CHOOSE LIFE

In the fifth book of the Torah (Devarim or Deuteronomy), Moses is giving his final instructions to the People.  He tells them to “Choose life.”  This exhortation is preceded by the choices of “the life and the good, versus the death and the evil.”  It is about “life and death, [or] blessing and curse.”

            Our relationship to God is about spiritual wakening.  God is good, meaning God is truth.  It is about being holy, like God is holy.

            “Choosing life” means to optimize what God has to offer us in life.  After being born into our world, we immediately begin the task of being a part of this creation.  We practice controlling our physical abilities.  We endeavor to grasp, understand, utilize, and master everything we contact.  The natural process is to follow our senses and make our lives the best we can.

            “Choosing life” is going beyond what is presented to our perceptions.  We do not choose to see and touch the things around us.  They are presented to us for that purpose.  Without question, we seek to enhance our earthly experience.

            We have the capacity and the inclination to do this.  Life’s material stimuli, combined with all of our genetic and learned influences, draw us towards them.  We want to be busy.  We want to manipulate and create things in our lives.  We want to gain and succeed.  We strive for satisfaction through these efforts.

            “Choosing life” means recognizing the heavenly powers.  This leads to greater depth, flavor, and fulfillment in life.   

            It is not really a choice to interact with what we encounter in life.  The material world literally forces itself upon us.  You can’t remove having seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled something.  How we respond to these stimuli determines our lives’ paths.

            Adding a spiritual life does not replace the physical life that is being constructed.  It heightens awareness within that edifice.   Mindfulness in all that we bring the two worlds together and facilitates the enriching influence they have upon each other. 

Each of us does it differently, according to an individual’s nature and ability.  Becoming involved in the many offerings in life is determined by all that we are.  This is the case for a person as well as for a nation.  Or any other group.

            Our decisions arise from our genetics, experiences, and upbringings.  Nutrition, education, attachments to others, life events of every magnitude, and serendipity all mold us.  One’s choices flow from one’s past.  It is not free will.  It is the cumulative derivation and integration from what made each of us who she or he is at every moment of taking a step along a unique road traveled.

            We engage an independent prerogative when we consciously choose to move outside the material world.  God has opened up for us that there is a spiritual world to be sought.  Bringing the heavenly powers into our earthly lives completes our world.

            If a person convinces himself to be satisfied with finding all meaning and purpose in the physical world, he will always fall short of life.  If she focuses upon and obtains all healing from the earthly without adding the heavenly, she will never realize all that God and life offer.  Being driven by attitudes, urges, and desires bind us further to the life we recognize through our senses.  This is not choosing.  This is just responding to all that has transpired before.

            We are offered the conscious ability to select something completely different.   

            Humans are unique among life forms because we have this choice.  Thinking that our options exist merely within the constructs of the material universe leaves us with our limitations. 

            Adding the spiritual component to our lives is moving out of the sphere in which we operate.  This requires a decision that does not arise from anything material.  A new type of effort must be made.  Activating, enhancing, and nurturing the soul combines the heavenly and earthly powers.  This heals the world and completes our lives.

            The decision and task to engage the spiritual does not naturally arise from experiencing the physical.  God personifies what the ethereal encompasses. 

            This meditative activity and the decision to pursue it is not reflexive.  It is an ability we possess.  It is part of our inherent makeup.  Nevertheless, it is not quantifiable, like other earthly qualities.

             Accessing it mandates stepping away from the trail on which we march.  The doorway to the spiritual encounter is opened by redirecting attention.  Prior to this new effort, the stars have all aligned themselves to walk a pathway in life.  Complementing our earthly powers with our heavenly means connecting to that which is outside all material influences.

            It’s about being.  The new world we can create erases contradictions and promotes expansiveness.  Everything becomes sensible in its unity.  Barriers and edges are eliminated. 

            The key is meditation.  This activity is focusing on nothing while allowing total sensory input.  Put your awareness in your head as you repeatedly discard stray thoughts.  This is a skill to be developed and honed.  It is not a goal to be attained.  The process is the reward.  Everybody meditates.  Whenever you are focused on a project or an appreciation, you are meditating.  Think of those times in your life, and you will know what you can do. 

There are many guides available to amplify your proficiency.  Practice being mindful in all you do. Be single-mindedly focused on your endeavors.  There are books, tapes, videos, classes, and lectures to help you along the way.

Become your spiritual self to complement the world you inhabit.  The two meld well. 

Joining these parallel planes resolves contradictions and fault lines that permeate the earthly influences.  One natural outcome is improved health.  The material and spiritual powers combine.  Both can then evolve and grow from the energy of the other.  The benefit is exponential.  Take advantage of this opportunity.