Going Beyond Everyday Limits
Listening to sacred stillness is how we go beyond everyday limits.
There are times each day when my own limits come into clear focus. I get to a point where I cannot go any further, physically or emotionally or intellectually.
It is almost as if everyday life is trying to point out our limits to us.
Even though I am recovering as a workaholic, I still often strain against limitations. I do not like to think there are limits to what I can do, if only I work just a little harder.
Some days feel like collections of those limits, example after example, are making themselves known. There are all the challenges of traffic and the other drivers. We experience limits of what we can accomplish each day, and of what we can read and understand. Our memories may be approaching their limits, and our bodies may feel we have already passed our limits. We have a limited number of close relationships we can sustain.
There are so many things we have never had an opportunity to explore, to learn about, to experience.
Sometimes we feel we go beyond everyday limits in too many areas of our lives. We feel we have finite, limited resources at our disposal and we are running out.
How can we go beyond everyday limits? Is it even safe or healthy to try to push past what we experience as our limitations?
Do our limitations exist to protect us? We live in a world filled with evermore complex systems. Can we even learn everything we need to learn?
A Resource to Take Us Beyond Everyday Limits
I experience listening to sacred stillness as a resource to help take us beyond everyday limits.
We can spend time immersing ourselves in something which goes beyond those limits. As we listen to the stillness in contemplation we can let go of our own limits.
Listening to sacred stillness does not turn us into superheroes. It is not as if we are transformed into limitless beings with super powers. Spending time in contemplation will not give us the ability to fly or become invisible.
The time we spend listening to sacred stillness each day will take us somewhere beyond everyday limits. It is the spiritual equivalent of going to the beach and looking out over the ocean.
Stretching over the horizon, sacred stillness gives us the beginnings of an understanding there is more.
The ocean can overwhelm us because it changes our perspective. Some people might be intimidated by sacred stillness, afraid to get their toes wet.
It can be a challenge for us to see beyond everyday limits. We have grown accustomed to living our lives as seen from our perspective. It can be difficult for us to go beyond how we are used to seeing it.
For all our questions and frustrations, we feel safe here within our limitations. A resource which can take us beyond everyday limits could give us more than we can handle.
Sacred stillness, like the ocean, is not something we can put into words or explain. If we want to really experience sacred stillness we need to experience it for ourselves. Trusting the stillness is basic to how we relate to it.
It is not complicated to listen to sacred stillness, but it can be a challenge.
Taking Us Beyond Everyday Limits
Listening to sacred stillness helps us apprehend our lives and limits in new ways. We let go of the urgency of limited time and appreciate the time we have. Contemplation allows us to see we can release our grasp on finite resources and rest in new depths of strength.
Each of us experiences this change of perspective in new ways. We do not begin to see ourselves as superheroes and realize we do not carry total responsibility for the final outcome.
Contemplation helps our understanding grow. We see things in new ways, including what we have experienced as limitations or weaknesses.
We go beyond everyday limits not because they go away, but because we see them in new ways.
Our limitations change as we grow to see them in new ways. Traffic may still be frustrating and we will probably still not be able to do everything we would like to do. Contemplation teaches us how to accept our limitations as it teaches us how to accept ourselves.
My experience of listening to sacred stillness is a growing appreciation for my own true self. As we become more acquainted with who we really are, we are more accepting of how we live in our world.
We each practice opening ourselves to the seemingly unlimited sacred stillness. Our contemplation carries each of us beyond everyday limits into deeper truths.
The demands and urgencies of our everyday lives fit into a new perspective.
Experiencing Life Beyond Everyday Limits
We are not transformed from bumping against everyday limitations to living unlimited lives in an instant.
Our practice of contemplation opens us to deeper, more accurate understanding of our potential over time.
I do not practice contemplation to gain feelings of limitless power. Listening to sacred stillness is not about never experiencing frustration again. It is not merely a tool for dealing with other drivers in traffic.
We take the time to listen to sacred stillness each day because it is a relationship we hope to sustain. Our relationship to sacred stillness, to spiritual life, opens us to deeper truths.
As we regularly practice being open to sacred stillness the relationship, like any other, changes us.
We practice being open, sitting on a beach looking out over the ocean. Each wave shows us a deeper, less limited perspective.
Being open to spiritual life in the world helps us become more open to spiritual life within us. We begin to see everyday limits in our physical or emotional lives in the light of spiritual life.
Where will we go beyond everyday limits this week?
How are we living beyond everyday limits today?
[Image by Gerry Dincher]
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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