Reflections

The first spiritual experience I remember happened one night at my grandmother’s farm when I was around ten years old.  Lying flat on my back in the huge front yard there was total silence, the sky was clear and full of stars.  Staring at the sky I was aware that everything was moving and I was part of that.  I remember the feeling of being with something very powerful and alive.  I don’t know how long this lasted but seemed like a fleeting moment of what I would now call Knowingness that remains with me today and the desire to experience that Oneness again has prompted a lifetime of seeking.

I started meditating sometime in the late 1970s.  During those years, I had tried several different methods, guided, visual, musical, breathing, and asanas.  Meditation has been important and taught me to watch my thoughts. It’s always been a sporadic  practice for me.

For the last few years I’ve thought that I had read enough and needed to focus on at least one Path instead of jumping from one to the other.  I had settled on teaching of Advaita/Vedanta since I could relate the most with the one Source theory.

I continued reading, yoga and meditation sporadically until I retired in October 2011 and began studying Eckhart Tolle’s “New Earth” again.  I had read it a couple years earlier but this time I actually “studied” it.  It had a lot more for me this time and he pointed to nonduality. I started looking for books by contemporary nonduality teachers.

Now I realize that what I have been drawn to throughout the years has been pointing to this philosophy but I didn’t see the connectedness until I started writing a journal of my spiritual journey.

What has just occurred to me is that the first spiritual experience that I keep using as a guidepost was obtained without the use of teachers, meditation, classes, reading more books, or higher knowledge.  It just happened…before I knew of any outside concepts or ideas…it came from within without any interference.

My first glimpse was from direct experience…..which is available at any age and requires no prerequisites.  I think I’ll return to direct experience as my guide again.

Now the real journey begins………..