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.

Renewal Law # 21

...Think of Spring and the great lessons of each new season.  Renewal is at hand in every moment…there are those who can catalyze newness and growth for us all.

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

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

Let's give ourselves the next ten days for some Renewal. 

Will that be long enough? 

How do you renew yourself? 

When has Renewal happened before?

What catalyzes your new feelings and new thinking? 

Some times we must seek Renewal out deliberately, when life gets dull and stale and we know we're in a rut. Taking a 'mental health day' or a vacation can restart your engines when you just need a rest, but genuine Renewal might require big changes. 

When we take too much for granted, tragedy strikes, death or disaster arrives and Renewal is forced upon us. The Law of Choices comes before Renewal on the Wisdom Wheel for a reason. Be wise enough to seize the initiative and make the Choices you are sensing the need for, before Renewal is thrust upon you. 

New projects, places and possibilities can always be explored, as can new ideas, people and different kinds of relationships. Seek out newness in all its forms during these ten days. Renewal can come from simplifying your life. Make time for what truly matters to you this week. Say no to whatever needs releasing. Renew your promises to yourself and your vows to others. 

For these ten days, bring up the subject of Renewal in your conversations with family members and friends. Consider what physical Renewal might entail. A make over? More exercise? Better eating? A haircut? Up dating your wardrobe? What would emotional Renewal feel like? And intellectual and spiritual Renewal? Start something today in at least two of these categories.

Here are some words of wisdom about Renewal from others. 

                                                           

Renewal is the key to survival and passion in all realms of life.

Shmuley Boteach, author of Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life

So as long as a person is capable of self-renewal, they are a living being.

Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss writer known for his Journals

If you've lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I don’t know what you learned from books, but the most important thing I learned from my grandfathers was that there is a part of the mind which we really don’t know about, and that’s the part that is most important in whether we become sick or remain well.  

Thomas Largewhiskers, Navaho medicine man

Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.

Marianne Williamson, American author and spiritual leader

The only real hope of people today is probably a renewal of our certainty that we are rooted in the earth and at the same time we are part of the cosmos. This awareness endows us with the capacity for self-transcendence… (this) is the truly reliable path to co-existence in today’s multi-cultural world…(we) must start from what’s at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and mind than political opinions.

Vaclav Havel, past President of Czech Republic, remarks taken from 1995 speech

Becoming honest is an act of self-renewal.

Angeles Arrien

The way to be new is to be yourself.

Steve Tourre

Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.  Suffering can be likened to a baptism - the passing over the threshold of pain and grief and anguish to claim a new state of being.

George Elliot (aka Mary Anne Evans) (1819-1880), English author, works include Middlemarch

Retreat: a place and time for you to get reacquainted with you; the ebb in ebb and flow; a solitary sanctuary for renewal; a safe haven; a snug den, a refuge.

Corrie Woods

If you watch how nature deals with adversity, continually renewing itself, you cannot help but learn.

Bernie S. Siegel, American psychologist and bestselling author

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Leo Buscaglia

When tears come, I breathe deeply and rest.  I know I am swimming in a hallowed stream where many have gone before.  I am not alone, crazy, or having a nervous breakdown…. My heart is at work, my soul is awake.

Mary Margaret Funk, author of Thoughts Matter: the Practice of a Spiritual Life

The phoenix was the mythical bird that was consumed by fire, so a new being could be resurrected from the ashes. In true spiritual growth, transformation at core level is necessary to gain access to truth and wisdom. The phoenix represents that capacity.

Delyne Marie

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

Buddha (563-483 B.C.) Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism

In ten days we'll take up the 22nd Law of Purification, until then focus on your Renewal.

Choices Law # 20

Most of us make Choices from a range that’s far too small, that diminishes us.  We let fear, confusion and other people’s opinions limit us.  How do we discover and consider our Choices before we make them?

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

Time for Choices, the 20th Law. During the next ten days, take the time to seriously review all your options. Brain storm and generate some new Choices to consider. Make some lists of alternatives in many areas of your life. Think up new job possibilities, creative projects, different places you could live in the future and what you could do with your 'retirement' years. Review how you source your ideas, energy and expectations. Do you feel the freedom of 'free will' or do you feel trapped and limited in terms of your Choices?

