Commitment Law # 27

Commitment is best understood by realizing the first commitment, when you were given life. Have you truly accepted it? Re-evaluate what is involved in any act of Commitment.

           Cynthia F. Davidson, from the Wisdom Wheel Commitment card

     (cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Can you commit to spending the next 10 days studying the Law of Commitment? What rating would you give yourself in the Commitment department? Do you keep your word 100% of the time? 50% of the time?

Consider a time when someone failed to honor a Commitment made to you. Then review another instance, when it was your failure, to keep a Commitment. 
What were the underlying reasons each time? 
Were they the same both times? 

What makes it difficult to keep our promises to ourselves, much less to others? And when we do keep them, what was different?
How much do we actually understand, about the Process, of making Commitments? 
Why do we even want them, in the first place? And what makes us break them so often? 

Being born with the ingrained fight or flight instinct may have something to do with our abilities to stay the course, especially in relationships where our obligations make us feel threatened, resentful or fearful. 
While emotions can certainly inspire our Commitments, as when couples get married, if there is no 'chemistry' to enhance the physical Commitment, and no shared spirituality to strengthen the Commitment over time, what will keep any two individuals together? 

In your real life, what is the most impressive Commitment you can think of?  If it's about a relationship between two people, make a list of qualities each person has, or had, which enhanced and preserved their Commitment. 

Now think about a person, place or thing you are very devoted to. Why have you stayed? Why did you stray, in the past?

As with each of these Laws, it is well worth bringing them up as conversation starters, with family and friends. You may learn quite a lot about how they see the world, and other people, as well as these values, like Commitment.

Here follow some quotes about the wisdom of Commitment.

The definition of the word commit is to “devote oneself unreservedly.” This means holding absolutely nothing back; giving 100 percent of everything… It means being willing to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes. This is the warrior’s way. No excuses, no ifs, no butts, no maybes—and failure isn’t an option.

T. Harv Eker from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

It isn't until you begin to fight in your own cause that you

(a) become really committed to winning, and

(b) become a genuine ally of other people struggling for their freedom.

Robin Morgan (1941 - ) activist and author books include Sisterhood Is Powerful

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

François de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French classical author

Commitment is never an act of moderation!

Kenneth Mills

To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.

James A. Baldwin

The uncommitted life isn't worth living.

Marshall Fishwick

A decision is made with the brain. A commitment is made with the heart. Therefore, a commitment is much deeper and more binding than a decision.

Nido Qubein (1948 - ) Arab American, world renowned motivational speaker and president of High Point University

We only regard those unions as real examples of love and real marriages in which a fixed and unalterable decision has been taken. If men or women contemplate an escape, they do not collect all their powers for the task. In none of the serious and important tasks of life do we arrange such a "getaway." We cannot love and be limited.

Alfred Adler

Marriage means commitment.  Of course, so does insanity. 

Author Unknown

Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return.

Cesar Chavez

Commitment is a line you must cross....it is the difference between dreaming and doing.

Bernie Fuchs

There have been more persecution and atrocities committed in the name of religion and religious freedom than anything else.

Walter Koenig

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me-spirituality and financially.

Denzel Washington

Visions are messages from the Great Spirit, each for a different purpose in life. Consequently, one person's vision may not be that of another. To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled. How could a vision ever be given to someone if that person could not be trusted to carry it out. The message is simple: commitment precedes vision.

High Eagle

Commitment means that it is possible for a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies.

Howard Thurman

In another 10 days, we'll take up the Law of Giving & Receiving, until then, re-examine the whys and wherefores of your Commitments.

Courage Law # 26

The Courage it takes to look one’s fears in the face can transform both the fear and the one who is afraid.  Take back the Power you have given to your fears.

Cynthia F. Davidson, from the Wisdom Wheel Courage card

  (cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

What do you think takes the most Courage? 

Admitting you are wrong? 

Facing a terminal illness? 

Standing up to an enemy? Or to someone close to you?

Being honest, about your beliefs, when others disagree and you will be alone? 

Over a lifetime, we'll need all kinds of Courage, and during the next ten days, make it a point to experiment with as many types of this Law as you can. Think about your Courage and how it encourages others. And explore the opposite of Courage. What affects do your fears have, upon you, your friends and family. 

