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The Capacity For Discernment - Linking Spiritual Practice And Political Observation
There is a need for souls today to understand how to apply principles of spiritual awareness to every aspect of life including political perceptions and choices and the observation of the political arena in general.
In this way, what has been a compartmentalized spiritual life can remove itself from the more protected corner of our awareness, to inform all areas of choice and decision that we make, from the most lofty to the most mundane.
Within this view, to be a spiritual being is to treat consciousness as the precious gift that it is in all its manifestations and to become aware of the need to hold this gift responsibly when we are asked as members of a family, as partners in a relationship, or as citizens of a nation, to make decisions. To be responsible for our consciousness allows us to draw conclusions that are more aligned with truth and light in all areas of our life, including the public and political arena.
The need to hold choice in a sacred way as it applies to these spheres involves us in a need to understand 'discernment' - what it is, how to cultivate it, what interferes with it, and how to stabilize it as a process within ourselves. To do otherwise, especially in relation to those things that affect us as members of a community or nation, is to allow ourselves to be swayed by the prevailing public view of something - a view whose shape is often defined by fear rather than by wisdom.
Our choices in the public or political arena are often influenced by what media would have us believe about events, their causes, the merits of persons in public office, and the need for actions of different kinds. To become discerning involves not only being aware of the influence of media as it shapes, informs, and cultivates public awareness, but also includes the understanding of how energies of darkness can play a role in this shaping through the effect that they have on our emotions. These energies are more potent today because we are living at a time of expanding light and expanding consciousness, and their role and intent is to prevent such expansion. Discernment involves knowing when something that is affirmed as true is really true, and when something that creates fear in us, is actually worthy of fear.
Often, the basis for fear is the incorrect belief that something that is offered as the 'only' way to view things is actually the 'only' way. This profession becomes even more disturbing when the 'only' way has grave consequences for life or is reprehensible in some way. Discernment, when present, conveys to us that there is another way, and that what appears to be a necessity, is often not. The capacity to foreclose the sense of choice is one of the primary tools of darkness, and it causes many within the public sphere - both elected officials and the public in general - to reduce their capacity for more creative solutions to problems out of a perceived sense of threat. This sense of threat reduces the feeling of choice and gives rise to a perception of need for immediate action.
Discernment involves us in an interactive process that joins reason with intuition. It relies on our capacity to join with our higher intuition to arrive at a closer approximation of truth than is possible through information alone. Sometimes this intuitive knowing comes easily. At other times, it is necessary to immerse ourselves more deeply in the practice of alignment with light so that a sense of truth can emerge from a different level of our consciousness.
The capacity for aligning with light is central to our ability to discern truth. For if darkness or motivations that are more ego-based color our mental or emotional perceptions, we will not be able to discern truth, but will be held in bondage to the public opinion that prevails at a given time or to our own fears. The capacity for discernment is the bridge between our spiritual life and our life in the public arena, and the practice of alignment allows us to live with a sense of truth on both sides of this bridge. Such a practice allows us to release our smaller self and ego and to join with the higher aspects of ourselves. It increases our ability to hold light in the world and our ability to hold truth for the benefit of ourselves and others. As we seek to commit ourselves to a unified life, a life that is sacred in all its aspects, it is essential to anchor ourselves within a practice that supports our capacity to hold light and to remain anchored within the wholeness of our being. Out of this anchoring, discernment can emerge, as well as a broader ability to live life fully and completely from our sacred humanity.
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