Next consider how you make your Choices from among these conscious options. Then make room for your unconscious motivations. 
Are you aware of what's involved when you try to make up your mind? 
To what degree is your spirit consulted when considering your options? 
Do you pray for guidance before making your Choices? 
If you were consciously 'spirit led' rather than 'self propelled' (from your fear/mind/ego level), what changes could be possible? 
When it's time for change, do you tend to act in a pro-active or reactive way? 
How has this attitude affected your range of Choices?
For these ten days, ask others about their Choices. What were their best and worst ones? Why? 
Emotional Choices, intellectual Choices, physical Choices, and spiritual Choices are all worth considering, so remember include these categories. You can choose to feel well, have healthy thoughts, make Choices that honor Nature and your body,  your loved ones. If all we ever choose to do is what someone will pay us to do, then our Choices are severely constrained. 
In the end, we will be defined by the Choices we made and failed to make. So write down all past Choices you can recall, and the ones you know need to be made in the near and long term.   

During these next ten days allow different Choices to present themselves without rejecting them at first glance. Reconsider the Choices others have made, and how things have turned out for them. There are always consequences, even when you try to avoid choosing. 

On the Wisdom Wheel the Choices Law is balanced by the Eternal Present. This means we need to stay in the 'now' and not bring forward the baggage of bad Choices when considering current options.

Here are some wise words from others on the subject of Choices. 

The Law of Free Will aka the Law of Choices

We...have the right...to bring our creative and expressive energies out into the world in positive or negative ways... No matter what our circumstances, we have the power to choose our direction. We also choose to be under the influence of others or choose to be an example for others. We do it with a hundred actions which lead to the circumstances we find ourselves in today. Thoughts are things and the mind is the builder.

Margo Kirtikar Ph.D, Flowing with Universal Laws

Everything you do is a choice based on your dominant values at the moment. Even taking no action is a choice. You are where you are and what you are because of your choices and decisions in life to this moment.

Brian Tracy

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.

Robert Fritz

I do not know why it is we remember so much about some of the small decisions of our lives and so little about most of the great ones, but for me at least that has always tended to be the case. Maybe it is because the great decisions are not made at some particular moment in time but deep within us have been so long in the making that we find ourselves acting on them before we are altogether conscious of having decided to.

Frederick Buechner’s memoir, The Sacred Journey

It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn’t sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it’s all you’ve got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.

Gregory David Roberts

Although every man believes that his decisions and resolutions involve the most multifarious factors, in reality they are mere oscillation between flight and longing.

Herman Broch

The choice to experience life as a genuinely powerful person librates a huge amount of creative energy, and most people are unwilling to enjoy that amount of energy.

Gay & Katie Hendricks

Freedom is a terrible gift, and the theory behind all dictatorships is that ‘the people’ do not want freedom. They want bread and circuses. They want workman’s compensation and fringe benefits and TV. Give up your free will, give up your freedom to make choices, listen to the expert and you will have three cars in your garage, steak on the table and you will no longer have to suffer the agony of choice.

Maldeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water

Spirituality is neither the privilege of the poor nor the luxury of the rich. It is the choice of the wise man.

Chinmaya

Ethical existence [is] the highest manifestation of spirituality… A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself to all life ...which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

Albert Schweitzer

Transformation is happening, the only choice you have is what it will look like: war, pestilence, frogs, blood. It can be plagues but it can be pleasure. Love each other into newness…

Pat B. Allen, art therapist, books include Art Is a Way of Knowing

At every instant, one is really making a choice between heaven or hell. The cumulative effect of all these choices determines the calibrated level of consciousness and one’s karmic and spiritual fate.

Dr. David Hawkins in I

We are both burdened and blessed by the great responsibility of free will- the power of choice. Our future is determined, in large part, by the choices we make now. We cannot always control our circumstances, but we can and do choose our response to whatever arises. Reclaiming the power of choice, we find the courage to live fully in the world.

Dan Millman, in The Laws of Spirit

In ten days, we'll take up the 21st Law of Renewal, so do your Choices work in the meantime.

