Monday 22 September 2008

Faith and power......what is the relationship.....

I received a comment to what is the most read of all my posts - my visit to Mother Meera. The comment explained about the correlation between faith and power. The comment asserted that power is in direct relation to the degree of faith, the more faith there is, the more power is manifest. I have been thinking about this assertion over the last couple of days and what has struck me is that while faith is vital for any kind of spiritual development for me it is not in direct proportion to the amount of power I have. I want to assert that this blog is about my own journey of spiritual transformation, in some ways it is universal and in others it is unique as are all of our journeys. The unshakeable faith to know that the state of enlightenment which is nothing but the experience of unconditional and unbounded love is possible in one's lifetime is necessary. After that it is a question of working on oneself, or more particularly one's identity or personality. It is seeing that we are not our thoughts and feelings, we have these, but this is not who we are. Given that.....then who am I?

I was interested in the 1% that the comment mentioned. In the early stages of this path I used to say (to who, I wasn't sure')- I am clear that 1% of me is well intentioned, take that 1% and make it stronger and let me continue to work on the remaining 99% of me that doesn't work'. I feel sure that it is this humility that has pulled me through some very strange thoughts and experiences I have had on this journey of spiritual transformation. I would equate humility with power and not with faith so much. Humility is esssential on this path, without it there is only ego inflation and then insights which are meant to function to expand and transform consciousness just become tools of the ego. With humility the ego inflation that can be common in those who profess to have spiritual experiences and insights is kept in check. I have also been asking myself 'what is power in the context of spiritual transformation'. For me power is making a difference, giving insight into the nature of human consciousness such that the clarity and grounded nature of what is written touches, moves and inspires those who are reading this blog. This is what power means to me.

For me, faith is not the basis for power, integrity is. Doing what I said I would do, when I said I would do it and doing it in the way it should be done, is the foundation of power. I have never been busier but yet somehow everything is getting done because I hold as my mantra integrity and I know that as long as I am not out of integrity that everything will continue to work....

So thank you to the person who left me the comment. It has set me thinking and I see all comments as a valuable contribution to the never ending and constantly fascinating path of spiritual transformation.

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