THE FOUR SPIRITUAL AWES
1.) Awe for _________(God, Nature, the Universe, Allah, Atman, Great
Spirit, the Christ, Cosmic Compassionate Consciousness, Ultimate
Reality, etc). The Awesome One is beyond the capacity of words to
describe, beyond being named with any one name, too awesome to fit
exclusively into any one philosophy or religion. When we discover the
Awesome One in the everyday world around us, we are filled with joyful,
worshipful wonderment.
2.) Awe for compassion. Our awe for the Awesome One makes us humble,
and this enables us to feel and practice an awesome kindness toward all
beings. Our humility keeps us aware that our fellow creatures are
fragile and precious, needing our loving attention. If we have awe for
the Source of all life, then we treat life reverently.
3.) Awe for freedom. Our deep, powerful attraction to the Awesome One
invites us to choose among many paths and purposes. There is no one
predetermined plan for each of our lives. We can be guided by our
powerful inner attraction toward the Awesome One as we continually make
and change our plans. We are in awe of the unique creative potentials
given to each of us by the Source of our lives.
4.) Awe for discovery. We are always too amazed by the Awesome One to
claim full knowledge of its essence or its purposes. So we remain
humbly curious about its awesome ways and workings, eager to learn more
through every kind of inquiry. The more we learn, the more awestruck
we become, and the more we want to learn.
How do YOU want to live? You have a choice.
If you put yourself at the center of your life, what happens? Do you
obsess about how other people affect you? Do you worry about how you
look, how others think about you? Do spend a lot of time thinking
about your future – what you’ll get, what you’ll do? Are you focused
on your possessions – what you have, what you want to own? What is it
like if you make yourself the center of your life – living as if
everything and everybody else revolves around you, as if you were the
center of the universe?
Is this what you want?
But if f you put the Awesome One at the center of your life, what is
that like? Do you begin to see that others are no less or more awesome
than you are? Do you feel like you share a common life with other
people and even other creatures and things around you? Does that help
you feel love and compassion for them? Does that improve your
relationships with others? Does that help you love yourself more? Do
you feel joy and wonder and amazement? Do you feel the urge to be
creative? Do you feel like you have a task in life, a purpose to serve
others in a special way?
Is this what you want?
If you choose to put Awe at the center of your life, instead of
yourself, you have joined the company of the seekers and saints of all
the great world spiritual traditions, in all places and in all ages.
Find a community of people to support you in your quest to make Awe the
focus of your life: a church, temple, mosque, or other Awe-focused
group of people who are open-hearted and open-minded.
