WORDS FOR ALL SEASONS
©S.D.EVANS 1993-2006
CLEARING THE CLUTTER
©S. D. EVANS 2002
SECTION FOUR
SORTING OUT WHAT IS LEFT
Well now you really are coming on. No jealousy, or lingering anger -well mostly none, but of us is perfect, its human nature to be angry from time to time and even the best of us covet someone's else's good fortune, at least for a moment so don't feel you are failing to travel forward down your Spiritual path when this happens. Remember we are all ordinary human beings, not saints.
These emotions are inbred in us and will flare up from time to time no matter how 'Good' we try to be, so don't go feeling bad. Just accept you felt that way and let it go, its over finished.
So as I was saying, you are getting there. There being the creating of that new, improved INNER YOU. You must have noticed by now, if you have being doing the exercises, that
your thought patterns have changed. That people are reacting differently to you, treating you with more respect and admiration because of the POSITIVE changes in you. Your behaviour to others will be different and your attitudes towards others and different situations will have changed.
This is what this section is about. Before you go on any further you need to examine and see just how far you really have come. "Boring" you might say, "I want to go forward not back." You are not going to go backwards, but you must now look over and see all the changes that have taken place within you. Look and see how different now the INNER YOU is from when you first started to read this.
Remember Spiritual Development is not just about changing but UNDERSTANDING the change. What is the point of undergoing all this change if you do not know why you have done it. SELF-EXAMINATION is a large key word, its something that must be done on a regular basis, so that you can see not only where you are going but where you have come from.
Now is the time for you to start this, although I am sure by now you will have already done it from time to time since you started. When, say, you found yourself reacting differently to a situation or a person, it would be natural to think "Hey, this isn't how I used to react, I must be changing."
Now instead of just these odd moments you are going to sit down and examine these changes much more closely. Not only will it help you, as I have already said, see where you are going and in what ways you have changed but it will also help you work out how you can continue to improve because this is what Spiritual Development is all about SELF-IMPROVEMENT.
To IMPROVE the INNER YOU so that you not only become a better person but that you also start to question the spiritual nature of the world around you. You start to become more philosophical wanting answers to questions you never even considered before. You cannot help this, I do not mean that you be throwing away your party clothes, stopping drinking, changing your dietary habits or moving away from civilisation. You may wish to, and if you do that's fine, but as I said in the beginning this is Spiritual Development for the ordinary person, not a religious cult or religion. Your beliefs are your own and I am just showing you how you can develop while still keeping the same beliefs, no change in them is necessary.
For me I must admit, I believed in God before I went down my Spiritual Path and now, many years on, my belief in him is stronger than ever. I started with just blind faith but I have had proof given to me that a greater intelligence than mine is out there watching over me and all mankind.
Proof so strong I could not deny it even if I wanted to. Although I must say I am not the kind of person that takes anything at face value I always have to investigate and only accept when I either have an answer or it feels right in my heart. I call this a "KNOWING." It is hard to put this feeling into words, it is just you KNOW something, no explanation of how you arrived at this KNOWING. We all have these instinctive feelings when we KNOW something is right or wrong. We feel there is something wrong with our children even though they look well and healthy or are out and about somewhere, you KNOW something is not right. You cannot explain it, you just KNOW. In the past it was called woman's instinct but men had it too but ignored it. As you go further down your path you will find that you KNOW more and more things. You are tuning into the Universe and you will KNOW whether the belief system that you follow is the right or wrong one for you. if its right for you then do not change.
THERE ARE MANY PATHS TO THE TRUTH. Every person is different so why should it be necessary for us all to believe in the same thing. That just doesn't make any sense. The main thing is to be HAPPY with your choice. Listen to what others have to say, think about it then follow the KNOWING of your heart.