The Spiritual Transformation

Beginning with a short and quiet chant, the mind quickly exchanges the worldly for the spiritual. This is a transformation into an experience of the Inner Self. As this Inner Spirit awakens, your mind is filled with an awareness of your spiritual and eternal nature. This is the reality of the breadth and depth of your Inner/Spiritual Self as you are now:

No longer “conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind” 1 . . . “that you might be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” 2

However different or seemingly incomplete this experience, it remains real and personal. This is an experience of your spiritualness in which you live and move, and work. This is your true, complete self. What is most important is that you avoid any thoughtful analysis of it letting the experience be as it is different, undefined, and personal.

Primarily, it is excessive thought that prevents this spiritual awareness from arising into consciousness. As stated earlier, the overanalysis of the daily life always block-out an entry into the meditative state. And if a worldly thought returns, this escape into an inner awareness can easily be brought back with more chanting. Again, it’s actually that simple.

So be patient thinking of something Godly, something spiritual like your Inner Self, a Newness of Life, a life beyond this worldly life, and the concept of spiritual muscle for living with more of the characteristics discussed throughout Handbook.

This transformation away from your human self can happen even if you don’t completely understand who the Spirit really is. Furthermore, even if you can’t explain the experience and the resulting feeling, it remains real unto your “self” and can easily come upon you again.

The experience of a much deeper “Spiritual Meditation” may seem some-what beyond the human mind and it is. Again, the strongest evidence that it actually exists is found in a personal experience of it and not in a thoughtful analysis or an attempted definition of it.

Any meditation however deep, however shallow is like bringing your most basic self into a conscious awareness of itself. The Inner/ Holy Spirit residing within is always available to bring this about, as described in the following verses:

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” 1

“You are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you.” 2

As previously described, the Spirit of God is also like the wind and can’t be seen, but it can be easily felt and awakened because it is always there within the self lying just below the surface of your human existence. The Spirit awakens because you have been:

“Transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 3 chanting again, and the escape will begin to flow once more and come to dominate your mind. So be patient and persevere fight the good fight again and again.

The Spirituality of Belonging

Any type of expression of the Inner Self produces a sense of belonging an identity to something within but also beyond the “self.” It is a personal sense of community an awareness of it and always without a complete definition. It is an identity with anyone who has a spiritual nature one that is driven by an experience of their “eternal circle.” This sense of belonging to something more than your “self” is described by the Apostle Paul:

As a result, we are with each other spiritually simply by thinking of each other, including those whom we do not know. This is a sense of belonging a personal identity that arises from within. Therefore, think of others who have or will have felt the reality of their own spiritual nature as a group, living somewhere throughout your community, even the entire world. Think about them as belonging to the community of us all whom Jesus Christ calls “the church.”

Simply by being in the spirit, we are all together even when we are not physically together. This interrelatedness becomes a personal reality simply by avoiding excessive thought and analysis on any topic, issue, or situation and letting the togetherness flow as a spiritual awareness a personal reality. Again, this experience arises from the relationship within the “eternal circle” of the “self,” and also the “self” of others. More than defined, it’s simply something to be experienced. 1.

Within this process, the driving force for leading into a meditative experience may be the Worldly Self speaking to the Spiritual Self trying to awaken it. But it may be the other way around, whereby the Spiritual Self is trying to access the Worldly Self.

Whatever the case, it makes no difference. Don’t over-analyze it. Either way, the end result is the same a mind empty of worldly thought but filled with a Godly awareness containing a great peacefulness.

The Spirituality of the Inner Self

If you and I are truly spiritual beings and more than just saying the words we must accept the grounded truth that the Spirit actually lives within us and that it can be awakened. By offering back to God, “the Spirit of your mind,” 1 an awareness of your Inner Self instantly arises into consciousness. It is as simple as the Apostle Paul described; you will be spiritually transformed as you:

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

And that’s the great simplicity of this process that brings you into the meditative state. Again, this is driven by “His Spirit in the inner man” and woman. and be gifted,” the experience. All the while knowing these deeper meditations will return but only on the Holy Spirit’s time schedule, not mine.

This is an experience of your Spiritual Self. The result of this is to live in this worldly life as a more peaceful and calmer person, projecting outward some of the personal characteristics of Jesus Christ that you now possess—at least some of them.

And from this Newness of Life, you will be breaking away from the stress and anxiety, the drugs and depression, along with other experiences that you want to avoid—such as anger, hate, and revenge.

Experiencing the Sounds of Silence

The most important essence of God is found within the self its spiritual temple. 1 Unfortunately, your daily life is often driven by an excessive thought of itself, which blocks out the possibility of any meditative experience. This blockage can be overcome through a simple process of slow breathing and repeated chanting of a word or phrase. As a result, peace and calm will come to dominate your mind because you are no longer:

It is from this transformation that the sounds of silence arise. A silence that contains a feeling of wholeness and peacefulness. This experience carries a very clear message that you truly possess something beyond your physical self and that you actually have a spiritual existence within it.

This existence is driven by the inner sounds of silence that quickly bring your “self” into the reality of its own spiritualness. In this Handbook, this experience is called a “spiritual awareness,” and from it, a meditation will come upon you. Again, whether it is deep or shallow makes no difference it is always real and life-changing.