Abundance(33)–Quiet Time (1)
Apr 19, 2015
Ponderings
Why Quiet Time?
Why do we need to have quiet time? That question has been asked repeatedly. Most do not want to take the time out of their busy schedules, and then wonder why that great feeling they had from some spiritual experience drifts off and they find themselves looking back and wondering what happened. Jesus put it well: “The seed that fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” (Luke 8:14). For the vast majority of those who have had a momentary glimpse of the Divine, this is their story.
We are surrounded by the inputs of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. These are the data inputs into our mind, and they fill every waking moment of our lives. There is no way to stop these inputs, and they dominate all that we understand about life. Today’s technology has multiplied the effects from even when I was a child to a point that the din of information makes the mind race non-stop from waking until falling exhausted in sleep.
Unless we can learn to use our sixth sense, that sense of the unconsciousness, where other energies, different from the energies used by the five senses, dominate.
The sixth sense
We have often called the “sixth sense” our intuitive sense, and while that is true, it is the sense that operates outside our normal vibrational regime of the five senses. Our five senses are a course awareness of a tiny portion of the vibrational potential wherein we are immersed. The universe contains the extremely low vibrations of the Big Bang to the extremely high frequencies of the quantum world, where only pure energy exists. We sense a very narrow band of the universe, and the infinite bands of God lie still in and beyond that of the universe. It is our sixth sense, that portion of our being that can be tuned to match a portion of the God energy that we are immersed in, that we need to tune so they can guide us into the realm beyond the five senses.
Our sixth sense has no boundaries, and can be opened to where the Creator of the universe operates, which is beyond the five senses.
I have heard many question why God does not appear to us to confirm the Creator’s existence, in a way that can not be denied. Of course, if that would occur, we would immediately claim to know exactly what God looks like in our narrow perceptual bands, and erect statues, and all kinds of idolatry to say that is God, and no other. But as we innately understand, God has no one form but all forms, and to say that is God or this is God, misses the whole point of God being the All In All, all that we can sense and the infinite variety that we can not sense. In the true sense of God revealing Godhood, God does this all the time, in everything we can touch, see, feel, taste, or hear, and so much more that our various machines can only glimpse. But our minds can not wrap itself around this infinite variety, and the subtle shifts that occur are lost in the cacophony of noise that bombard our senses.
But even this is God, if we but have eyes to see.
Our sixth sense has a unique capability, in that the sixth sense can become aware of the infinite universe beyond the five senses. It is this sense that all sentient beings of the universe employ to become aware of the Infinite Beyond our physical capability. The capability to sense the great beyond is in all, and some are fortunate to understand that at a very early age, but most of us have to hone that capability to be able to go beyond the five senses.
That honing of the sixth sense is the purpose of the quiet time efforts.
When we learn to listen with our sixth sense, the movement of the Divine within us becomes a clear tone in our being, our very inner life becomes a song in conjunction with the Divine. I can only describe it as a subtle sense of awareness, an inner sense of Joy waiting to bubble to the surface of my life. Even if I find myself deviating from my mark by becoming angry or so, the absence of the awareness of the Divine Wisdom is one of the alarm bells that alert me I am in a danger zone, and when I return to my internal awareness that feeling of the Divine is always present.
Our five senses are constantly filled, and the purpose of the Quiet Time is to still the receptors of the five senses and to let the sixth sense free to roam the realm of the universe. Only then can we see the vision of Joy and Happiness that await us. Our sixth sense is not limited by our physical world we live in, and is free to explore the infinite realm of the Creator that lies within each of us. As stated in Genesis, we are made in the Image of God, and are not bound by our physicality. That is the purpose of the sixth sense: it is connected directly to the infinite power of the Divine. Our sixth sense is free to roam the universe, and it is free to create a life within us of Joy, Peace, and Happiness.
But for most of us, our sixth sense is buried and must be resurrected from the dead. Thus came the concept of Quiet Time. It is critical to arrange an internal promise to oneself that we will continue the daily Quiet Time at all times and under all circumstances, in one form or another. Even if the day is extremely packed, surely five minutes can be found to breathe deeply and relax, with eyes closed, and put oneself into the cloud of unknowing that awaits us at all moments.
The Life-time sequence of Quiet Time
At first, the exhilaration we find when starting a daily Quiet Time is palpable, and we find no problem with carving out the allotted time, be it 10 minutes or an hour. But life tends to get in the way, and we find ourselves missing a time here and there. Pretty soon we suddenly realize that we have missed a week or more, and wonder what happened. So we buckle down and start afresh, really meaning to do it daily. But then again we find ourselves missing a day, then a week. This sequence will repeat itself until we just quit, and look back wistfully at that exciting time where the possible touch of God seemed so real.
