Unconditional Follow-Through

Second Foundation from Adyashanti's "The Way of Liberation" is "UNCONDITIONAL FOLLOW-THROUGH". The first is "Clarify Your Aspiration".

So, Adyashanti says "Making clear what you aspire to is the first step. It has the effect of gathering energy and attention together into a unified force and directing it toward your aspiration. Once you have clarified your aspiration, you now need to follow through on it. Following through has to do with what you are willing to do or let go of doing." 

I am so enjoying going through this.  Its like a refresher's course.  You know all these things (provided ofcourse you have been at it for years)but you tend to forget it very often.  As I meditated alot on my Aspiration, I began to see more clearly and uncompromisingly the patterns and grooves that were deeply ingrained in my psyche.  I have gone through many programes where the ultimate agenda of that course would be to come out victorious because, it appears, everyone ought to look good - the participant, the teacher and all other fellow members.  It does good PR work overall.  Going through this with Adyashanti's honest and straightforward declaration in the 'Introduction' part of "The Way of Liberation" made me WANT to reassess my spiritual growth.  

This is what he says: "This is not a book about spiritual betterment, self-improvement, or altered states of consciousness. It is about spiritual awakening, going from the dream state of ego to the awakened state beyond ego as quickly and efficiently as possible. The journey isn’t what anyone anticipates, and enlightenment isn’t what it is frequently sold as. I won’t be telling you how to achieve bliss or unending happiness, find your soul mate, or the ten easy steps to making a quick million bucks. I don’t believe in deceptive advertising or luring in spiritual seekers with false promises. Many spiritual seekers already live on a steady diet of spiritual junk food, those nice-sounding platitudes that have little or no transforming effect other than to dull the dissatisfaction inherent in the dream state. If you like that sort of thing, this isn’t the book for you." ... Cool!!

I am invited to go through a thorough and honest investigation and follow through with absolute willingness and determination allowing every illusion to fall away.  I discovered something about myself which ought to have triggered my attention much earlier, but for some reason I never got any inspired thoughts about it and I  realize now, that was so because I was still was  unclear on subjects like "Love" and "Compassion".  The two got all meshed up with The Truth and the truth of the world's understanding of it.  Though ACIM says nothing can be hidden.  Everything must come out, I still could'nt come clear with myself honestly because of lingering fear which I did'nt know was still there!!  Fear that if I talked about the deepest feelings of anger which included, in my mind, the wish to want to physically strangle particular people whom I thought made me feel less than myself amongst a few other violent assaults. I wanted, in my mind, to physically beat them up!!!  To bring light on this scared me. I still prayed so much for more loving relationships but they were just not happening till I read a few days ago this life changing line "It is not possible to have a loving relationship with someone you don't have a relationship at all". Wow! in that split second a big shift happened in my heart.  Bingo! that's it.  I was trying to infuse love into something that was not really there even though physically it had valid name e.g. mother, father, brother, sister, etc. I was working from the outside worldly ideas and trying to take it within. I was trying to create ideal worldly situations for myself thinking everyone will wind up happy.  The truth?  NOBODY WINDS UP ON THE GOOD SIDE!! You can be related biologically or through marriage, or anything, it doesnt mean a fig.  If the hearts have not connected, the question of trying to create a loving relationship seems such a futile exercise.  

And so I began an exercise of seeing each "relationship" for what it really appeared at this present time - if I had hidden anger or rage, I brought it all out and named it and expressed it in my mind and saw the needlessness of it.  I said the words describing those feelings aloud even if it sounded harsh to my ears.  As I began to do that, I began to feel lighter because I accepted my role in the mis-creation and surrendered it to Spirit for cleansing and healing.  This process already has started showing dramatic changes in one particularly  harassing relationship which just seems to keep on churning dramas after dramas.  My self honesty brought the Lights of Heaven shining straight into my soul.  It felt good because ACCEPTANCE is that way - it just takes loads off your weary and painful shoulders.  No need to be in shame and guilt.  God is surely not interested in the 'good' ones alone.  "The Prodigal Son" story is a good example of that.

Most important, I have stopped being concerned by someone else's timeline for me. Timelines for fully awakening and self realizing do not exist.  Again, Adyshanti reminds me:

"Spirituality does not require that you work hard toward achieving a result in the future as much as it requires you to be fully present, sincere, and committed now, with absolute honesty and a willingness to uncover and let go of any illusion that comes between you and the realization of Reality. Therefore, spirituality does not have to do with time or what can be achieved in time; it has to do only and always with the eternal present."

Coming back to my Aspirations.  Peace is what I declared to be my Aspiration and Peace it shall be, but first the unpeaceful must leave the domains within my inner territory which it had occupied all this time.

To round it off, here's Adyashanti:

"Aspiration is not so much a matter of the mind as of the heart, in that it is a reflection of what you cherish, love, and value most. You do not need to be reminded of what you truly love, only of what you do not love. And what you actually love is most truly reflected in your actions, not in what you feel, think, or say.When aspiration lines up with unconditional follow-through and love, it becomes a very strong force in the universe. Only then are we unified and one-pointed enough for our aspiration to survive the winds of folly, fate, and circumstance."

End of story, as I love to say!!!