Grist for the Mill

The person who is involved in spiritual work is always looking at what is occurring in life, seeing it as the teacher, as the grist for the mill. What is happening represents that which is being worked on, so an acute catastrophe would just be a continuation of the process that is going on anyway. As a result, the person who is intensely involved in spiritual work would then see it as a golden opportunity, painful and regretful perhaps, but one of great benefit. The essential nature of spiritual work is to remain focused on what arises from instant to instant and become aware of ‘what’ is experiencing and where it is being experienced.

… Out of this experience comes an ever greater willingness to rely on that inner Presence, with less and less reliance on the small self. Less frequently, then, does the person look to the small self to handle life’s problems, as there is a progressive willingness to surrender to one’s higher Self. The progressive loss of identification with the small self and the increasing identification with the Presence, along with the willingness to surrender life and all of its aspects to the will of God, become the very core of the person’s spiritual exercise and experience.

The acute catastrophic experience is a key learning opportunity that teaches us to go to the very core, to the very essence of the experience, to see what it is and handle it at the level of experiencing within the energy field of consciousness itself. There is the willingness to surrender and to let go of wanting to change what happened ‘out there’. There is the letting go of wanting to control by thinking about it and trying to handle it with the intellect and the emotions. There is the willingness to surrender to the essence of the experience without calling it anything, or labeling it, or putting names on it. There is the willingness to handle the energy field of it and go directly to the inner experience. The surrender to the inner experience is the open doorway to the experience of something greater than the small personal self.

From Healing and Recovery p. 258-259