Let's all take a nice deep breath and get ready to look at practice number four of our seven simple practices to perfect your highest spiritual possibilities.
The key lesson for this practice reads as follows.
There is no way to realize,
Let alone discover the hidden depths of our still latent spiritual strength without a willingness to witness its corresponding weakness.
This means that strength and weakness are not opposing forces,
But they are complementary in nature.
To see the truth of this is the same as ending our fear of feeling powerless in the face of any perceived limitation.
If you remember in my introduction to these seven simple practices,
I told a quick story about a young girl,
Christine,
Who had won the school's highest scholarship award.
But it wasn't because she had scored the highest on the tests themselves,
But because she had agreed,
Unlike the rest of the students,
To take all seven of the tests,
Even though she knew she would not do well on some of them.
So that part of the overall score by which she was awarded the scholarship included her willingness to meet her own limitations.
That is,
Instead of protecting them by taking only the tests she was sure she could pass.
And of course,
As all of the other students did that,
She was awarded the scholarship.
So for our fourth practice,
I want to expand on that general theme.
I want to look at the whole idea of agreeing to meet our limitations consciously,
As opposed to unconsciously living with the fear of them and allowing them to make our choices for us.
So the fourth practice is entitled,
Take the Step You're Sure You Can't.
In order to set the stage for this,
I'm going to tell you a story about a nice gal by the name of Celeste,
Who,
Like Christine,
Is enrolled in a special school for higher education and where she has to face a special set of tests that are given to the best students to see who would be selected as the teacher's new assistant and,
As a result,
Travel with him to certain unknown regions where together they would excavate the lost city of wisdom.
Everyone wanted that position,
But only one could be given it.
And so after the tests were administered and Christine is announced the winner,
One of the students,
Terribly upset with that decision,
Confronts the teacher and says something like,
Why did Christine get selected for the position and get to travel along your side on this excavation?
I mean,
Why not me?
I aced all four of the seven tests and I just saw the board that showed the scores and hers were well below my own.
The professor looks at the student and says,
Yes,
It's true.
You did score better.
In fact,
The exams you finished were almost perfect.
Inpatient now more than ever,
The student says,
Well,
Then with all due respect,
What's going on?
I deserve the award,
Not her.
Professor looks at the student and says,
No,
Son,
I'm afraid you're missing the big picture here.
To which the student replies,
What are you talking about?
Professor says,
Are you sure you want to get into this now?
I mean,
You seem pretty upset.
Then the student not missing a beat said,
You bet I'm upset.
So the professor says,
All right.
Then to begin with,
Christine took all seven of the exams.
Student says,
What does that got to do with the difference in our scores?
My total score on the four exams were exemplary.
The numbers that you posted don't lie.
Professor says,
That's right.
But you see,
Son,
It's not the whole story.
You see,
Not only did you take only the tests you knew you would do well on,
While on the other hand,
Christine was willing to take them all.
And the student interrupts the teacher right in the mid sentences.
So what?
You know as well as I do that the other three tests that you administered were essentially impossible to pass,
Especially given what we covered in the class so far.
I mean,
There's no way anyone could have answered the questions right,
No matter what.
Teacher says,
And your point is?
Student says,
Well,
I know that she didn't pass those exams because for one thing,
I watched her turn in incomplete papers.
The professor looks at the student says,
Let me explain something to you.
Although given your attitude,
I'm not sure you deserve the courtesy I'm about to extend to you.
Student realizes he's been disrespectful and says,
You know,
I know I'm sorry.
I'm just,
It's just that I don't think your decision about who was awarded the grand prize is fair when it's clear I was the one who came out on top.
Professor says,
Are you sure of that?
And the student having no idea why the professor would ask that he says,
Well,
Of course,
I'm sure.
I mean,
What other conclusion can there be?
The professor says,
Ah,
Now that you've asked,
Let's look.
For one thing,
He said,
You've wrongly assumed that you knew the purpose of these seven tests that you were asked to take.
What are you getting at?
The student says,
What do you mean?
I wrongly assumed the purpose of the test.
What other purpose can there be for a battery of exams other than to successfully pass them?
Which I did.
Well,
He said,
Three of them anyway,
And with flying colors,
I might add.
Professor says,
Yes,
But you see,
Unbeknownst to you and the other students,
The real purpose of these tests wasn't to see who could pass the ones they wanted to take.
That's easy to do,
And most of you did pretty well.
Again,
The student scratching his head,
I don't think I'm following you.
I mean,
Where are you going with this?
Professor says,
Patience.
He said,
The real test,
The real purpose was to discover who among you,
If any,
Was willing to take the tests they knew at the outset,
As apparently did you,
That they could never be passed given their present level of knowledge on the subject.
Student shakes his head,
I don't believe this.
I mean,
What,
Why?
Professor says,
Because how else could I know for sure which of you would be willing to walk into the unknown conditions that any new exploration insurance will be met,
Especially knowing,
He continued,
Before entering into those dark regions,
There's no guarantee of success,
And who amongst you would be willing to continue to try in spite of all of that.
