"For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth." ~ Deuteronomy14:2

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy

A
Attention – Pay attention. Stay awake and totally alert. See with receptive eyes and discover a world of ceaseless wonders.
B
Beauty – Walk the path of beauty. Relish and encourage its inward and outward expressions. Acknowledge the radiance of the creation.
Being Present – Live in the present moment. Don’t obsess about the past or worry about the future. All you need is here right now
C
Compassion – Open your heart, mind, and soul to the pain and suffering in the world. Reach out to others and discover the rewards and obligations of deep feeling. Connections – Cultivate the art of making connections. See how your life is intimately related to all life on the planet.
D
Devotion – Express your feelings of praise and adoration through devotional practices. Pray with words and pray with your actions.
E
Enthusiasm – Celebrate life with passion. It adds zest to everything and helps build community. Hold nothing back.
F
Faith – Recognize and accept that there is another dimension to life than what is obvious to us. Live with obstacles, doubt, and paradox, knowing that God is always present in the world. Forgiveness – In both your private and public lives, discover the sweet release that comes from forgiving others. Feel the healing balm of being forgiven and of forgiving yourself.
G
Grace – Accept grace and your world will be larger, deeper, richer, and fuller. Look for its intimations everywhere. Let this seed of the Giver of Life bloom in your words and deeds.
Gratitude – Spell out your days with a grammar of gratitude. Be thankful for all the blessings in your life.
H
Hope – Let this positive and potent emotion fuel your dreams and support your service of others. Through your attitudes and actions, encourage others never to lose hope. Hospitality – Practice hospitality in a world where too often strangers are feared, enemies are hated, and the “other” is shunned. Welcome guests and alien ideas with graciousness.
I
Imagination – Give imagination free rein in your life. Explore its images and ponder its meaning-making moments, and it will always present you with something new to be seen, felt, or made known.
J
Joy – Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Find this divine energy in your daily life and share it with others.
Justice – Seek liberty and justice for all. Work for a free and fair world where oppression and inequality no longer exist.
K
Kindness – Let Spirit flow through you in little acts of kindness, brief words of encouragement, and manifold expressions of courtesy. These deeds will add to the planet’s fund of good will.
L
Listening – Cultivate the art of deep listening in which you lean toward the world in love. All things in the universe want to be heard, as do the many voices inside us.
Love – Fall in love over and over again every day. Love your family, your neighbors, your enemies, and yourself. And don’t stop with humans. Love animals, plants, stones, even the galaxies.
M
Meaning – Constantly try to discover the significance of your experiences. Seek further understandings from sacred texts and spiritual teachers.
N
Nurturing – Take good care of the best that is within you. Self-exploration and personal growth continue throughout our lifetimes and equip us to tend to the needs of others.
O
Openness – Hold an open house in your heart for all people and things. Practice empathy with others and receptiveness toward the universe.
P
Peace – Promote peace every day. Your small steps will link you with others who are combating violence in the world.
Play – Be playful. Express your creative spirit in spontaneity. Hurrah the pleasures of being, and let loose your laughter.
Q
Questing – Savor questions and thrill to the quest. See your life as a journey that quickens your faith and deepens your soul.
R
Reverence – Practice reverence for life. The sacred is in, with, and under all the things of the world. Respond with appropriate respect and awe.
S
Shadow – Give up trying to hide, deny, or escape from your imperfections. Listen to what your demons have to say to you.
Silence – Slow down. Be calm. Find a place where you can regularly practice silence. There you will find the resources to revitalize your body, mind, and soul.
T
Teachers – Be willing to learn from the spiritual teachers all around you, however unlikely or unlike you they may be. Always be a sensitive student.
U
Unity – Practice the art of seeing the invisible. Use the wisdom of your personal visions to renew yourself and your community.
V
Vision – Practice the art of seeing the invisible. Use the wisdom of your personal visions to renew yourself and your community.
W
Wonder - Cultivate a vibrant curiosity and welcome the reports of your senses. The world is alive and moving toward you with rare epiphanies and wonderful surprises. Remember you are standing on holy ground.
X
The Mystery – Accept the unknown as part of life. Don’t try to unravel the profound mysteries of God, human nature, and the natural world. Love the ineffable.
Y
Yearning – Follow your heart’s boundless desire. It takes you out of yourself and fosters an appreciation for the multidimensional pleasures of life.
You – Accept that you are a child of God. Sing your own song with gusto. Fulfill your mission as a copartner with the Holy One in the unfolding drama of the universe.
Z
Zeal – Be passionately aroused by life. Cherish every moment, honor your commitments, and treasure your kinship with all. Once you are familiar with the letters of spiritual literacy and begin reading, you will discover that you have favorite types of books. Do you like novels, mysteries, biographies, or wisdom literature? Just as you have a preferred genre of reading material, you will have favorite ways of reading the world.
Being spiritually illiterate would put us in a similarly dim and shallow world. If we could not read the signs of Spirit in daily life, we would not see the web that connects us with other people and the natural world. We would miss those intimations of “something more” that are possible in our work, our leisure, and our relationships.
Like other illiterates, we would find ourselves trying to compensate and cover up for what we sense is a real void in our lives. We would know that everything around us contains signs and wisdom, but we just wouldn’t get it. Spiritually literate people from our time and earlier assure us that this need not be our reality. Spiritual literacy changes your perspective on life. Your body is a temple of God, and your home is holy ground. Your encounters with others reveal your connection with the Oneness, and your activities put you in touch with Spirit and enable Spirit to work through you. When we are spiritually literate, we discover that the whole world is charged with sacred meaning.

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