Finding Life Purpose or…more dark night of the soul

When we began the journey to consciousness in the 1960′s, when we began this exploration of the self, what were we actually doing? Because we are now living in a culture that is completely immersed in mysticism. We could say that mysticism has gone mainstream. And when I look at the types of struggles that people are enduring in their lives, I recognize they don’t need a therapist, they need a spiritual director. And that we turned to therapists in lieu of spiritual directors because we don’t have any.
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If I was your spiritual director this is how I would talk to you. I would say, the first thing I want you to say to me is… what questions have you been asking of God? What are you expecting to hear from God? And then I would send you home with a homework assignment. I would tell you to empty yourself of thoughts in exactly those areas.
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And you would empty yourself, and empty yourself, as part of a spiritual program, to begin to think, ‘what am I expecting of God?’
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Simultaneously I want to take you into what happens in your ordinary life. What has to happen in your ordinary life that also sets the foundation for madness to strike. The kind of madness I was experiencing in December.
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When you begin to ask mystical questions like, “God, talk to me clearly”, “God, take away distractions”, “God, let me know why I’m on this Planet”, you change the rules of your own life. And you’ve changed the rhythm of your life. What become necessary is the first stage… which is separation.
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You have to become separated from the world that you know. The first stage is separation, and when you enter separation it can take you out of your job… it can take you out of your marriage… it can take you out of your family… it can take you out of the familiar life that you know. Why is that necessary?
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Because what you are actually doing is saying, “I want every voice that detracts from the clear one, to be taken away from me”. What you’re actually praying, when you pray for spiritual union, is ‘get everything away from me that distracts me from you’.

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You have to begin the journey of identifying all the false voices. How do you identify a false voice? You have to begin the journey of seeing into who’s hands you have commended your spirit… other than God.
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