Connecting with Others

on the Spiritual Path

The T’ai Chi Chih life is a spiritual life. Attending the annual teachers conference is one of the best opportunities we have to come together with others on that path.Together, we can refine our TCC practice, reaffirm our commitment, and start the next year with renewed energy and Joy.

Here are some of Justin’s reflections on a spiritual life, from the book Heightened Awareness:

Those of us who are led to spiritual pursuits cannot usually explain why they interest us. If we did try, we might say that we are tired of the superficial in life and looking for something of more lasting value….The spiritual path can be a lonely one because it brings us into more rarified stratas where fewer and fewer venture.

But the rewards are great!We begin to find out Who and What we are, and with this knowledge, anxieties start to fall away.

Instead of seeming to be a creature who pursues business success for a few years, then gradually deteriorates and disappears, we begin to realize that we are a creature who fills the Universe, and whose voice is a voice without limit.

It goes without saying that, as we “ascend the ladder,” we approach more closely to our natural heritage, Joy.

….gratitude and divine energy will come along with our ascent, and compassion will naturally have a prominent place in our lives.

Compassion and Wisdom (not knowledge) tend to go together, and the wise man will tend to be compassionate as a matter of course; he will be “good” without any self-conscious thought of being so (and he is not to be judged by those not at his level). Kindness takes many forms….

Awareness is the mark by which we can judge the degree of progress one has made. Heightened awareness gradually becomes Universal Consciousness, and we begin to get away from the self-centered concentration we had known.

Justin Stone: Heightened Awareness. Good Karma Publishing, 1988, pp. 75-76.