BOOK EXTRACT
In this beneficial manual, internationally known medium Glyn Edwards shared practical exercises and teachings for discovering inherent mediumistic and spiritual potential. Coauthor Santoshan, Stephen Wollaston, who has a deep interest in creative, Yogic and Gaia-centred spirituality, brings an added dimension to the book. Together Glyn and Santoshan combined their wisdom in far-reaching ways and cover numerous essentials for understanding and interacting with the ever-present world of the spirit.
Openness by Glyn Edwards & Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston)
Life is about growth, starting from small beginnings and evolving into maturity. All life needs the right kind of nourishment in order to grow healthily. All around us, life can be seen in an infinite variety of manifestations, which is both creative and expressive. We should realise that we too are part of this life and just as everything in Nature requires food for growth, so do travellers on spiritual paths.
Nourishment can come from prayer, meditation and contemplation, or from lectures, reading and speaking to those with insights into spiritual unfoldment. Yet merely reading or listening to others speaking about spirituality will not by itself increase our spiritual awareness; for the spiritual life has to be lived. Knowledge can be invaluable, but life is the ultimate training ground. For knowledge to have creative use, it needs to be both practical and transformative and lead us to fuller expression and growth and a greater understanding of unfoldment. When it does, it helps us overcome all sense of separation from vast oceans of life around us and truly live an all-inclusive spirituality.
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The Universality of the Spirit
If we study the lives of those who have travelled spiritual paths before us, we can be inspired by them and uncover practices they found helpful and various truths they discovered. If we allow their words to take root in our consciousness, their insights can motivate and help us to understand what living an authentic spiritual life entails. On the surface we may find contradictions to what we and others believe. But it should be remembered that everyone will see things from an individual position. The following story which can be found in many cultures about three – sometimes four or five – blind men who try to describe an elephant illustrates this. The first blind man feels one of the elephant’s ears and says, ‘It is large and like a rug’. The second feels a leg and says, ‘It is round and firm like a pillar’. The third feels the elephant’s trunk and says, ‘It is long and like a pipe’. Their descriptions are not wrong, but they do not describe the complete reality.
Diverse as teachings of spirituality may seem, there are always many threads of common ground to be found. When we examine people’s search for spiritual dimensions of life, we are looking at their quests to find eternal truths. In understanding the teachings of the world, we come to appreciate many cultures and various ways in which we can grow and realise our true nature. Too often we limit unfoldment. Concepts are often built around experiences. To believe that only one tradition or type of development has all the answers and discovered all there is to know about life, can only cause divisions instead of unity with our global brothers and sisters.
The One Quest – with an Infinite Number of Paths
If we are searching for greater wisdom to live by then we need to be receptive to growth and overcome restrictive ideas about life, spirit and ways in which we can develop. Those whose spiritual eyes are open will put differences aside and will see the supreme Spirit at work in all. Yet spirituality often challenges accepted standards of thinking and can sometimes trigger negative responses in those who are not ready to grasp wider truths. We are after all, creatures of habit and do not like our worlds being turned upside-down. Yet we should never force spiritual beliefs on anyone, but instead encourage ourselves and others who are searching to be more open and compassionate and make our lives the examples by which we are measured. We always need to be moving towards wider possibilities of growth. It is not enough that knowledge is handed down from one to another. We still need to find, experience and learn for ourselves.
Spiritual Evolution
To develop ourselves we have to be willing to progress and be open to new knowledge and experience. If we are set in our views, we are in danger of restricting the spirit of our own being. Through the cultivation of open minds and hearts, we connect more deeply with our true Selves and others, become in tune with all life and overcome inhibiting concepts that create barriers to spiritual living.
Realise that one reason for searching is that no one has all the answers. Let new knowledge and experience open you to fresher fields of vision. For if you wish to develop, what you may think of as important today may look different to you tomorrow. This is not to say that what you have so far discovered and believe to be true is false, any more than a view from a mountain’s peak makes what is seen from the ground incorrect. In obtaining this wider outlook you will find all areas of your life evolving more naturally. By seeing beyond limitations, you will find truth in all things. Although your body is made from physical matter, its true essence is spirit. So allow your spirit to shine through.
Underlying the wondrous diversity of life there is one reality manifesting in an infinite variety of ways. Some call it ‘God’ or ‘Spirit’. Others say it is beyond all words and concepts. To this reality you owe your very existence. In order to become a more receptive instrument through which it can express itself, you will need to engage creatively with life and embrace all the potential good within.
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Paperback and hardback 160 pages
Amazon paperback and hardback (UK link)
eBook available from Amazon and Smashwords
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