I’ve been around the block as far as spirituality. Perhaps it began when I was a kid and my parents told me that God was Nature. That brought this intangible, way-beyond-me thing right down to earth and in front of my senses. Bird songs, tall trees, and the smell of spring’s thaw were all right here. God didn’t feel far away and untouchable, God felt present & easy to reach.
As I grew I began to long for “proof”. I wanted to know viscerally that there was more to life than just the physical. And anyway…what did that mean…God is Nature? I can see nature…why can’t I see God?
High school science classes coincided with the era of Ouiji boards, ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) & The Great Kreskin. At 17 I reasoned: of course ESP, ie. psychic phenomenon, was real. It’s simple physics. If we are all molecules moving around and not solid as we seem, then of course the thoughts from my mind can travel into your mind & we can accomplish mental telepathy. That’s just logical. I’d lie if I said my friends were excited to know, or even understood, what I had concluded. I let the revelation fall away.
It would be decades later that, still seeking proof of a metaphysical reality, I took a weekend workshop in energy healing. I thought I was going to learn to see auras, but instead I would be positively shattered as old ideas of myself & the nature of reality came crashing down in a blaze of healing energy. It would be the launching of a painful, but valuable, journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening.
I studied various forms of hands-on-healing, became a Reiki Master, learned meditation, practiced chanting, composed sacred music, learned hypnosis, gathered at the full moon, worked at a new age shop where I absorbed the energy of crystals and the knowledge of healers, ascended masters, channelers, gurus, avatars, and more. I became convinced by my first-hand experience that there was definitely a metaphysical reality and it was accessible to everyone, everywhere, all the time simply for the effort of tapping inward and drawing upon its vast resources.
Having access to powerful truths is a wonderful start, but actually accessing them consistently is the real work. It requires an acceptance of the truths as well…truth, and then acquiring the muscle to turn toward them even in the face of endless forces pulling every other way.
That’s where meditation comes in. It helps build the spiritual muscle required to turn (and stay turned) toward something beyond what can be seen or felt with our physical apparatus. Paradoxically, we close our eyes & turn inward, going deeply into the physical body, in order to transcend the physical and touch the metaphysical. I guess in the end, God is Nature and we are part of nature. If we can attune to our deepest nature we may indeed touch God.
-Lisa Jane Lipkin, contributor
Lisa Jane Lipkin is a piano based singer-songwriter who recently released her third CD called “Flying on Instruments”. www.lisajanelipkin.com This is Lisa’s second contribution to our blog.
