Nick Hilton – Reflections

Spiritual truth will come to the mind at rest, the mind that is open, that does not resist. The energy of the universe will nurture and sustain the person who simply allows it. Conscious thought can create an image or an idea of this sustaining truth, call it Love or Source, can communicate its presence, but it cannot understand it in the usual sense, the way we understand a word, say, or a poem. And we can utilize it, summon it into our speech or our actions; we can use it to change our thoughts. It will come and heal us, strengthen us, comfort us, but like the mythical Unicorn, we cannot capture or control It.

Why is the modern mind so resistant to the idea of God? Why is our modern educational process so devoted to scientific and worldly thought development, at the expense of the enormous wealth of eons upon eons of human experience with the mystical, the theological, the mythological, the spiritual?  Why is algebra more important to understand than, say, Zoroastrianism? One explanation might be that “mainstream” religious institutions, humanly-flawed, male-dominated, desperately dogmatic and frightened businesses, paradoxically lacking the faith that God will guide and protect them, have alienated the average soul. They have become irrelevant, causing on the one side the secularization of society, and on the other a flight of unenlightened seekers: people whose unsatisfied need for spiritual solace has turned them into a mass of fanatical, dangerously closed-minded religious zealots.

We cannot teach God by any means other than experience. There is no lesson, no words, not even an idea we can express that will illustrate the thing that is beyond all explanation. This is because our reasoning relies on opposites to make sense; this, not that; there, not here; light, not dark. But God contains all opposites and does not differentiate or contrast between or among rational differences. God is everything, not defined by the presence or absence of anything else. There is no way to convey the truth of this except by our testimony that God is there — and only to be found by patient and persistent searching. So that is our teaching: “Seek and ye shall find.”

One way of explaining the catastrophic plague of drug addiction in the western world is to recognize that the institutions and customs that in the past conveyed spiritual guidance have failed to remain relevant. Children move from strict parental control to personal independence without gaining maturity; the world and its challenges are overwhelmingly frightening and so many of our children are not equipped to meet them.  So many are not fully developed human beings.  The notion of the sanctity and the meaning of life has not been taught to them; they are left without anything to believe in. Consequently, the insecure soul searches for peace, for safety and meaning in the oblivion of drugs. The idea that consciousness of the presence of God is the answer seems antiquated and childish. It is. That is the treasure of it.

 

The point of all of the effort, all of the devotion of time and emotion we give to our spiritual quest, is not primarily our own satisfaction or enlightenment. We are — most of us anyway — not destined to be sources of light, but simply more like mirrors. Our purpose and goal should be that we become reflections of the light that shines in Grace. The point of our work is to make us useful to the unfolding creation; we are the sunlight and the rain that make the garden grow. We are the salt of the earth.

The thoughts I have of God dissolve into my blood and become the energy and life of my self. The ideas, words and images of the creative and sustaining power of God which fill my rational mind, the words I read and the thoughts they produce — if I entertain them in frequent contemplation and reflection — become my spirit, influencing my attitudes and my behavior. Thus God works in me and through me, in the everyday, unremarkable things I do and say, not because I understand, but rather because I absorb the Truth and express it by my life.

We are humble when we have enough sincere, mature love for our own selves that we do not need to pretend to be something we’re not; when we are able, even eager, to learn from the instruction and example of others so as to make of ourselves better human beings; when we are able to look back squarely at our mistakes and, by admitting our faults, learn how not to repeat them. We are humble when we are content to be ourselves: right here, right now.

The spiritual path before us is overgrown with brambles and vines, covered by debris and strewn with rocks, sometimes the size of boulders, that have fallen to block our way to Realization. We will never find it to be a straight, smooth, open pathway; the way ahead will always be difficult. But as we move toward our goal the task of clearing the path becomes easier and more satisfying, until finally the clearing of the vines and brambles, the lifting and leveraging the boulders is in itself the joy of life. The struggle of everyday existence becomes itself the joy of living: a sweet, melodious song we sing in our hearts.

True attainment is peace of soul. It is impossible to judge another person’s success or failure by the outward signs of their life’s circumstances — whether they are rich or poor, safe or at risk; these are superficial perceptions. We may accurately assess only our own progress, our own contentment. In our dealings with others we may have a sense of their joy, their confidence and emotional balance.

We should deal with every person we meet as if we were students, seeking to know the source of their contentment, or as teachers, whose responsibility it is to share the means by which we have attained our own measure of peace.

For many years I thought, “since I haven’t reached it by this age…,” my personal enlightenment must be unattainable. I would never reach the full extent of my potential. Now I see that this was just another excuse, a rationalization, a temptation from the darkness. Now, although my spiritual destination is still far off, I can at least glimpse it in the distance, and I realize that my age is irrelevant. The search, the journey is for life. Having lived nearly seven decades on this earth I can still fix my attention on the goal of peaceful harmony and productive existence, because that is the sole true purpose of life. There is no time limit; only death.