Clarity Law # 19

...We recognize Clarity the instant we see it. The great seers and sages could see clearly because they had insight. Their secret was their focus, inward, not outward...

                     Cynthia F. Davidson, excerpt from the Wisdom Wheel Clarity card
Time to take up the 19th Law, Clarity. 
Have you noticed how this follows the 18th Law of Forgiveness? Clarity comes after we've done our Forgiveness work. Until then resentments, hurts and attachments will tend to distort our lenses. 
During the next ten days, play with this idea of Clarity. 
Emotional Clarity, of an open heart. 
Intellectual Clarity, of an open mind. 
Physical Clarity, of the body, not tormented by need for sleep, health or loving. 
Spiritual Clarity, when we see ourselves as the spirits we actually are, beyond personality, ego and fears. 
Ask for Clarity; during your morning walk or meditation, on your ride to work, during your shower or bath, during love-making, cooking, laundry or as you lay down to fall asleep. Astounding Clarity can often be gifted to you in your dreams...  

Mention Clarity when speaking with friends and family this week. See what it means to them. Offer any thing you can, by way of clarification which has to do with what you know, did or believe. 

What sort of Clarity do you still seek? Write it down in your journal, blog or in a letter to God or whomever you seek answers from, and see what happens.  

During these next ten days allow Clarity to come from all kinds of people, places, images and thoughts. On the Wisdom Wheel Beauty balances the Clarity Law.

Here are some wise words about Clarity from those with experiences to share. 

Clarity moves much more efficiently than violence or stress… The world is as you perceive it to be. For me, clarity is a word for beauty. It’s what I am. And when I’m clear, I see only beauty. Nothing else is possible.

Byron Katie

 More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity.

Francois Gautier

Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will. …Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French writer, mathematician and philosopher

Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity… We are all confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our noses. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French writer and philosopher

Ultimately, you must decide in your own hearts and these alone. Base your decisions on your perception. To inhabit the new awareness, you are required to be yourself, for when you are, you are a beautiful being, in touch with your eternal dimension, conscious of the generations that came before, immersed in the love that lights and unities the leaves of all generations upon life’s singular tree.

Ken Carey in The Third Millennium

Discernment, or the process by which we evaluate situations and make decisions, is a critical aspect of our growth, our spiritual development and our ability to create communities that contribute to our collective well-being. Discernment is also the art of asking sensitive questions of ourselves and others in order to see deeper meaning and implications…this involves four interrelated processes; perception, intuition, decision-making and action.

Dr. Norma Milanovich and Dr. Shirley McCune in The Light Shall Set You Free

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.

Thich Nhat Hahn

Different sets of facts are real at different vibration levels. The truth is
the same for everyone: the facts are always a little different for everyone.
Thaddeus Golas

To get to the simplicity of a thing, you have to go through the complexity
and only then, after you've gone into and through the complexity can you
state the simplicity. What never rings true is the person who states the
simplicity without understanding the complexity.
Susan Slater Blythe

It is because we don’t know who we are, because we are unaware that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, that we behave in the generally silly, the often insane, the sometimes criminal ways that are so characteristically human. We are saved, we are liberated and enlightened, by perceiving the hitherto unperceived good that is already within us, by returning to our eternal ground and remaining where, without knowing it, we have always been.

Aldous Huxley in The Perennial Philosophy

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch painter, post-Impressionist

Simplicity, clarity, singleness: These are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy as they are also the marks of great art. They seem to be the purpose of God for his whole creation.

Richard Holloway

We need to be perfectly clear what we want, and not give out mixed messages. When we are clear, our messages are picked up accurately and everyone, including the universe responds to clear messages. Activating the law of clarity is done by… making a decision and acting on it. This is one of the quickest ways to move along your spiritual path. When you have the qualities of clarity (truthfulness, honesty, genuineness, integrity) people respond to you and want to trust you. Clear thoughts and intentions help you to draw from the universe that which you request in your life.

Diana Cooper in A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws

In ten days we will take up the 20th Law of Choices, until then, enjoy the gifts of Clarity.