Sometimes we need mental Courage. Other times it's bodily Courage or  spiritual Courage we must draw upon. And then there is the Courage of the heart. 

When our hearts are not in something, we lack Courage and lose heart too easily. The word Courage comes from coeur, the French term for the heart. This implies that true Courage is an inner strength, not dependent upon big muscles, or well developed intellects.

   

Take the time to make a list of courageous acts you admire, and ones you have taken part in. 

Who do you know, in your personal life, who has exhibited the most Courage? What made them so courageous?  

When you look ahead to your future years, what (do you believe) will require the most Courage from you? From others?

Courage can also makes us foolhardy, if it is the boastful sort of bravado that incites others and causes trouble. We know about quiet Courage, but it also requires considerable Courage to get out there, or to get up on the stage (or TV) in front of people, knowing you'll be criticized, behind your back.  

Here are some insights from experiences with Courage.   

The most salient mark of a creative person... is not physical courage... it is a personal courage, a courage of the mind and spirit, psychological or spiritual courage that is the radius of a creative person: the courage to question what is generally accepted; the courage to be destructive in order that something better can be constructed; the courage to be open to experience both from within and without; the courage to imagine the impossible and try to achieve it; the courage to stand aside from collectivity and in conflict with it, if necessary; the courage to become and to be oneself.

D.W. MacKinnon

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage in an untrained mind leads to cruelty, and in a trained mind it leads to hope and compassion.

P.J. Saher in Zen-Yoga

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

The man with outward courage dares to die; the man with inward courage dares to live.        
Lao Tzu

Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

Maya Angelou

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Mark Twain

Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

Rollo May

The bravest of individuals is the one who obeys his or her conscience.

J. F. Clarke

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.

Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.

Mahatma Gandhi

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

Atticus Finch, character in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird

It takes courage for a person to listen to their own goodness and act on it.  Do we dare to be ourselves?  This is the question that counts.

Pablo Casals, cellist and humanist

The law of Courage is about the 
ability to not only face a danger but to risk an action to defuse that danger. When action is taken, fear departs. …Courage is a quality of an evolved soul in manifestation…its deficiency being cowardice and its vice, excess recklessness. …Courage is one of the four cardinal virtues, along with prudence, justice and temperance.

Margo Kirtikar, Ph.D.

In ten days, we'll take up the 27th Law of Commitment, until then, be of good Courage. 

Creativity Law #25

...the Great Creator bestows all gifts of insight, genius, artistic ability and truly elegant solutions. Problems can be solved and ideas can flow through inexhaustibly if we honor our Creativity… Share your creation stories.

Cynthia F. Davidson, excerpt from the Wisdom Wheel Creativity card 

  (cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

How creative are your ideas about 'Creator'? If you still have the same image you were given as a child, you might want to jump start your Creativity by getting more imaginative about 'God', the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery to begin with.  

After the Law of Enlightenment last week, it is time for Creativity, Courage and Commitment this month. These three line up beside the Law of Right Action. This implies that Right Action is unlikely without Creativity. Likewise, creative ideas never come to fruition unless we have the Courage and Commitment to see them through.

    

When have you felt the most creative? 

Who around you has kept their creative spark alive? How? 

And who has succumbed to cynicism and sarcasm? 

What has inhibited your Creativity? 

What can you do about this right now?

What are you afraid of?  

During the coming ten days, have some fun with this Law. Loosen up. Laugh with others and at yourself. Have creative toys, tools and games around to involve others. Wear a red clown nose, put on a funny hat, make people smile.   

Creativity includes giving yourself permission to play when it's called for, and many studies have proven it enhances our productivity. 

Make a list of the most creative people you can think of and why you've chosen them as examples of this Law in action. In our capitalist society, the individuals 'rewarded' with the most pay per day are actually the people who do make believe for a living, such as actors, like Tom Hanks, who customarily get $20 million per movie, for about 6 weeks worth of work. 

Creativity is contagious. It inspires the rest of us, so be as creative as you dare, for the next ten days. Maybe you'll like it and never go backwards. Here are some insights to feed your Creativity.  

Some people think of creativity as something that artists possess. It might be more helpful to think of it as Jung did, as an instinct. We can bring creativity to almost every life activity. Moreover, we can use certain imaginative forms of creative expression through the arts to explore personal, spiritual, and psychological development.

