The Source of Wise Reflection
From "Fearproof Your Life"
Reflection can come to us in a silent thought like a voice in our head. It can also come to us while we are having a conversation. It can be pure thought that comes to us while in the shower or on a walk, or while writing in a journal or in quick scribbles on a convenient piece of paper. It can come to us in a song lyric that we know is expressing an inner truth. It often comes in hearing the wisdom of a child. Truth is truth; but whether it enters our awareness from inside of us or from an external source, it is always our true Self that recognizes it as truth.
A flash of insight is instantaneous. More happens in that powerful little moment than we are usually aware of. If we could view an insight in slow motion, we would notice that the initial impact of the insight comes in the form of a pure experience that is void of description. After that, we have thoughts or words we use to try to express what we experienced. You know this on some level but have rarely taken a meditative moment to notice the sequence.
It’s much like tasting an exotic fruit you’ve never before tried. The first bite is a pure abstract experience that is impossible to adequately describe, though quickly (from societal training) we categorize our experiences by defining them with explanations of good, bad, or comparisons to previous experiences.
In the case of a true spiritual insight, the words may come quickly and may be as accurate as words could hope to be, since our Spirit inspired them; but they are just touchstones that remind us of our true experience. Remember as with the sampling of the exotic fruit (or your first contact with anything new), the experience itself was all that was real; the description would be nothing without the initial experience. That would be like someone describing the exotic fruit without ever seeing or tasting it.
In the case of reflective insight, the experience we’re having is a direct experience of our Spirit (but we don’t recognize that because we are unfamiliar with who we truly are). This experience of our true Self (not the words or thoughts about it) is the true catalyst that changes our level of consciousness. I believe it is important to make this distinction early on so that one does not become invested in what may seem to be a particular process (writing, walking, and so on) and miss the source.
If we’re not careful to remain in our Divine reflective state at the moment of our experience, we will put ourselves back into the box of our belief system and lose the Divine Intelligence of the experience. The unnoticed pattern of opting for information from our ego thought system rather than from our Divine Intelligence permeates our lives most of the time and stunts our progress. That is why spiritual progress is relatively slow and sometimes appears to be nonexistent. However, the more we choose to wake up and listen deeply to our inner intelligence, the more our lives will benefit from and show the results.
Somehow we are socialized to see people who live reflective lives as lazy, unproductive, and less valuable than the workaholic heroes of our business and professional worlds. We are forced to ask ourselves why we ought to give up the “busyness” that has seemingly made us so great in order to take valuable time to reflect on our selves and our lives.
The reality is that when we take the time to reflect, we live our lives more consciously. We are no longer running around like chickens with our heads cut off, but instead we are living our lives with intention and purpose. We quit doing what is not important, that which is not inspired by or based on truth. We discover ways of doing things that are ethical, moral, and in alignment with our conscience. In other words, our actions in the world finally match our heartfelt desires, values, and instincts. We live life wholeheartedly when we reflect on the direction we are going. Without taking time for reflection, we react from habit-bound practices that are irrelevant, inefficient, and stressful. It is no wonder that our business and government leaders are so caught up in the many scandals of corruption and loss of ethical standards, when they are so often driven by the ego—greed, lust for power, and an insatiable need to be admired and liked.
