How a decision to walk a spiritual path can turn your life around

I just read a post by a spiritual teacher on how to make the world a better place. How meditating is a waste of time and better spent on feeding the homeless. I got up the guts (first time on facebook to someone I don't know) to respond on how it is judgemental to decide how people should spend their time, and his response was something to the effect of "the old ego bashing and spiritual cop out". That to be spiritual suddenly meant saving the world? I was surprised as there was not only "no ego bashing" on my part, but a complete misunderstanding (in my belief) on his part of what it means to be "spiritual". Each person decides what kind of path they wish to be on.

My belief that resonates from a Course in Miracles, means that to be on a spiritual path means a path of letting go of ego, and becoming one with God. You may look the same on the outside; working as a teacher, accountant, waitress, however what is happening internally is a deeper connection to remembering who you are. There are many paths to finding yourself, and after twenty years of seeking, I finally rested on A Course in Miracles to guide me, however there are many other paths. Some take longer, some are more complicated, however it all leads to the same place.

To be on a spiritual path, simply means that you are starting to question the world around you, and not taking for granted belief patterns that have been ingrained from childhood (and possibly many past lives). I was always the "why" girl in school, constantly questioning authority, and working to understand why people behave as they do. This helped me to develop my own sense of what feels right to me, and my slow awareness of who I really am. Guilt is the cornerstone to blocking this awareness. If you can do one thing to help you on your spiritual path, it is to question your motives of any action or behaviour that is on autopilot. Guilt stems from fear, and fear and love cannot coexist. Letting go of the guilt and replacing it with a loving action (that may or may not look loving to others), and you have found the key to happiness.

You are not responsible for anyone's happiness but your own. Being inspired with joy, you can't help but affect others, who then have the opportunity to decide for themselves how they are going to receive it.So, if meditating for hours to help the planet is what you are INspired to do from a loving place, then that is what you do. What you do here is not as important as the motivation behind your actions. If feeding the homeless feels right, then that is also a loving act. If writing a blog post feels right, then do that! Doing any action out of guilt or what you SHOULD be doing, is an autopilot action, and is an unexamined life, which is also no issue if that is your life path this time around. Eventually, we all find our way back home as we never really left, and home can only be experienced by the ego as love, but beyond understanding by our human brains. But hey, if love is the end game in this life, I will take it.

Lora Nedkov, MBA, RHNIntuitive Spiritual Counsellor & teacher/student of A Course in Miracles