These are my suggestions for a spiritual inner work practice.

First, set apart a space, a room or at least a part of a room for your inner work. As you enter it, you should feel that this is the place where you engage with yourself deeply. Do not do anything else here: no other activities at all and in time it will become a sacred area that reflects honor and a sense of belonging into your inner world.

Second, in this sacred work space you have created gather the materials you need for inner work. Paper, notebooks, a drawing pad, pencils and pens, wax coloring crayons, musical instruments, sacred objects and meditation aids such as a cushion, bell, incense, an altar, a sound system if you like to listen to inspirational music, meditation audio or inspired talks. The space should be furnished comfortably, free from interruptions and roomy enough to allow sitting, standing, moving and dancing.

Third, you need a variety of different methods. Among them, active imagination (dialoging between different inner parts of you), drawing, writing, keeping a notebook for recording insights, making associations, noting dreams and synchronous events, and as an aid to memory, jotting down life statements (unconscious life guidance derived from early life experience) and awareness of your emotional-behavioral patterns through body work and breathing. Some formal meditation practice is desirable, as is a sense of discipline. Notebook keeping is particularly good for those times of dejection and despair when faith in ourselves wanes and we begin to discredit inner work which is often unquantifiable. Taking a look at your notebook at this time will reinforce your will and, by reminding you of all the work you have done, assuage the doubter in you.

Fourth, fix a daily time for your inner exploration. This is important because it gives your ego something to kick against, which in turn gives you material to work on, plus it ensures that you are consistent and taking your inner work seriously. There is no substitute for a dedicated daily practice, the rewards of inner work are so precious and the transformation they augur for your life so wonderful that a few minutes to an hour a day is time well spent.

Fifth, at times working with others is crucial. You may choose to work with a friend or a group. We all have blind spots that are easily brought to light through interaction with others. A group of like-minded souls challenges, supports and strengthens you in your practice. Be sure that this is what your friend or group provides; it should not primarily be a forum for intellectual discussion, for “acting out” emotions (as distinct from releasing and integrating emotions) and it is not a negative environment for argument or reinforcing ego positions. You may choose a leaderless group or take turns in taking the leader position. You can ask outside facilitators to visit your group as guest leaders. There are many books of exercises, games and group processes. In my book, The Flight of Consciousness, there is an extensive exercise section which would keep you going by yourself, with a friend or in a group for several months.

Sixth, at some point you will need help and direction from a competent, skilled and experienced guide, therapist or spiritual teacher (the title is less important than the healing quality of the relationship). Often such a person simply appears when you’re least expecting it and, if you can, accept it and remember that life really is helping you to grow psychologically and spiritually. The spiritual guide helps you to cross thresholds you cannot possibly cross on your own and provides a transforming relationship which bridges your inner and outer realities.

Finally, no precedent has been set for how your inner work will unfold and therefore you are your own best teacher and expert on yourself. By all means look to wise elders and gifted teachers for encouragement, guidance and advice, but remember that ultimately you are your own guide, you know yourself better than anybody else and your inner journey is your own. So…do it your way!

Bring to your inner work practice an attitude of respect, honor and reverence. You are a sacred life form, a shard of the divine. No one like you has ever been or ever will be again; you are both appearance and profound depth. Your inner work practice is devoted to eroding the ego until all that is left is the divine radiating, shining and splendid, through all arising forms. Your life journey is a sacred task, a unique opportunity and a blessing. So, when you begin a period of inner spiritual work, start with a ritual which reflects the sanctity of this. Chanting, ritualized movement, conscious breathing, lighting a candle or incense, bowing are all appropriate ritualistic activities through which you can express your recognition and gratitude at having the sacred opportunity of a human life in which to grow and awaken. Let your heart lead your soul, let your soul lead your spirit and trust that all will be revealed to you.

