As it turns out, life actually isn’t a dress rehearsal. It’s an undress rehearsal. We come down here time and time again to practice shedding our ego armor until we can step on the stage of eternity, naked and exposed before God, as God. Exit, cloud left…

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I imagine truth as a magnificent white-tipped Mountain. At its peak is a deeper and more inclusive experience of the moment. As we move through our lives, Truth Mountain comes in and out of view, calling out to us and reminding us of what is possible. The more truthful we are about our path, the higher our consciousness climbs. When our view is blocked, we know that we still have work to do in the valleys down below—traversing the foothills of illusion, sidestepping the quicksands of artifice, overcoming our fear of (interior) heights. But we will get to the peak, if we are willing to do the work, if we can be truthful with ourselves about the ways we avoid the truth.

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It’s like we figure we are the only ones advocating for ourselves on this inner journey, but we aren’t. We’re not as alone as we think. While we are on the look-in, God is busily on the look-out for what will serve us. And then, when the moment is right, when we are truly ready to embrace our path, we walk right into the Godself on the bridge across forever, puzzled that we ever imagined ourselves separate.

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I miss my heart when it closes.

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I often feel that our greatest individual challenge is to close the gap between our unflattering self-concepts and the truth of our magnificence. To see ourselves through the eyes of those who love us. To love our so-called flaws as gifts from the Lords of Karma. Perhaps this is what we are here to do for those we care about—to hold a reflection of their divinity up before them until they are ready to embrace it as their own.

When our view is blocked, we know that we still have work to do in the valleys below. Image: Ricardo Aguilera

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If All-Oneness is not built on a healthy regard for the rights, boundaries and magnificence of the individual soul, it’s All-Nonsense. Grounded spirituality strikes a sacred balance between our experience of unity consciousness and our connection to true-path, that place where we feel both connected to the oneness and deeply connected to our divine purpose in the heart of it. The idea that we are ‘All-One’ takes on a whole new meaning when we interact with unity from an individuated and clarified purpose. There is the ocean of essence, and there is the individual droplet of meaning. Every soul has a vital role to play in this dance of sacred imagination.

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There’s no such thing as a fully realized master. That’s just a hustle. We all have work to do. That’s why we’re here. To get a little closer…

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The mythic life begins with our feet firmly planted on Mother Earth. We begin with the root chakra—the quest for Om begins at home—and we work our way up from there. Once the root chakra is satisfied, we proceed to the next chakras. As we heal and expand, there emerges a natural and sustainable movement upward, toward God. With our soles firmly planted, our soul has a leg to stand on in its efforts to go higher. From sole to soul—a sustainable connection to the Godself, one we can heartfully rely on.

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It is important to grant yourself permission to wander as part of your spiritual journey. So often mischaracterized as lostness, there is a kind of immersion in the not knowing that is actually quite necessary if we are going to find our way home. So much information can come up when we are looking in no particular direction. By surrendering to the unknown, we create the space for a deeper knowing to emerge. In the heart of the not knowing, the paths that we are here to walk reveal themselves.

“By surrendering to the unknown, we create the space for a deeper knowing to emerge.” Image: Jeremy Bishop

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The monkey mind feeds on ‘small peanuts’: tireless anxieties, petty jealousies, fearful imaginings. Starve it by swimming in a vast ocean of delight.

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Love is my favorite sexual position.

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Forgiveness is a beautiful thing, but it’s essential that it arises organically. Many of us claim to have forgiven, while still holding toxic emotions below the surface: the forgiveness bypass. The truth is that we cannot will ourselves into forgiveness. If we try to forgive before we have worked through the feelings, inauthenticity blocks our path. We cannot be in the real because we’re not emotionally real. Our heart is still back there.

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The real journey is not one of adapting yourself to someone else’s vision, but instead, shaping who you are with your own two hands. The karmic clay you work with lives deep inside your soul bones, awaiting your detection and expression. You are the sculptor of your own reality—don’t hand your tools to anyone else.

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God is an equal opportunity transformer. Everyone has access, everyone stands a chance. So long as we are willing to do the work necessary to clarify our inner channel, the universe will bring us boundless opportunities to shape our soul.

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‘The School of Heart Knocks’ is an ongoing institution of higher learning. You don’t get out until you’re God.

“You are the sculptor of your own reality—don’t hand your tools to anyone else.” Image: Angelina Litvin

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There is such a fine line between relational passion and avoidant intensities. There were moments when my passionate nature was a direct reflection of my aliveness, but there were others when I was just using intensity and drama as a coping strategy, a way to actually hide from a deeper experience of the moment, some kind of addictive anti-mellow drama that procrastinated my relationship with reality. Somewhere below the drama was my real life, waiting in the wings to be lived. It was scary, but it called to me, reminding me that there is more to this life than a sidestepping of the inner world. There is the avoidant life, and then there is the one that is vulnerably true.

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You can look for a relationship, but you can’t look for love. Love finds you when it’s ready.

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The soul has a no-return policy. Once we cross a certain point in our expansion, we can’t go back. As we honor our calling, we grant it more space inside of us. Light begets light—at a certain point, there is no way to escape the inner beacon. Our calling begins to soak every aspect of our lives, whatever the cost or inconvenience. We cannot live without our call because our call has become us. Path decisions then come straight from the heart of true-path, and we move only when our soul motor tells us to. Turn on your karmic engine…

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I hear all the doomsayers, but I believe we’ve entered into a time of great promise. I don’t believe the world will dissolve in the coming years or that we’re facing ultimate financial collapse. We’ll have challenges, but we’ll work them out. I believe that people of sacred purpose are more necessary now, not because tragedy is upon us, but because we’re moving beyond survivalism as a guiding principle. We are moving, side by side, heart in heart, towards authenticity as our shared way of being. Of course it’s gonna get noisy as egoic walls come tumbling down, of course the energy is going to intensify and frighten us. It comes with the territory. But we will make it through, we just will. We’re brilliantly adaptive, and on the deepest, truest levels, we all want to lay down our arms, and move through life from the heart outward. We may be able to endure most anything, but we are built to love.

This article consists of excerpts from Jeff Brown’s book, Ascending with Both Feet on the Ground, republished here with permission.