There is a possibility of sensation-based presence that can reconcile our being and our doing. Where roles can be played free of identification for the sake of a common good and perhaps even a higher good. The energy of immediacy recognizes that not everything can be or should be done but that anything worth doing can be done with a particular attentiveness and sincerity. And that no effort done in this regard is ever wasted. Indeed, each action has an energetic signature, and each moment invites the choice of working from the higher or lower parts of ourselves.
So this week’s inner task is to engage in what you’re doing (whatever it is and as often as you can) with the energy of sincerity. And when you forget, simply to begin again. One way to help stay with this intention is to work with feeling your thoughts and thinking your feelings as you engage your daily tasks. You might want to read that last sentence again. Its simplicity of theory makes it no less of a force and difficulty in actual practice. In fact, spiritual practice in the western mode is about entraining the mind in the heart and the heart-mind in the feet. To live as prayers through our presence.
I leave the following words from Fr. Thomas Keating as an encouragement as you set out to work with this task in the context of a Divine soaked universe.
Only the Divine matters
And because the Divine matters
Everything matters.
Inner Task Series by Jonathan Steele
Jonathan Steele posted this Inner Task Series to the Wisdom School Community on Facebook from July 2 – August 21, 2021