Forgiveness Law # 18

...It is often the hardest thing we’ll ever do, and sometimes it is the only choice we have. Forgive with your whole heart…this Power does not come from your head.

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

Are you ready to receive a little Forgiveness? Over the next ten days, offer some, and see what happens. Be courageous and take the first step.
Whatever has caused your heart to harden in the past, open up now, allow new growth and move on towards the light. 
Refusing to forgive keeps us locked into what cannot be changed about the past. 
Be generous to yourself when it comes to this Law. Forgiving others is only half of the story. If you can't forgive you, what example do you set for others?  

Bring up the subject of Forgiveness with family and friends this week. Ask them who they've been able to forgive and why it was hard. What made it possible? A change of heart? How long did it take? How did they feel afterwards? 

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, arrives while you are studying this Law. Explore Jewish Forgiveness concepts, and those of other religious traditions too. 

Whose Forgiveness do you most need to receive? Ask for it during the next ten days. 

Sometimes our Forgiveness work is with those who have passed on. You can still offer Forgiveness, or request it, via your dreams. Everyone has some Forgiveness needs. 

Here's some advice from those who have experience with Forgiveness. 

By forgiveness the universe is held together. Forgiveness is the might of the mighty; forgiveness is quiet of mind. Forgiveness and gentleness are the qualities of the self-possessed, and represent eternal virtue.

Margo Kirtikar Ph.D. author of Flowing with Universal Laws

Four Stages of Forgiveness

1. To forgo - to leave it alone

2. To forbear - to abstain from punishing

3. To forget - to aver from memory, to refuse to dwell

4. To forgive - to abandon the debt

Clarissa Pinkola Estes from her book Women Who Run With the Wolves

On one level: forgiveness means you shouldn’t develop feelings of revenge. Because revenge harms the other person, therefore it is a form of violence. With violence, there is usually counter-violence. This generates even more violence—the problem never goes away. ...on another level: forgiveness means you should try not to develop feelings of anger toward your enemy. Anger doesn’t solve the problem. Anger only brings uncomfortable feelings to yourself. Anger destroys your own peace of mind. Your happy mood never comes, not while anger remains. I think that’s the main reason why we should forgive. With calm mind, more peaceful mind, more healthy body. An agitated mind spoils our health, very harmful for body. This is my feeling.

The Dalai Lama

Offending can lead to a real burst of understanding. You know more about how the other person sees you; you know something more about yourself.  And if that something is somewhat unpalatable, all the better. You have a chance then to transform what you are doing. Or drop it. There is vitality in that, and power in its most attractive forms.

Michael Leunig

If you don’t transform your pain, you will always transmit your pain.

Richard Rohr

Most of us can forgive and forget; we just don't want the other person to forget that we forgave.

Ivern Ball

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free... Release is a form of forgiveness that we all need to practice often. Emotional release is one of the highest forms of love...   

Catherine Ponder

(also a cure for low self-esteem, low self worth and feelings of helplessness)

There is a hard law... that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.

Alan Paton

When you forgive, some deeper, divine generosity takes you over… When you cannot forgive, you are a prisoner of the hurt done to you.

John O’Donohue in Eternal Echoes

God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't.

Alfred Korzyybski

The old energy of ‘an eye for an eye’ keeps the vibrations of a person very low. To forgive, to release old anger, allows the law of grace to intercede... Non-violence is the natural outgrowth of the law of forgiveness and love. All good comes from forgiveness....the continuation of the human species is due to man’s being able to forgive.

Margo Kirtikar Ph.D, Flowing with Universal Laws

We must be quite clear that forgiveness is no easy matter. If the ego has been wronged, the ego cannot forgive just because it ‘should’ not withstanding all the wider context of love and destiny.  The ego is kept vital by its amour-proper, its pride and honor. Even where one wants to forgive, one finds one simply cannot, because forgiveness does not come from the ego. I cannot directly forgive. I can only ask, or pray, that these sins be forgiven. Wanting forgiveness to come and waiting for it may be all that one can do.  