And that,
Son,
Is why Christine is my new assistant,
And none of the other students,
Including yourself,
Were selected.
Student took a deep breath,
Kind of understanding what the teacher was saying,
And said,
Look,
I gotta say that I understand,
But it doesn't even seem remotely fair.
And the professor says,
Well,
Seeing as you are now,
That dealing with the consequences of one's present limitation is not only critical,
But mandatory for any discovery,
Then maybe you can reconsider your attitude.
But nevertheless,
Even if not,
Don't worry about this,
Son,
Everything's fine.
What do you mean everything's fine?
Said the student,
I failed the exam.
Professor said,
Don't worry,
Son,
You will be tested again,
And most likely pretty soon.
Student says,
Well,
Why would you tell this to me now?
I mean,
After you've told me how to pass the exam that you're about to give some point down the line.
The professor says,
Yeah,
That's the beauty of these kinds of tests of character.
One never recognizes them for what they are when they come.
I hope that some of that was clear enough to you.
I found this beautiful quotation by Saint John of the Cross that deals completely with this idea of what it takes to realize our highest spiritual possibilities,
Including the willingness to walk into what we don't know or how it will fold out.
He writes,
To come to the pleasure you have not,
You must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not,
You must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession of what you have not,
You must go in a way in which you possess not,
And to come to be what you are not,
You must go by a way in which you are not.
Now if you're anything like me and you hear something like,
You must go by a way in which you are not,
You scratch your head because we're trying to figure out how to realize our highest spiritual possibilities and the practice is called,
Take the step you're sure you can't.
So we have to understand as best we can what exactly are we looking at,
What is my,
What is your highest spiritual possibility?
I mean I hope you can see the following as subtle as it may be,
That whatever we might imagine for ourselves,
Whatever height,
Happiness,
Or heavenly abode,
Whatever is imagined by us is limited by the very fact that we can't possibly imagine something that isn't already known to us.
That's what Saint John of the Cross was referring to,
A path that we know not and yet that we must take.
And to the point,
In case it's still not clear,
We can't know our own highest spiritual possibilities other than in the actual moment of now,
In the moment of where that possibility is revealed to us by the conditions we're in.
And this is why we have to take the step into whatever we're sure we can't.
Whenever whatever that moment may bring to us presents the possibility of our entering into something without knowing what it is that we're going to learn from that moment,
Because in order to successfully exit the moment we have to be able to take into ourselves,
And that includes going through the ripples of this unspoken resistance we feel to moments like that,
To discover that everything we need or ever will awaits for us on the other side of the step we're sure we can't take.
And if it is your wish,
As it is my own,
To realize your highest spiritual possibility,
Then that's exactly what we have to be willing to do over and over again,
Is to take the step we're sure we can't.
Why?
Again,
Because any part of you or myself telling me,
You,
That you can't do whatever it is that life asks of you in that moment,
It's a lie.
It's really that simple.
There is a voice in our head,
A certain feeling that belongs to a perpetually fearful lower level of consciousness that is dedicated to ensuring that you don't step outside the boundaries of its own familiar past experience.
There's only one way to prove this to ourselves,
By the way,
And that is to see the truth of how this unconscious nature literally casts its spell,
Beginning to challenge that by calling on this new self-knowledge that we're uncovering here and then daring to prove it true.
We must see that any part of us that says,
I can't do that,
I can't take the next step into my own development.
Why?
Because there's too much uncertainty,
Too much at risk,
Or when asked in some way,
As we often are,
To do more than what is asked of us,
To be saying,
Okay,
I'm going to go the extra mile here.
In that moment,
There's something in us that says,
I can't.
And it says,
I can't,
Because it's telling us that what's required of us to take that step is going to be too much to bear.
And that's why we must see in these moments that this fearful part of us that's saying,
I can't,
Is really saying,
I will not.
It's really saying that I won't take that step.
And when we start recognizing something is telling us that it won't take a step,
That we know we have to,
Then we know where the line is drawn.
We know where the wheat must be separated from the chaff.
To see that what that part of us is really saying is that I'm not going to risk seeing something about myself that may prove some image I have of myself to be just that.
No,
We are going to challenge those parts of ourselves that fear challenges for fear of what will be revealed to it and ourselves about that part.
And this is why,
If we want to realize our highest spiritual possibility,
We must in each and every moment where the opportunity presents itself to take the step we're sure we can't.
Only by walking into whatever may be that moment we fear is,
Of course,
Greater than our self,
Greater than our ability to succeed with it,
Otherwise we wouldn't fear it.
Only by walking into that moment can we discover with each and every single step what may be,
In my opinion,
The 10 most powerful words there are in the English language as they relate to realizing our true possibilities.
And those 10 words are,
Nothing can keep us from learning the truth about ourselves.
I'm going to repeat it.
There is nothing in this universe that can stand in the way from you and I learning the truth about ourselves,
The truth that sets us free from ourselves,
If we're willing to take the step we're sure we can't.
Take the next step and the next step and the next step into the endless discovery that who you are is as limitless as you are willing to prove the fear of any given moment a lie.
