you continue to grow,
As you continue to find more out about yourself and find out more about the whole world and the universe and the creation and how you relate to all of it.
It's a fascinating,
Wonderful journey full of so many blessings.
So just keep on keeping on and do it with great compassion for yourself,
Great understanding.
And also with that end in mind that you are here for a reason to develop develop this amazing purpose that you have in your life.
And I send you my deepest love and my blessings on the path,
You know,
At a bow of gratitude for everything you do.
Don't give up,
Just keep on and you will find that there's some beautiful,
Beautiful things you will learn,
Lessons you will learn that are so invaluable that make your life and other people's lives better.
God bless you.