Marion Woodman and artist Jill Mellick in Coming Home to Myself: Reflections for Nurturing a Woman's Body and Soul

The creative process, so far as we are able to follow it at all, consists in the unconscious activation of an archetypal image and elaborating and shaping the image into the finished work. By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language of the present and so makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest springs of life.

Carl Jung

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

Albert Einstein

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't "try" to do things. You simply "must" do things."

Ray Bradbury

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

Creative minds always have been known to survive any kind of bad training.

Anna Freud

No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

Edward Hopper

True creativity quite simply starts with balancing your emotions and activating the power of the heart. Through practicing emotional management from the heart, you tap into the highest form of creativity possible--recreating your perceptions of reality.

Doc Childre

Everybody dreams, wishes and imagines but one needs to understand how this works in order to be creative. The imagination can be described as a screen that lies between the visible and the invisible worlds, and images and entities are projected on this screen that we are normally unaware of in our field of consciousness. Those who have a developed imagination are able to use this faculty of imagination, to receive and to record these impressions, which they then try to express or describe or realize on the physical plane.

Margo Kirtikar, PhD.

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.

Marc Chagall

Man is creative only when he is neither apologetic nor propagandistic.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-72)

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. 

Scott Adams

Without continuous creation, the Universe must evolve toward a dead state in which all the matter is condensed into a vast number of dead stars.

Fred Hoyle in The Nature of the Universe (1950)

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Creativity is harnessing universality and making it flow through your eyes.

Peter Koestenbaum

Creation does not take place where there is a scattering and a dissipation of energies.  Creation requires a gathering together and a focusing of your power within a circle of commitment – like a seed, an egg, in a womb, or a marriage. 

Ken Carey in Return of the Bird Tribes from White Buffalo Calf Woman

Losing touch with spirit does nothing to the field of creativity, which is beyond harm; but it can do much to damage a person's chance in life.

Deepak Chopra

For a cultural transformation to occur, it must be imagined first.  All reform movements are fed by those who are good at writing songs and telling us a new kind of story and teaching us to believe in ourselves.

Carol Lee Flinders books include Rebalancing the World

Creativity, when all is said and done, may be the best thing our species has going for it. It is also the most dangerous….When we consider creativity we are considering the most elemental and innermost and deeply spiritual aspect of our beings. Imagination brings about not just intimacy but a big intimacy, a sense of union with the cosmos, a sense of belonging and being at home, of our knowing we have not only a right to be here but a task to do as well while we are here.

Matthew Fox former Catholic priest dismissed by the Dominican Order for being too radical, is now an Episcopal priest

The more creative you are, the more creative you are. This law is simple - creativity breeds creativity. Being creative is all about flow, and as soon as you hit your stride in creating, it becomes so effortless you forget you're even doing it. But, like rolling a giant snowball, it seems incredibly difficult to get that momentum started, especially if you haven't created regularly for a while.

Dan Goodwin

In ten days we'll take up the Law of Courage. Till then enjoy your Creativity.

Enlightenment Law # 24

...It is our most sacred task, to be Light and to bring Light. Could this be so hard? What allows it and what prevents it?  

Cynthia F. Davidson, excerpt from the Wisdom Wheel Enlightenment card 

        (cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

What makes us believe we are enlightened, or not? 

How do you evaluate someone else's degree of Enlightenment? 

Who radiates light among the people in your life?

As you experiment with this Law for the next ten days, be playful. Solemness is no substitute for genuine Enlightenment. Being able to laugh at yourself, and the human condition, seems to be a prerequisite for those on the Enlightenment quest. 

Have you heard the Zen saying?

Before Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. 

After Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. 

What is meant by this?

When you broach the subject of Enlightenment with family and friends in the coming days, co-create a list of enlightened qualities. Then list who has them, especially the capability to enlighten others. 

Review your beliefs, assumptions and expectations about Enlightenment. 

Is it possible to become enlightened without meditation and isolation? 

Does the Process require a guru or teacher? Many teachers? 

How long does it take to become an enlightened being? 

Is any single practice guaranteed to produce Enlightenment?   

Decide how important Enlightenment is to you, during these next ten days and what, if anything, you plan to do about it, in the time you have left. Here's some enlightening advice from the wise ones.

