Spiritual Sustainability

My decision to run a yearlong intensive practice program aimed at sustaining cosmic consciousness was based on my own experience, and the experience of many people like me, whose attention has been raised into profound states of awareness, but then slips back into a more constricted and limited state.

For twenty years living in a spiritual community, my spiritual path was focused on the attainment of spiritual freedom, or what is called mukti in the Hindu tradition. This spiritual state is characterized by the capacity to remain content regardless of what you happen to be experiencing. It is a profound acceptance of the totality of the human condition so that you are able to be relaxed, receptive and available regardless of how you feel.

From that vantage point, higher states of consciousness are no more valuable than any other state. The only thing that matters is being free from the need to have your experience be anything other than what it is. A person who lives in this depth of inner freedom exhibits a profound equanimity under all circumstances.

I believe that some degree of spiritual freedom must be won in order for us to attain cosmic consciousness as an ongoing state of awareness. Without at least some degree of inner freedom, we are too reactive to circumstance to ever travel the delicate path to expanded states of being. We may have periodic experiences of higher consciousness, but find that we are not stable enough to remain there for long.

The attainment of spiritual freedom allows us to rest in higher states of awareness for longer periods of time, through evermore challenging circumstances, but even in this case higher experiences can remain temporary. If we want to rest in continuous contact with our higher potentials we must engage with spiritual work that supports that possibility.

Traditionally, strengthening and purifying ourselves in the in-between spaces of subtle consciousness is how we build structures of support that will hold our attention in expanded states. This work involves a variety of practices that address the subtle dynamics of the mind and body, as well as the cultivation of mystical vision.

Over the past few years I have given increasing amounts of attention to the development of the subtle inner structures that I believe are necessary to sustain the awareness of cosmic consciousness. I started by exploring energetic dance practices and kundalini yoga. I studied and practiced the Hawaiian shamanic tradition of lomi lomi massage, and then explored the nature of the soul and how it grows and develops. Most recently, over this past year I have focused on the spiritual practice of yoga nidra and out of body experience.

All of this spiritual focus as well as numerous energetic healings with a variety of skilled practitioners has led to an acceleration of my spiritual growth. I have experienced my inner world expanding in richness and strength. I feel more deeply connected to the subtle aspects of my being and have had many powerful awakening experiences.

I certainly don’t feel that my inner development is complete, but I do feel a powerful direct connection between my life on Earth and the divine source from which we are born. Now I feel called to use these inner structures as the basis of support that will hold my awareness open to the sweeping perception of cosmic consciousness. I have never been more inspired by the science of what I am calling spiritual sustainability.

Spiritual sustainability means engaging with spiritual work that leads to ongoing availability to your higher spiritual potentials. There are practices that can lead us to breakthrough experiences and open us briefly to the miraculous potentials within us, but what I am focused on now is spiritual work that allows those deepest potentials to remain permanently open and available to us continuously.