Experiencing God

Everyday

As I write about healing, union, freedom, God, and other lofty and semi-sacred topics, I realize that I tend to regard them as everyday experiences.  How can the experience of God be an everyday experience?  Isn’t freedom, union, and healing the kind of experiences that only come after a lifetime of study and dedication?    For myself, I never wanted the pursuit of life’s wonder and mystery to be one long pursuit.  I always figured that if I knew the right place to dig I could find the treasure.

Digging for Treasure

As a young child a favorite activity was digging for buried treasure.  My friends and I would choose a spot that seemed hidden away, behind the woodpile, outback, somewhere on the borders of our known world, but where the earth was soft enough for digging.  Did we find treasure?  Everytime.  Even though we began with dreams of pirate treasure or the very last most important thing in the world, we soon gave over to the adventure of the dig. 

At first we were digging to get to the bottom where the treasure would be, but later realized there was no bottom.  So we began examining every shovel full of dirt, sifting and sorting every little tidbit, keeping a keen eye for that one special something.  We set aside rocks, decomposing locust shells, bottle-caps, rusty nails, grub worms, snake skins, and bits of broken glass,which brought that hint of danger that every real adventure requires.  Our conversation would eventually turn to the subject of China and how far and how long we would have to dig to get there.  Meanwhile, our collection of treasure would be growing into a substantial reality; a collection we would gather up in our dirty hands and pockets and take to our mothers(this was the 50’s).  And there on the back porch (we were ousted from the kitchen) we would recount the grand adventure of finding the place to dig, how many shovels full of dirt, almost seeing China, how exhausted we were, but still alive, and bringing home the long lost knowledge of what lay just beneath the surface of our world. 

Finding God

The purpose of digging is finding.  As children we simply accepted what was there.  Of course we did have to look closely and sift through the dirt, and we did have to use a shovel and take time to clean things off -  so we could really see what was there. 

So where is God hiding?  How and where do I dig?  What am I looking for?  Where is the shovel?

Timeless Tool

We have one tool with which to dig and that is our ability to focus our attention.  We have one place to dig, and that is within our own body and being.  Children become happy and excited when they are focused, exploring and making discovery.  Focus brings appreciation, wonder, and a unique feeling of well-being.  Our awareness, our focus of attention, itself unfolds and reveals hidden wonders.  There are feelings and insights that appear magically, right out of nowhere, just from being focused.  Every one experiences this simple phenomenon.  So here is the secret unveiled.  God, life, and all the wonderful gifts of happiness, union, freedom, and healing are to be found with the tool of your own focused awareness, in that patch of ground right in your own backyard.  That is just the simple truth.  

Find Your Focus

Ask yourself what you want.  Pay attention to that nagging little feeling that insists on finding buried treasure.  Follow the thread of your own wanting.  It may lead you to the borders of your known world, where that hidden treasure, the very last most important thing in the world is buried.  Dig there.