Is there a fear of enlightenment in some societies? For example in societies which focus their energies on materialism, possession, consumerism, and time-based activities? I think there is, and it might be called phobosophy, the fear of wisdom. In short, what is the opposite of enlightenment and where did it come from?

Thomas Clough Daffern (1956 - ) Welsh educator, author and peace advocate

Enlightenment is…one part physical study of Awareness, one part mental application of truth, one part Cosmic Kiss.

Meredith Young-Sowers, in her Spirit Heals book

In general, all the steps toward enlightenment are mind reforms. This mind of ours must be cultivated and transformed. There are methods of doing so…. our real enemy is our own inner habit of self-preoccupation... A blade wheel is a very fierce image for mind reform… exposing the self-preoccupation and self-addiction habits, underlying all my other bad habits… It causes damage—serious, blessed damage to narcissism, vanity, the self-habit.

Robert Thurman in Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious... This is disagreeable and therefore unpopular.

C. G. Jung

I had hoped to get instructions in Yoga…but what the teacher did was mainly to force me to face the darkness within myself; and it almost killed me.

Irina Tweedie

To be awake, to be enlightened, is to be fully and completely embodied. To be fully embodied means to be at one with who we are, in every respect, including our physical being, our emotions, and the totality of our karmic situation.

Reginald A. Ray in Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body

The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them.

Albert Einstein

Gaining enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon doesn't get wet; the water isn't broken... The whole moon and the sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Dogen

Since ‘there is really no duality, separation is unreal.  Until duality is transcended and at-one-ment can be realized, enlightenment will not be attained.

Padmasambhava (8^th century)

Not two.  In this ‘not two’ nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. No matter when or where. Enlightenment means entering this truth… in a single thought is ten thousand years.

Sengstan 3^rd Zen Patriarch

(Non-duality comes from transcending duality)

I spent years trying to be a holy, solemn monk. It was so artificial, unnecessary, and, in retrospect, goofy. I was trying to glow in the dark while in truth everything was naturally radiant.

Josh Baran in The Tao of Now

Liberation is… another name for enlightenment… Enlightenment is not morally neural; the will to enlightenment is the most profound commitment a spiritual seeker can make. The experience of enlightenment is the end game, so to speak, if there is one, of the spiritual journey… We need to begin talking about Enlightenments, rather than spending futile energy disputing whether Eastern or Western enlightenment is better, whether Sufism, or Christianity or Buddhist, or Mahayana or Theravada or Zen – is the quickest way to enlightenment. … We need a methodology that enables us to remain true to all our separate and diverse enlightenments… It may be that all of us are tapping into a substratum of collective transpersonal consciousness, which is one, yet appears as many. …this perception of unity is one of the tell tale signs of genuine enlightenment.

Thomas Clough Daffern (1956 - ) Welsh educator, author and peace advocate

As more and more enlightened people take over powerful positions in all areas and fields of governments, businesses, economics, education and communities the nearer we will be to the coming Golden Age. The Golden Age will come about only when many people are enlightened and live in harmony with universal laws.

Margo Kirtikar, Ph.D, Flowing with Universal Laws

In ten days, we'll take up the 25th Law of Creativity, which is more enjoyable when we've done our Enlightenment work.  

Surrender Law # 23

Not to give up, but to give over, is the essence of this Law. Who here is wise enough to understand Surrender?  To live humbly for a cause, rather than to die nobly for one. This begins to tell us what Power real Surrender holds. 

Cynthia F. Davidson, excerpt from the Wisdom Wheel Surrender card 

(cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Some might call this the Law of Radical Acceptance because Surrender implies being undefended, being vulnerable, and able to accept what happens. The difference is in whether you can accept 'being' in this state, or whether it is 'forced' upon you/your ego personality self. It means being able to tolerate not being in control...

For the next ten days try experimenting with Surrender. 
You can start with the mental defenses, like being judgmental and critical of others, and yourself. What if you surrendered your need to be 'right'?
Emotional Surrender could involve allowing yourself to feel Love instead of some habitual condemnation of a particular person or group of people.
Physical Surrender could be as simple as going to bed when your body is tired.  
Spiritual Surrender might be something like saying a different prayer before drifting off to sleep. For instance, 'Send me, use me and protect me.' These words express the spiritual Surrender I have yet to achieve during my waking hours. 
What sort of Surrender do you aspire to? 
All of us ought to have some practice to help us prepare for the ultimate Surrender when our bodies die.

