A Golden Stairway
Several years ago, at a low point in my life, I asked for an answer to my suffering. What I received in return was a vision that held the key, not only to my own transformation but also to humanity's transformation.
In this vision, was a golden stairway that led to the realisation of my true divine nature and liberated me from the hellish realm of fear-based thinking. The stairway led to the true kingdom of Heaven that lies within our hearts when we experience oneness with all of Life and all that exists.
This was all very wonderful, but the question was how do I - and each of us - put this into practice? The clues lay within the vision, as each step I took required that I practice certain principles or else I could not take the next step.
I then put these principles into practice in my daily life … and the miracle of transformation from a life of suffering to a life of joy took place!
Creating My Own Reality
In Step 1, I learnt to lay the foundation for everything that was to follow … and take 100% responsibility for everything I experience. When I realized that the changes I wanted to see in my outer world would only take place when I took total responsibility for creating the inner changes, then things really started to shift in my life.
Step 2 led on from the first step … identify your story-lines. It was clear to me that there was a persistent voice in my head that kept me stuck in victimhood every time I blamed external events for my unhappiness. It took a lot of effort but eventually I was able to recognize another voice that came from a deeper place, a voice that empowered me to create the life I truly wanted and aligned me to the Source.
If I wanted to move beyond feeling small, then I had to choose feelings and thoughts of joy, peace, happiness and abundance.
Step 3 for me was … let go of resistance. Through trial and error, I learnt that resisting what I didn't like just made me more unhappy. It was only when I let go of all need to protect myself from pain that the misery of 'closedness' transformed to the miracle of openness.
OK, my step 4 is a core principle of all spiritual teachings, but I had to hear it again and again … be fully present! This meant really reigning in my habit of looking behind and saying "I wish it hadn't been like that!" and spending too much time in wishful thinking for the future. Both of these ways of thinking kept me trapped, whilst learning to be "OK with how it is NOW" led to a sense of freedom.
Accepting Life As It Is
Step 5 is … say yes to life! Hmm .. easy when things go the way I want them to go but almost impossible when things are painful or difficult! To make step 5 I needed to learn to exercise a spiritual muscle that could welcome every experience. And in learning to become a lover of life, I experienced such deep intimacy with every delicious moment that I could no longer label life as good or bad: life just simply is!
A direct by-product of this is step 6 which tells me … recognize every experience as a calling from God. I always had a problem with the word God, as I (like many of us) had believed that God was a force outside of me. But in becoming a lover of Life, I experienced a divine oneness that showed me that God and everything else are not separate: God is simply What Is!
Of course, this led me to step 7 … recognize everyone and everything as a manifestation of God. In experiencing God as What Is, I could then recognize the divine spark that animates everything that exists. Admittedly, it was harder to include what I perceived as ugly or bad … but once again, it was a spiritual muscle that responded more effectively the more I used it.
My Step 8 is … be innocent! Having carried a sense of shame for most of my life, this was quite a hard one for me. It was a bit like burning in the fire every time it came up. What it meant was that I had to allow myself to drop my defences, bare my true self to the world and trust that life loved me enough to support me exactly as I am!
Who Do I serve?
Step 9 is perhaps one of the most important … be in service. The question that needs to be asked here is "Do I serve Fear or do I serve Love?" It's a profound question that if we could answer honestly in each moment, our inner and outer realities would change in the blink of an eye. One leads to separation, greed, violence and suffering. The other leads to oneness, harmony, caring and bliss.
Finally, step 10 is … be resolute! This means having the courage to take one step at a time, without faltering … and if you stumble, just get back on the stairway and keep climbing up to Heaven!
I believe that if I can really put these principles into action in my daily life, on a moment to moment basis, I can truly transform the way I see myself, my neighbours and indeed the whole world.
Amoda Maa Jeevan is the author of a new book "How To Find God In Everything" (Watkins, 2008), see http://www.amodamaajeevan.com