To anyone reading this… Please know that the original of this is not my writing…. I just wanted to post this piece as originally written by Dr. Richard Jelusich, with some of my own emphasis added in italics, because I want to remember it relative to my own growth and learning right now. If it assists others, then wonderful! 🙂 Thanx, everyone!
In Spirit, Trae
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In Eastern philosophy, the lotus is often represented as our life-path on the spiritual journey. We start out in the rich mud of life – the five sense perceptions flooding our minds with what appears to be the only reality.
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Then, with spiritual yearning, we issue forth slim tendrils up, through the water, feeling something that is ‘above’ that is calling to us. That tendril becomes a stalk as it pushes up through the waters of experiencing life – fed by the mud of giving our attention primarily to this physical life.
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But something inside of us pulls us upwards through the waters of our experience toward a vague yet discernible light. Until we find ourselves upon the surface of those waters, where we place a leaf that ‘floats’ upon those emotions. Supported by them but not immersed in them. And still connected to the mud from which we originated.
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We then face the light and issue forth a tender bud, composed of a thousand petals of our being. And facing the sun, we expand those petals to unfold, gathering and beholding the light, and gaining a much greater expanded awareness of reality. Now, sustaining ourselves beyond the mud below to a much more direct source of life. And our petals continue to unfold in the presence of the light – each petal working seamlessly and in harmony with all petals.
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Now fed by earthly mud of the five senses of our physical being, and by the direct light of being IN the presence, and equally OF that same presence, our unfolded petals and leaves assist each one of us into a deeper realization of who we really are. We are always connected to the light and the mud, to the spirit and the physical, and that both in balance are necessary for engagement into the fulfillment of one’s life purpose.
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Therefore, be glad you have your five senses and are reaching through your emotions. They are the conduit. Not something to be stifled or left behind, but experienced in the fullness of where they lead, like a compass toward your most full expression.
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With Gratitude to Rev. Richard Jelusich, Ph.D. for this original passage that landed in my email box this week. I am most grateful for my own thoughts as they emerge from this… Namaste.