Talk to family and friends about Surrender. Reconsider examples of masters and sages who surrendered their needs for worldly wealth, human acclaim, and were able to live humbly and quietly as monks, nuns, hermits.  

What happens to us, and to others, when we cannot let go? 

Which attachments do you cling to, too tightly? 

Have you noticed that the word 'end' is inside Surrender? 

Each ending is another beginning. You may be preventing a new start by not having enough Trust to be able to Surrender what needs to go. 

What have others said about the Law of Surrender?

Surrender means accepting this moment, this body, and this life with open arms.  Surrender involves getting out of our own way and living in accord with a higher will, expressed as the wisdom of the heart.  Far more than passive acceptance, surrender uses every challenge as a means of spiritual growth and extended awareness.

Although The Law of Surrender means accepting whatever happens in your life, it does not mean passive toleration for what you don’t like, or ignoring injustice, or allowing yourself to be victimized or controlled. True surrender is active, positive, assertive — a creative commitment to make use of your situation, in a spirit of appreciation.

Dan Millman, author of the Laws of Spirit

The last laps of all paths are the same – surrender of the ego.

Ramana Maharshi

I don't know Who—or what—put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or Something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), Swedish statesman, Secretary-General of U.N.. Markings (1964)

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or else surrender to self-chosen ignorance.

Confucius (551-479 BC) China's most famous teacher and philosopher

In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty... in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.

Deepak Chopra (1946- ), Indian medical doctor, books include Power, Freedom, and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness

To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity.

Irving Wallace

The sacrifice or surrender of the heart of man and his emotions is the first of the rules; it involves the attaining of an equilibrium which cannot be shaken by personal emotion.

Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.

Mahatma Gandhi

One act of surrender, one change of heart, one leap of faith, can change your life forever.

Robert Holden from Shift Happens

Sometimes what seems like surrender isn't surrender at all. It's about what's going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain, because the pain of not being true to it is far, far greater.

Nicholas Evans, The Horse Whisperer

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.

Gail Sheehy

Surrender in spite of Freedom is the way of wise men.

Chinmaya

To live in this world you must be able to do three things:

To love what is mortal;

To hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends upon it;

And, when the time comes to let it go,

To let it go.

Mary Oliver (1935– ), American poet, books include Why I Wake Early (quote from poem 'In Blackwater Woods')

Surrender has never been my favorite word. I always thought it had only one meaning, which was to lose and be defeated. There is also a spiritual meaning... To surrender is to accept that there is a waxing and a waning rhythm to events... Trust that good things can happen without our needing to control them.

Peter Block, American management consultant and author, books include Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest

A wise unselfishness is not a surrender of yourself to the wishes of anyone, but only to the best discoverable course of action.

David Seabury

We need a set of rough principles to guide us, lest we surrender to something too small, to false gods, gurus and groups... The followers of Jim Jones took the full dose of poison. Over belief can be deadly.

Sam Keen, from his book Hymns to an Unknown God

I belong to no nation, no civilization, no society, no race, but to the Divine. I obey no master, no rules, no law, no social convention, but the Divine. To Him I have surrendered all, will, life and self; for Him I am ready to give all my blood, drop by drop, if such is His will, with complete joy, and nothing in his service can be sacrifice, for all is perfect delight.

Mirra Alfassa, ‘the Mother’ (1878- 1973)

Because people so cherish the Self, surrendering is a very frightening experience. A person may experience surrender as a leap into an abyss or as death. This may be perceived by one who has not yet attained a complete Trust and Faith in God or a Higher Power…Once Self is abandoned, the ‘being’ automatically merges with a higher stage of existence which is ready and waiting to accept it.

Margo Kirtikar Ph.D. in Cosmic and Universal Laws

In ten days, we will take up the Law of Enlightenment. Till then do your Surrender practice.

Purification Law # 22

There is no denying that adults adulterate us, despite their best intentions. We can decide to undo this. Who here has not been blessed by the steaming grace of a good shower or the wonder of a hot bath?  What is the equivalent for our hearts and minds? 

Cynthia F. Davidson, excerpt from the Wisdom Wheel Purification card 

(cards, stones, posters & more available via www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Unadulterated and pure, that is the Purification state of mind, heart, body and spirit. Spend these next ten days doing whatever you can to dissolve any accumulated layers of disappointment, indifference or expectation so you can reconnect with the genuine purity at your core.

