Right Relationship to the Divine

Lesson Five: God Communion

God communion is a blissful awareness and enjoyment of God, within us and all around us. When we are consciously connected to God we are filled with Divine love, understanding, and energy, and radiate it. We experience a sense of affinity and connectedness with everyone and everything, seeing and feeling God in all things and all people, including ourselves. This is the NATURAL condition of human beings, but we don't always consciously experience it. While God is always connected to us, that connection becomes fully functional only with our free-will choice for God-consciousness.

 God is always present, but WE are not always present. We may be lost, distracted, elsewhere, mental. And we may be blinded by presumptions about what is so. This lesson will help you understand what factors in our life and consciousness prevent God communion, and how to regain it.

God communion everywhere, every when

 Generally, we experience God Communion most intensely when we sit down and do spiritual practices (like prayer, meditation, etc). When we consciously bring our mind and attention to God, letting go of the concerns and the busyness that has cluttered our minds throughout the day, we are better able to feel and hear God. This is an excellent way to tune oneself to an awareness of God, but the true goal of our hearts is to be aware of God PERMANENTLY, to enjoy His constant presence, companionship and guidance.

 Unfortunately, as we go about our days our minds tend to be preoccupied with reactions to life and with our efforts to work out problems and achieve personal goals. We get stuck in mental patterns of negative expectations, concerns, fears, reactions, etc. So, with our minds distracted and our emotions complicated, we are unable to hear or feel God. We have, effectively, shut Him out.

 Fortunately, one CAN be wholeheartedly involved in relationships and endeavors of all kinds and still maintain a constant feeling awareness of God. These things are not contradictory at all, because God is not elsewhere. He is as present in and as the broom you are holding and the person you are talking to, as He is in "heaven." So, although it CAN be very helpful to set aside regular periods of solitude to commune with God, withdrawal from life activities is not needed for God communion. What it takes is loving remembrance of God, and living with spiritual integrity.

Loving remembrance of God

 Loving remembrance means mindfully and heartfully remembering God. Remembering God is supported by remembering the truth, including the truth of who we really are.

Remembering God. This means turning our minds and hearts to God as we go about our daily life. At first this may feel unnatural or difficult to remember to do, but as you strengthen in your awareness of the Divine it will become as natural as breathing. Do not be discouraged by your frequent lapses of attention in the beginning. Take heart from Brother Lawrence, a great example and exponent of this humble but effective process, who said,

"You aren't the only one to be distracted from the presence of God; I understand completely. Our minds are so flighty... If your mind wanders at times, don't be upset, because being upset will only distract you more. Allow your will to recall your attention gently to God. Such perseverance will please him."

-- Brother Lawrence (The Practice of the Presence of God)

When you remember God, remember Him with both your mind AND your heart -- as a lover remembers his beloved, as a mother remembers her child, as a best friends remember each other. Just as prayer without feeling makes no connection, thinking of someone without remembering them is empty. But to remember people truly is to lovingly commune with their actuality, their true nature, their soul beauty. Remembering God truly is like that. It is big, sweet, and glorious AS IT IS.

 Heart-embrace is what makes recollection into true remembrance, and thus makes it truly comforting to both lover and Beloved. God ALWAYS remembers us in that exact way.

 So: engage mind WITH heart, not without it. Remember AND feel the reality of your love for God and God's love for you.

Remembering the truth. This means remembering what we know is true, and turning away thoughts and fears that contradict those truths. Often, the reason we do not feel God's presence is because we shut Him out with false beliefs about what is so. For example, if we believe that God is distant, we are incapable of feeling that God is here; if we believe that we are bad then we do not FEEL like children of God, etc.

 In our heart, we always know the spiritual truths -- that God is here, that we ARE children of God, etc. -- but our minds often doubt them. It is up to us to bring our minds back to the truth that we know is true every time it wanders.

 We can remember the truth if we:

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vigilantly DISMISS our doubts, whenever they arise, by tuning to the thoughts and beliefs that make the heart cry, "Yes!"

 deeply ACCEPT the truth of God's presence in and as everything, declared by all God-knowing people and recognized as true in every heart;

 deeply ACCEPT your goodness and worthiness of God's love and companionship, as a child of God.

NOTE: This acceptance is not merely an intellectual or theoretical matter. It is a spiritual and emotional change in the way we feel, and in the operating beliefs according to which we make our decisions. True acceptance of these truths dramatically changes the way we think, feel, and function.

 You are a son or daughter of the Divine parent, a chip off the Divine block. As such you have the same desires and values as does the heavenly Mother or Father. So to attune yourself to God, remember the values that you hold in your heart, like love, truth, unselfish giving, etc. In remembering these heavenly values your soul will feel at home, and in touch with the Divinity that is its true nature.

Living with spiritual integrity

 Not only should we remember the truth, and our true heart values, but we should also live by them. This is integrity. When we live a life of true integrity we feel close to God, because such a life is rooted in God and the Divine values we share with Her. And, when we connect to the higher values of our heart, we feel more ourselves. But when we deny our heart values by the way we live we feel ashamed because, as children of God, lesser values (like selfishness) feel uncomfortable and unsatisfactory to us. Our minds become busy with fear, blame, and justification. We feel unworthy of God communion, and alienated from God. Therefore, to support our conscious connection with of God we need live in a way that we feel good about.

Example: A group gets together to work on a project. If all of the members have an un-selfed orientation to getting the job done as well as possible, the project will be completed harmoniously. But if each of the members is stuck on his or her own ideas and plans, there will be much conflict. That will negatively affect not only the job, but also the peace of mind of each person in the group.

Example: Two people in a relationship both place a great deal of importance on getting what they want from each other. This creates many bad experiences, and causes resentment, guilt, shame, blame, etc. Neither one feels very open to God; their minds are too troubled. However, if those same two people would value love and harmony more than getting their own way -- and live accordingly -- the relationship would feel sweet and harmonious, and their hearts would feel open to God.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting things, but if we are too attached to our own personal agenda, we will compromise our heart's values, and create a great deal of pain and shame. On the other hand, when we can we bring an unselfish orientation to life, to our relationships, and to our work, we maintain the personal and interpersonal peace needed to remain open to and aware of God. Furthermore, we feel more in touch with God because we are going with the Divine flow -- the Divine flow of love, truth, and blessings that naturally pours forth from the Heart of God, through our human souls, to all.

 There is no problem with passionate, dedicated involvement in earthly relationships and endeavors. What matters is this: What is our orientation? Is it selfish or unselfish? Does it allow us to live by our heart's Divine values, or does it not? These are the things that determine whether or not we will feel close to God in our daily lives.

Conclusion

 To sum it up, involvement in life activities and God communion ARE compatible. This is how God designed it to be. Whenever you turn your mind to God in a spirit of love you can experience God communion. Tune up your life and your mind by means of loving remembrance and living with spiritual integrity, and you will feel the presence of God permeating your life and being.