Remaining with the Father: The Essence of Spirituality

I was sharing with someone today—I don't remember who—it was coming like this: that we are sitting with our Father in our house, in his house, and the TV is on. The TV is on, so we are so involved with the TV that we forgot that we are sitting with our Father. That's possibly the simplest way I can express the notion of Maya. The TV is on, the show seems very compelling, every moment something is happening because the director, a master director, every moment something is playing. So spirituality is to not be distracted by the TV and to remain with our Father and remember that this body-mind structure is also in the TV. So just like the rest of the movie is playing out, this will also play out. You can completely hand over the movement of this as well to Grace.

See, remember, not the conceptual cheap notion of Grace, but the costly Grace. But if it is with integrity, then every word, every breath needs no involvement from what we take ourselves to be. We can allow his grace to unfold the play of this body-mind in this television program that is playing out while we remain resting as little children in our Father's lap, in the lap of God. So the instant we take ourselves to be the false one, to be the character in the TV show, that is avidya. The instant we drop that, we are making ourself empty, available for him to pick us up. And this faith that he is here then becomes your constant anchor, your constant companion, because it needs that leap of faith for us. Even these words to some who are new may sound very strange. What am I saying? But if you are humble enough to be open to the possibility and not proud of what we think we know, then we can start to taste this more and more. And as you taste this more and more, your faith will deepen, your trust will deepen, because without tasting it, it will remain—it will seem like it is more and more just concepts and ideas.

So our intention, our commitment has to be to stay with the Father, come what may in the TV show. See, our intention has to be that fully, no matter how risky it seems. And then we will still, of course, because it is so compelling, the show, we will still get involved. But if we only commit halfway, then we are reducing the odds of really truly returning to our Father's lap, to God's lap. And what is the key? The key is that in your heart you know whether this is about the 'me' or whether it is about God. This meaning this in this moment—it could be what you're doing, it could be what you're thinking, it could be what you're feeling, it could be what you're intending to do, it could be what you're judging, it could be, most importantly, where your focus is. Is your focus on 'me' or is it on God? And all of us have that insight in our heart. At a more gross level, it may seem like our conscience, actually at a grosser level, because our conscience keeps us from going completely haywire in the world. But as we go subtler and subtler, we realize that our conscience is just a more gross version of the subtle guidance of the Atma within. And to surrender to the light of the Atma within is our spirituality, is our spiritual work.