Give priority to the Process of Purification for ten days and see what happens. 

Do a thorough review your Purification practices since childhood.  

What has worked before to clear your feelings, thoughts & energy? 

Do some research and try some new methods; sauna, sweat lodge, meditation, a fruit juice cleanse, for example. 

Decide how best to purify thoughts, feelings, your physical self and your surroundings. 

Revisit your spiritual life and consider the role Purification has in it.

 

Ask friends and family members what they do concerning this Law. 

Bring up the subject of Purification at work and in a social setting. 

During the past ten days, you did some Renewal work. This made room for Purification. Surrender is the next Law. You can see how these operate in tandem. These three come before Enlightenment, the 24th Law.

 

Here are some wise words about the practice of Purification from others.

 

Be in your own aura…Whatever it is we must do, to reach the knower of truth in ourselves, is our particular purification. Intention and preparation, the removal of barriers and contaminants, until we can respond authentically to what we encounter…as we did when we were children, before we were shamed or punished for doing so.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

Purification is the gate of knowledge… minds cleared of prejudice and convention break our habit of taking the visible world for granted, our lazy assumptions that somehow science is real and metaphysics is not.

Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism

 Omniscience is achieved only through the process of purifying the disturbing emotions within your mind. It cannot be achieved merely through wishes and prayers. We have to train in eliminating all the specific disturbing emotions by relying on specific antidotes. All the activities of a Bodhisattva can be included in two major categories: the practice of skillful means and the practice of wisdom. If the practices of giving, ethics, and so forth are to be perfected, they should be supported and influenced by the practice of wisdom. Without the practice of wisdom, the first five of the six perfections cannot actually become practices of perfection.

The Dali Lama

All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you.

Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet

 Purity of the heart is the will to one thing.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855) Danish philosopher and religious writer

There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers...even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.

Abraham Maslow, 20th century humanistic psychologist, books include Motivation & Personality

Purification is included in the three Pure Precepts of Buddha's teachings: Do no evil; do good; purify the mind. In its most important sense "purify" means to rid ourselves of delusion, a synonym for ignorance, sometimes translated as non-knowledge or non-Clarity. Ignorance is the root of human suffering. By ridding ourselves of ignorance (delusion), we "cleanse within" and return to our original state, enlightenment.

www.prairiewindzen.org

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

 Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

American and Trappist Monk at Our Lady of Gethsemane Abbey

Violent fundamentalism is motivated by the need to eliminate badness through fighting the bad outside (of oneself). What is required now is to eliminate the heretical, impure, inimical elements, that is, killing the infidels who do not believe in (my/our) God. A destructive counterpart is created by the killing of "God’s enemies": it is the killing of oneself. Obviously the killing of oneself in the effort to kill the impure part of oneself, amounts to the total failure – or total grim success – of the process of purification.

Dr. Ruth Stein, Fundamentalism, Father and Son, and Vertical Desire http://ideologiesofwar.com/papers/fundamentalism_stein.htm

On any vision quest the seeker must first achieve a purification, an altered state… (T)he Oglala fast for many days, as did the Jew Jesus during forty days in the wilderness; in other cultures sacrifices must be prepared, pilgrimages made. Only after such ritual purification is the seeker prepared to see what ordinary people cannot normally see… Purification can be achieved by loneliness, despair, deprivation and waiting… they are all forms of sacrifice.

Sy Montgomery, author, naturalist, from her essay in Face to Face

Why not face heroically the furnace of inner purification so that it does not become necessary to pass once more through one of those terrible, gigantic destructions which plunge entire civilizations into darkness?

Mirra Alfassa, aka The Mother in The Sunlit Path

The Night Way ceremony (of the Navajo) has a lot to do with purification of the patient. The chanters say, If you haven’t been purified – cleanliness inside and out – they (the Holy People) won’t come near you.

Navajo Night Way Chanter in The Circle of the Spirit by Peter Gold

Step by step, piece by piece, hour by hour, the wise man should purify his soul of all impurity as a silver-worker purifies silver.

Sri Aurobindo, from Purification chapter in The Eternal Wisdom book

In ten days I'll post the Law of Surrender, until then focus on your Purification efforts.