Practices From the Inside Out: When Spiritual Life Feels Far Away

Practices From the Inside Out: When Spiritual Life Feels Far Away June 27, 2017

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When Spiritual Life Feels Far Away

Some of us like to believe spiritual life is always with us. People familiar with coded academic language talk about God being “omnipresent.” They are saying spiritual life is all around us, and within us.

In the same way fish live in water, we live in spiritual life.

Quite a few of us want to know why, if spiritual life is always with us, does it so often feel far away?

We may agree in our heads spiritual life is with us and wonder why it does not feel that way. The idea of spiritual life surrounding us may comfort us. We want to feel the benefits of that comfort more often.

Many of us have our own ideas of what we need to do to get closer to spiritual life. Some of us are convinced we study ourselves into spiritual life. We think if we know more and think more we will feel spiritual life within us. People may recommend books for us to read or ideas to consider.

Other people believe in the power of spiritual actions. We may decide we can attract spiritual life toward us by behaving in certain ways. Our exploration of spiritual life is about following defined practices like praying or hospitality. We think we can gain spiritual life if we help homeless people or feed hungry people.

We tend to assume we have done something to drive spiritual life away from us. If only we were better, we would feel closer to spiritual life.

It is easy to think, if we have driven it away, we need to do something to bring it back.

Where Would Spiritual Life Go?

If we have done something to offend spiritual life, to send it away, where would it go?

There are quite a few things about this way of thinking I do not understand.

Do we live divided lives? Are parts of our lives, parts of the world, parts of the universe filled with spiritual life? Are there other parts where there is no spiritual life? Where are they separated?

Where is the dividing line? How can we tell where spiritual life is and where it is not?

I cannot really see which parts of life are filled with spiritual life and which are not.

Even more than the divisions, what are the things we can do to influence spiritual life?

What are the things we do which can defeat or turn back spiritual life? What can we do to deserve to be abandoned by spiritual life? At the same time, what can we possibly do to entice spiritual life back to us?

It is easy for us to assume spiritual life is something we earn, something we deserve. When we act in ways to deserve it, we believe spiritual life surrounds and fills us. At times when act differently, we believe spiritual life retreats from us.

I have a difficult time drawing the lines and separating spiritual life from the rest of life. It is a challenge for me to think there is anything we can do to cause spiritual life to reject us. I also have a hard time seeing spiritual life as something we can earn.

It is hard for me to conceive what the rest of life would be like without spiritual life.

Why Does Spiritual Life Feel Far Away?

Spiritual life can be elusive. It can be hard for us to pay focused attention to it. When it is difficult for us to get a good reading of spiritual life it can feel far away.

The disciplines I practice are not ways to earn the presence of spiritual life. They are more ways to develop my ability to pay attention.

Spiritual life can feel far away when I am not really paying attention.

It is easy for us to get caught up in everything coming at us. Our lives are filled with distractions which keep us from paying attention.

It is not that spiritual life has moved away from us, abandoning us. We have taken our eye off the ball.

Spiritual life does not feel far away because it has moved away from us. Rather, we have drifted away from spiritual life.

It is as if we were walking around with our eyes closed, bumping into things. When we open our eyes we realize how far we have wandered, and feel abandoned. We do not appreciate how distant we have gotten because we were not paying attention.

We feel far away because we have only a tenuous grasp on spiritual life. It is a challenge for us to accept what we cannot control and may not even understand.

As we develop our awareness of spiritual life we become more comfortable with it. Spiritual life may still be beyond our understanding, but becomes more familiar.

A Loving Relationship With Sacred Truth

Spiritual life is not something we need to earn or something which can be taken away. It is not about following the rules or holding the correct opinions.

The essence of spiritual life is a loving relationship with deep, Sacred truth. The truth surrounds us and is within us. We may become confused or distracted, but we cannot lose our connection to Sacred truth.

The more intimately we get to know who we really are the more truth we appreciate. We come to know our true selves well and share ourselves with the people around us. The more honest we can be with ourselves the stronger spiritual life grows in us.

It might feel intimidating, but we cannot drive spiritual life away. Spiritual life is an open invitation, a doorway waiting for us to enter. We are welcome. All we need to do is listen.

Are we paying attention?

How far away does spiritual life feel to you today?

Where do you draw lines between spiritual life and something else?

[Image by Santhosh Rajangam]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.


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