BLOG entry #140

Dear Richard, I have decided to make peace with my ego self. I struggled and fought with it for so long. I tried therapy and spiritual practices. I lived in a monastery. I became accomplished at various forms of yoga, martial arts and holistic practices. I have read widely, both modern and traditional psycho-spiritual books and teachings. As the years of disappointment and lack of any real attainment, manifested as psychological inertia and spiritual stagnation, have accrued I despair of any change or transformation ever taking place. Making peace with my ego seems to be the only way for me. Why can’t you follow an individual path to enlightenment?

There are three stages of human development. One way of understanding them is in regard to the ego self, or the individual sense. In the first stage you awaken by discovering yourself, you wake up to not only conscious and subconscious emotional-behavioral patterns, but also to the hidden dynamics of the unconscious. No short cut exists for this kind of work. It takes as long as necessary. For some it is measured in stubbornness, for others in ignorance. Further obstacles can be denial, refusal, lack of love, anger, frustration, depression, obstinacy (different to stubbornness), self-importance or even the enjoyment of life as it is (complacency?).

When the seeker has penetrated the confines of exclusively egoic existence he or she awakens for the first time in this life. Only then does the seeker see that the life before this awakening was largely, even wholly, unconscious sleeping. The ability to be present is now possible along with the capacity for true compassion, deepening real relationship and existence guided by heart and spirit. The outcome of this second stage is the complete flowering of the human personality. All tendencies and potentials are fulfilled and completed and the seeker faces the beginning of the third stage, the spiritual threshold to liberation and realization.

The end of the second stage is a further or second awakening. It is the awakening out of the egoistic concerns and it is a point of surrender. The ego has not been shed completely by any means and egoic identification persists even to higher stages of spiritual attainment, although it must eventually be entirely overcome. But towards the end of the second and the beginning of the third stage the individual point of view becomes increasingly unimportant. The personal attachments, which have been shed during the processes of the first and second stages, open up a new freedom, a new perspective beyond fear and desire.

So far this process of awakenings and authenticity has revolved around attachments and ever more subtle egoistic identification and it continues to do so through deepening spiritual practice. At no point in the psycho-spiritual quest do you give up or let go into a compromise with the ego, because egoic forces are the symbol of everything that is unreal, while the psycho-spiritual journey is direct and unwavering dedication to what is true and divine. This is the discovery which awaits every seeker on the psycho-spiritual path—the gift of the real treasure of life. You cannot follow an individual path to enlightenment. The ego will always keep you confined to suffering for its own sake and accompanying self-aggrandizement, delusion and unhappiness. The state of Self-realization has no conditions; it is real and Self-sourcing. Because it includes all and everything it does not participate in identification, separation or division. Therefore the ego state is transcended in the third stage of human development—Self-realization—for the simple reason that the ego was never real in the first place. Living in the first and second stages of human development are merely stations along the way to human completion. This completion occurs in the third stage through total commitment to the spiritual path: method, practice, discipline and, most of all, relationship; movement through transcendent planes of existence, surrender, trust and faith, spiritual vision and the absolute reality of the in-visible world is witnessed and finally the transcendent unity of the divine, the conditionless condition of spontaneity and truth, love, bliss.

Ego compromises bear no relation whatsoever to this spiritual state of fullness. There is no place for the imaginary in the supremely real existence. Today many are finding compromise with the ego tempting, because of the human ego’s ethos of effort and gain, which says something along the lines of “I have done my spiritual apprenticeship, meditated and been disciplined. I have worked hard, so now I want something back.” But when limitations arise the spiritual aspirant must go further…always. Nothing less than everything must be consigned to the spiritual fire; nothing more than everything is the treasure that awaits you.

BLOG entry #139

This article by Richard Harvey was originally published at http://www.therapyandspirituality.com/articles/  and it is part of an ongoing retrospective series of blogs. ‘Why You Cannot Follow An Individual Path to Enlightenment’ was first published in 2012.

Awareness is our natural state. Awareness means that we lead our lives fundamentally happy in compassion, peace and vibrant relationship, acting, thinking and feeling wisely, centered, authentically and joyfully.

