Steve thanks for reminding, we can never talk too much about the SE, the Spiritual Eye.
If we were able to concentrate constantly on that while carrying out our duties we would already be within the saints.
I appreciated all you post and this part I find particularly inspiring and is what I'm goign to practice, at least trying to practice:
Brother Bhaktananda used to take care of the gardens at self realization fellowship. Paramahansa Yogananda would walk in the gardens. he would come up to him and say: every now and then lift your eyes and say that what your doing is for God and Guru. it is 1 way to connect with God.
I think our job will carry power that way.
If we have a job which is not mental rather physical, we can draw coordination, efficiency or simply work with a blissful mind.
If we are committed to an intellectual job, we can receive inspiration and creativity. connecting with God means connecting with his infinite creative power, which will flow back from the mind to the results of the job. I'm firmly convinced about that.
Often our duties r so all consuming and intense that we loose our spiritual practice during the day. This has been my personal observation.
I also believe that as spiritual aspirants our minds have a tendency to belittle or take too lightly the experiences we may have and to take our physical and material life more seriously.
I have found myself seeing things in the spiritual eye and hearing things with my spiritual ears that I can easily write off as imagination. While it may be important to recognize that we can believe things that are not true because of our imagination... i still feel that the boderline between imagination and true spiritual experience is often not as distinct as one would think.
After some understanding of the subtle nature of spiritual experiences I have recognized that each one of these experiences is noteworthy and we should continue to feel enthusiastic when they occur. They inspire us to continue in our practice.
We are fortunate to have meditation techniques that help develop our spiritual awareness. I am encouraged to be around others such as mccoy who make a concerted effort to practice and discuss such things as the spiritual eye.
