phrase “have my back” are people in the military or on the police force. All this daily fighting makes us tense and stressed out. It’s a kind of internal resistance that wears down the moving parts of the body and torments the mind.
BREATHE RELAX LET GO
SLOW DOWN
by jacob glass
ABOVE THE BATTLEGROUND The way back to the peace, love and joy of the
spiritual life is not a path in which we learn to win the fight. In fact, it is one in which we rise above the battleground entirely while still going about our normal daily routine. It’s not necessary to move to an island or an ashram because you can easily take the war with you into a temple or on a weekend spiritual retreat. The shift from fighting to serenity and joy is an internal one. We simply make an inner shift in which we rise entirely above the battleground. You can do it right this moment. It’s quite simple,
really. Let your shoulders drop. Relax your jaw and all the muscles of your face and head. Relax your belly and your buttocks and sink into the chair as all the stress drains out your fingertips and the soles of your feet, like sand running through an hourglass. Let your thoughts slow down. Take a deep breath and let go of trying to make anything happen. Let go of trying to prevent anything from happening. Let go of trying to impress anyone. Let go of all shame, blame and guilt. Just be, exactly the way you are and exactly the way you are not—nothing to do, nothing to get, nothing to fix or change. Just be open to receiving the love, peace and joy of the universe that created you in perfect love.
“Love does not conquer
all things, but it does set all things right.” - A Course in Miracles
We are not human beings having a spiritual experi-
ence. We are spiritual beings having a human experi- ence. And the human experience, unlike the spiritual one, is quite temporary. Our time on this planet is like a big temp job each of us has. Nothing here belongs to us and everything is on loan from the universe—so we’ll be turning it in on our last day here—including the body. We will not take one single thing with us,
52 RAGE monthly | SEPTEMBER 2014
except what we learned while here and, the only les- sons worth learning, are the ones about love. The problem with this human experience is that
we fight too much. Even our every day language has been saturated with militaristic and aggressive verb- age. We fight the visible signs of aging, we fight the fat, we attack our disease, we want someone to “have our back.” The only people who should be using the
OPPOSITE WORLD The spiritual life is a life of paradox. It is really the opposite of everything that we’ve been taught by the culture about working hard, sacrificing, compet- ing, making things happen, pushing, fighting and acquiring. In fact, my own personal experience has been the extreme opposite of that. It was like this for me—every time I tried to make money, I ended up in deep debt. When I tried to get fit and healthy, I ended up fatter and sicker. When I tried to get into relationships, the men ran from me as if my hair was on fire. When I tried to get approval, I was hated and criticized. Now, my main spiritual practice is something I call
“walking through the open doors.” I no longer bang my bloody head against the doors that are locked to me. I’ve found that the less I fight and strive, the hap- pier and more peaceful I am—wherever I might be, walking through the open doors.
Jacob Glass is an author and spiritual teacher in Southern California, for more information on him and his schedule go to
jacobglass.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80