James Hillman

Forgiveness deeply offends the rational mind…it declares ’I will attempt to go on loving the life in you, the divine in you or the soul in you, even when I totally abhor what you have done or what you stand for.  What’s more I will attempt to see you as my equal, and your life as having equal value to my own, even when I despise what you do and everything you stand for.’ 

Stephanie Dowrick, Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love

Forgiveness means acceptance of those who are unacceptable. It is unconditional or it is not forgiveness at all.

Paul Tillich, American theologian, in a famous sermon

To walk as round beings, on a round planet, cognizant of being interwoven in a circular web of connection with all beings, is to understand forgiveness.

From the vantage point of circular relating, forgiveness is simply returning energy: returning and receiving energy until any warp in the circle is healed, balance restored.

              Colin Berg, quoted in Parabola magazine, XII no. 3, www.parabola.org 

In ten days, we'll take up the Law of Clarity. Until then, enjoy Forgiveness in all its forms.

Journey Law # 17

...Your Journey has brought you to this place and these people, your fellow sojourners. Think of their Journeys as well as your own. Don’t miss the opportunities for learning and growth represented by this assembly of fellow souls. 

Cynthia F. Davidson, from Wisdom Wheel Law of the Journey card

(see www.thewisdomwheel.com to order cards, posters or stones)

Now comes the Journey Law, just as we reach the halfway point, on this 'tour' round the Wheel with its 36 Laws. 
What has your Journey meant to you so far? 

During the next ten days, consider the inner Journeys you've made, as well your outer ones, into the larger world. Emotional and spiritual Journeys are every bit as significant as intellectual and physical ones. 

Take the time to describe your life Journey (thus far). Write about in your journal. The word Journey comes from the French word jour for day. It refers to the distance traveled in a single day. Evaluate your Journey as a whole by deciding its value as you add up your years and how they've gone. 

What makes life worth living, in your opinion? How are you spending your precious allotment of days on this Earth? 

Have you chosen the 'safe route'? Or are you taking the road less traveled, as immortalized in Robert Frost's poem? 

Just be sure it's your Journey you are making, not someone else's idea of what's expected. Ask others to share what they've learned, at home and at work, about the Journey and their sense of it, so far. 

Where do you want to go next? By the time you are an Elder, where would you like to be? Destinations are important but not as much as our movements towards them. We don't know when our Journeys will end, but we can aim in a general Direction. Some say, if you take the road toward wholeness, your Journey will always be worth it.

Here's some advice from those who've thought about their Journeys. 

To journey without being changed is to be a nomad.

To change without journeying is to be a chameleon.

To journey and to be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.

Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

Matsuo Basho

 A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it…

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

John Steinbeck, American author, books include The Grapes of Wrath

The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.

Bob Moawad, American author, Whatever It Takes: A Journey Into the Heart of Human Achievement

Come dress yourself in love and let the journey begin.

Francesca da Rimini

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.

Henri Frederic Amiel

It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom, to move on in one's inward journey into new realms, than to stand defiantly for outer freedom. It is often easier to play the martyr, as it is to be rash in battle.

Rollo May

I had become, with the approach of night, once more aware of loneliness and time - those two companions without whom no journey can yield us anything.

Lawrence Durrell

Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.

Mark Jenkins

Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.

Paul Theroux

He who does not travel knows not the value of men.

Moorish proverb

There are no foreign lands. It is only the traveler who is foreign.

Robert Louis Stevenson

There comes a time in the spiritual journey when you start making choices from a very different place.... And if a choice lines up so that it supports truth, health, happiness, wisdom and love, it’s the right choice.

Angeles Arrien

The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one’s self.

Aldous Huxley

After one arrives at the summit, after going through the total transformation of being, there is yet one more step to the completion of the journey; the return to the valley below, to the everyday world.  Who it is that returns is not the one who began the climb in the first place.  The being who comes back is quietness itself, is compassion and wisdom, is the truth of the ages.  Whatever humble or elevated position that being holds within the community, he or she becomes a light for others on the way, a statement of freedom that comes from having touched the tip of the mountain.

Ram Dass in the Journey of Awakening

In ten days we’ll move on to the 18th Law of Forgiveness. Until then, enjoy all your Journey has to offer.