When we fall out of awareness we become angry or fearful or sad about ourselves and our lives. We forget what it means to be aware and how that experience of life feels.

This natural state of awareness refers us to the bigger picture, the more expansive questions about existence that we human beings wonder about. What is life? What particularly is a human life? How should we live? What is death? The condition of wonderment that gives rise to these questions is itself a blessing. To live our lives in wonder is simple and profound. It is both a royal road to living in the Mystery and the acknowledgment that life is never knowable.

The Unknown is crucial in spirituality. To live humbly and simply without assumptions or expectations is the spiritual key to happiness. When we can truly do this (and all you have to do is stop doing what you are doing now to inhibit this!) blessings and treasures shower upon us, our lives and our relationship in gifts of love.

The Divine, by whatever name you address IT/Her/Him or them, is unquantifiable, unknown, immeasurable, unreasoned and impenetrable in the same way as you cannot become aware of or objectify yourself. You are the subject of your eternal life and you may refine you awareness, but you will never step outside it, neither would you want to. Your eyes of awareness are themselves the eyes of the world, at all times, in all places and circumstances. As the events of your life, through good and bad fortunes, dramas and vicissitudes unfold, you stand in the middle of all of it immersed in love and happiness, because deep down inside in your true nature you are whole. All of it is you, death and rebirth, good and evil, day and night in its many modifications and adaptations, beckoning you, even while you resist, to identify with it—with all of it or any of it.

But you are a human being who is ultimately Divine. So, unswayed by outer events, deeply accepting of all the faces of God and of all the minutiae of life in its unfathomable Mystery, you simply are.

BLOG entry #138

This article by Richard Harvey was originally published at http://www.therapyandspirituality.com/articles/  and it is part of an ongoing retrospective series of blogs. ‘Awareness is Our Natural State’ was first published in 2012.

What is the crucial question facing the world today? Is it socio-political -- government corruption, human rights, sexual inequality, overpopulation? Is it sociological --religious, racial, political divisions, immorality, violence, permissiveness, breakdown of the family? Is it economic --over-consumerism, materialism, unemployment, the collapsing economy, globalization? Is iteco-global --poverty, war, terrorism, managing natural resources, global warming?

What if instead of choosing from this seemingly endless list we consider these issues as symptoms of a deeper malaise? What if we consider that it may be less the issues in themselves than how we choose to respond to them? Do we choose to respond to them out of fear, helplessness and despair or from empowerment, love, compassion and empathetic engagement? Won't our future and the future of humanity depend on how we respond, from where we respond and on what actions we take now?

Thousands of years ago humankind understood that being precedes doing. Our sense of presence, of being-ness, aligns us with powerful forces. The state of the world today is a reflection of inner turmoil, violence, unrest and uncertainty. If we human beings were to look seriously inside, as a collective act, and make a sincere commitment to a new intention to live harmoniously, intelligently and joyfully together the world would be transformed. But first we must understand the relationship between the inner and outer worlds. Being precedes doing: what we think, feel and understand inside us is reflected into the outer world.

Therefore, the crucial question for humanity today is: will it awaken? Will we awaken to our true nature, to what is possible and inherently human, to a life of wisdom, compassion, empathy and kindness? Will we choose to realize out higher nature, the True Self?

What can we do? Where should we begin? How can we start?

As ever, we start slowly, firmly and resolutely with inner conviction and resolve to overcome obstacles, to persevere, to become... ourselves.

First, a little discipline. Not remaining a slave to our desires and our fears, choosing how best to spend our day wisely, looking for balance in our life activities, thoughts and feelings, sometimes willingly doing what we don't want to do, persevering and enduring in wise and skilful ways and effortful striving towards the spiritual, the transcendent and the divine.

These basic practices serve as a foundation for continuing development.

Second, feel the world. This means letting in the experience and the intuition of ordinary states and responding to people, events and phenomena in the outer world and allowing them to affect you, becoming emotional, not in the conditioned sense but in the deeper sense of abandonment to naturalness and love.

This engagement aligns you to the world in authentic relationship.