That sequence has happened to countless people I have talked with who started with a bang, then …. Jesus put it this way: “Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.” (Luke 8:6). The question is always, “How do we nurture this initial excitement into flower?”
That is the question we will now explore.
Maintaining a consistent Quiet Time
I have been committed to a daily Quiet Time for over 55 years, not calling it as a Quiet Time until 20 years ago or so. I have use many, many forms of prayer, meditation, readings, and more (some not so ‘quiet’) during that time, but the most difficult effort was maintaining the effort over the years. Between helping raise 7 children, a demanding job that usually took over 40 hours a week, traveling on business extensively (I was traveling parts of, or on full days, 210 days one year), leading or facilitating groups or just being part of a group, throughout that time, our life was busy, to put it mildly. But for me, finding the time each day to sit quietly with my God was critical to maintaining any semblance of sanity.
I have watched hundreds of people start off with an enthusiastic bang on a daily prayer time, then fizzle out, even when they had at least some support. But I know of few that have maintained a consistent time over many years of prayer to reach God without a strong support system, especially when that prayer time aimed at finding Joy, Peace, and Happiness over time as an explicit goal. My strong support system lasted over 25 years, which left me with the inner strength when that ended to continue without failure to this day. I have once again found a support group, where we share our daily struggles in a study fashion.
A strong support system is a two-way path, taking the time to reach out to the support group, and absorbing the strength of the group when needed. This does mean setting aside the time to do this on a consistent basis.
I can see the response now. “But, but…. I have so many things to do…” That is all the more reason to spend the time to strengthen oneself, and to look at oneself in a manner so that we are not doing “good” things so we can be seen as “a good person”, rather as just one fulfilling the opportunities God presents to us in our daily journey. The key to this level of understanding is with a consistent prayer time, we will see ourselves as a facilitator of the physicality of God, and let the works and words of God flow through us as a conduit of the Spirit of God’s grace in our world. God works primarily through the Creations of God’s Spirit, humanity, on this planet. Only humanity has the potential of an awareness of the Spirit, as only we are self-aware to the point that our sub-conscious world can be made manifest to our conscious awareness. All things that we see, from the smallest organism to the outer universe, speak of God and are part of the All in All, but only those species called to be fully sentient are capable of an awareness of this relationship. Because we have this innate awareness, we are capable of a conscious link with the All in All, and have the capability forging this link in the world of the physical, so we may act as the Word of God if we so turn our life over to the care of God.
As Jesus did, and as Jesus promised, when asked about his miracles, “Greater things than this shall you do.” (John 14:12.) In Luke 5:16, it says “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” Jesus well understood that to maintain his relationship with his Divine Wisdom, he had to take the time to reach into the infinite byways and commune with the All in All.
Are we better than Jesus? And don’t think Jesus was not busy. He had the crowds always there, desiring healings, words of wisdom, and that sense of Joy and Peace that Jesus brought. But he “Would often slip away – and pray.” We too have to ‘slip away and pray’,
From what I have learned of Jesus and other great Masters, they understood deep in their heart that they had to find the time to commune with the Divine Wisdom, no matter what was going on around them. They would always find the time to commune with their soul, that part of their being that was a direct extension of their God.
As Jesus said, “Greater things than this shall you do.” What was left unsaid but implied, is that when you (you, me) reach that level of confidence and awareness of the Divine Wisdom that they had at that time, then we can “hurl that mountain into the sea”, and other wondrous things would occur.
Perhaps even more critical is to understand the implication of Jesus’s words: We, too, have the innate capability to do wondrous things, if we only believe, without a doubt. Jesus did not doubt. And the miracles occurred, just as if we too do not doubt we could do “Greater things than this“.
The key to these greater things is time for the Quiet Time, to fuse ourselves into an awareness of that Divine Other that is our soul, that part of ourselves that is the essence of Who We Are.
Meditation
Oh Divine Wisdom, that awaits for the invitation to bloom in our soul, I gratefully extend that invitation from my soul to your Living Presence, to bring my soul to the awareness of Who I Am, the Image of God, the Infinite Life that fills the universe. Fill my being with the awareness of the Spirit so that my cry to the universe is the Soul of the Universe, as it is my very nature that cries out for this freedom. I know that my soul has this freedom, but I have blinded myself with the sounds and sights of the universe that I can sense, and these are but a minute fraction of the glory that is mine to enjoy if I but so wish. So now I open up my being to welcome the Universal Being that has been waiting for my invitation all my life, knowing deep in my heart that You have granted this to me this instance, and all the instances of my life, focusing on this Now as the only Now that exists, always Now.
I am Free. I bow in gratitude for this freedom.
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There is no fear in love.But perfect love dvries out fear……(1John 4:18) Psalm 121 He is the Father who protects you and keeps you.May you, a father ,feel the love of your Great Father and find rest,peace and security in Father’s great hand just as what your dearest daughter finds in you.yy