Practice Makes Permanent
Lawyers practice law, doctors practice medicine, and humans practice living. Those who have dedicated themselves to a life of spiritual living practice improving their conscious contact with the God of their understanding, usually done through a similar set of practices for most world religions. Some include prayer, meditation, sacred service, giving where one is spiritually fed, to charity, or both, spiritual education, and gathering with those of like-mind to expand understanding and awareness of spiritual principle.
A mystic is a person who has a direct experience of the sacred. The experience is usually a flash of illumination or a moment of Divine Truth. Some people court the Divine and cultivate a relationship with It, resulting in many flashes described above. Sometimes they are sequential and long-lasting but are fleeting moments without practice. When an embodiment of principle occurs, the flash becomes an eternal flame within us that can never be extinguished, even in our darkest days.
With everything, we are required to practice. I remember when I discovered hot yoga for the first time many years ago. I was a devoted yogini, serious about my practice which began with learning first to stay in the heated room. After that, I began to learn the poses, one bend, and one hold at a time until I could get fully into the pose.
In my mind, I was learning the poses to strengthen my body. However, one bonus resulting from my practice was gaining the ability to place meditative space between impulse and action. One often feels the urge to get up and leave that hot room, especially if one is new to the practice. Impulses, like thoughts, are not all to be acted upon or believed. When able to feel our impulses and allow them to move through us without taking action, we gain control over those impulses.
The dictionary definition of practice is the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, instead of theories relating to it.
Ernest Holmes wrote, “I would rather see a student of this science prove its principle than to have them repeat all the words of wisdom that have ever been uttered.” Thus our call to action is to use the principles we study and talk about and find ways to implement the principles in our lives. Otherwise, it is just theory.
Ever notice how when our prayers are for peace, it doesn’t arrive the next day from Amazon in a lovely packaged box? Instead, we are given opportunities to practice being peaceful. It’s all about the practice.
Practice makes permanent. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone. Instead, you can verify spiritual principles in your life that will help propel you to living the life you came here to live, to being all that you came here to be. As we prove spiritual principles in our lives, we strengthen our faith.
Practice makes permanent. Let’s get to work!
And so it is.