Third, cultivate awareness which means staying awake, alive and responsive; seeing what is happening on all levels of human experience and not taking anything for granted, but staying intelligent in the true sense of the word, witnessing, being non-critical, accepting, not in a foolish way, but in an expansive, loving way that discerns when things are OK and when they are not.

Separation from the mind of judgment frees you from prejudice and bigotry to meet the world with deep compassion.

Fourth, keep your eyes open wide and your heart open wider. Combining your work in deepening awareness and non-criticism with your ability to feel the world ever deeper, more and more profoundly leads to a heart-opening that transforms your inner (and in time your outer) world.

When the heart becomes truly available and wholly present, transformation must follow.

Fifth, allow yourself to be affected by the world, touched by people and events. Awareness deepens into profound responsiveness that is less sentimental and more loving, less conditioned and more spontaneous.

In time you will have reached the threshold of spiritual surrender.

Finally, be present and breathe. Breath connects your energies and is itself the direct experience of enlightenment - the living truth.

These radical practices are central elements in the process of human awakening, the concern of psycho-spiritual practices, healing and therapy. At some point you are bound to need help, guidance and support in your personal and spiritual development. This is the time when you should seek a therapist, counselor or guide who is familiar and skilled in guiding you wisely.

BLOG entry #137

This article by Richard Harvey was originally published at http://www.therapyandspirituality.com/articles/  and it is part of an ongoing retrospective series of blogs. ‘The Crucial Question and What You Can Do About It’ was first published in 2011.

Today, the spiritual field is littered with half-baked truths, crackpot facts, unthought-out meanings and downright lies. For the truth to appear clearly and distinctly amid the hub-bub is a tall order. Perhaps it is best announced quietly, strongly and in a regular voice to distinguish it from spirituality dressed up as business, spiritual liberation presented as the object of individual desire or a relationship to the Infinite reframed and interpreted as happy marriages.

It has, and probably always will, take a great deal of courage, persistence and hard work to arrive in the place where you are not. Seeking the truth without becoming attached to the search itself is a humbling task. As ego-forces worm their way in, truth-seekers guided, misguided and left alone to make of their spiritual paths anything they want them to be may easily flounder.

Some basis of spiritual fact may be useful if you are, or are thinking of, making the spiritual your priority. It is, as I explained to a client the other day, like the advice I once heard from a singing teacher: "If you cannot reach the note, aim to hit the note above it!" This works. And it is analogous to spirituality in the contemporary world. If you are not happy and fulfilled in your relationship, career, finances, recreation, lifestyle, search for meaning and purpose, reach higher. The spiritual world is the higher one and, if you truly reach it, it will rain down upon you a transcendent rain that will turn everything in your life figuratively into gold - the golden treasure of life: all things will be given to you, all help, all experiences, all teachings, all the happiness that you need, desire or could dream of... the only thing is - and please hear this - you cannot do it for that reason.

Why do it then? you say. You do it, because the spiritual path is the way to YOU.

So, here is my encouragement. When you are looking for a way, that is a teacher, a teaching, a method, a meditation or what have you, to further your spiritul journey, please remember this: be discriminating. Think about what you hear, consider how you feel, put your genuine-ness meter on full-time. Do not accept anything on face value, mull over it, ask questions and see if it makes sense, because so much in this field doesn't and so many so-called teachers when challenged falter and fall.

I know this first hand. When I was writing my book The Flight of Consciousness, my editor, a tough, spiritually cynical Californian who had heard it all before, one day shouted at me, "Richard, you're not preaching to the converted now! This is not one of your workshops where everyone nods! When you write, you have got to tell people why it is true - you have to justify your statements!" He wasn't a spiritual teacher, but he taught me to want to learn to write.

BLOG entry #136

This article by Richard Harvey was originally published at http://www.therapyandspirituality.com/articles/  and it is part of an ongoing retrospective series of blogs. ‘To Arrive in the Place Where You Are Not: Fallacies of the Spiritual Path’ was first published in 2011.