Earlier this week, I had a moment of doubt. Actually, it’s been creeping in for a few weeks. I started thinking about what I was doing here on this site, whether I could really change the world or not, if spirituality really could be discussed openly, let alone applied to life, and, quite frankly, whether or not there was an audience for this stuff. I found myself chasing the end and shifting my focus from writing to links, stats, and feed subscriptions. As you can imagine, the more I concentrated on the mechanics of things and the less I focused on the content, the more doubtful I became. Hence my question on Monday, “How do you know you’re on the right path?”

As we realize we can do, be, and have anything we want - ANYTHING - life becomes a question about WHAT we want. Sometimes it’s downright petrifying to choose something, especially if you’ve made a 180 degree shift. For example, I decided that I want to raise spiritual awareness, and I want to do it in a BIG way. Now, I’m in IT (information technology). I’m a pretty spiritual person, but I don’t have any formal training in spirituality. Not to mention, that I want to do it in BIG way and I have no idea what that way is. Suddenly, my ordered, predictable, competent path along IT fell away. I could see the mountain peak, but the path to get there is obliterated. So how do I know that I’m making the right choices along the path?

I know I made the right choice when:

2 or 3 more steps are revealed to me.

This is the coolest thing. Nothing beats confirmation like 2 or 3 more openings after the first one.

So, say you determine that your purpose is helping non-profits spread their message by leveraging social media. You’re currently unemployed and you figure that before you set out on your purpose you better find a way to pay the bills. You have solid programming skills so you apply to all the IT positions, but nothing is resonating with you. You just feel like it’s draining your soul. You reluctantly go to an interview that a recruiter set up. You’re in the lobby thinking why am I here.

You walk into the interview at a Fortune 500 company and find out that they’re not just looking for someone who knows Java scripting and a little about databases. You find out that one of the current projects is with a non-profit who wants to connect the beneficiaries of their services with their donors. Not only that, but, the Fortune 500 company is looking to this project to be the prototype for other projects like this.

1, 2, 3…You’re elated, and your interest is piqued. That’s a clue that you may have made the right decision.

The struggle ends.

The clouds part and light shines from the heavens. Okay, well, maybe not that dramatic.

You may well feel like you are in a battle for your survival. Not a life or death survival, but you may be in a battle to preserve your way life. For example, I like getting service. If I had to say where my money goes, I wouldn’t say shoes or clothes, I would say service. Any vocation that I take up has to support that habit. For years I thought that I had to work 60 hour weeks while ignoring my health to do so. Then one day, I just decided to end the struggle. I wanted to find out what I was really meant to do. Every step since then has been an easier, smoother transition and today, I make decisions that ead me in the direction of my purpose. The swim upstream is over and all my needs and wants are abundantly met.

It hits me 3 times.

I gave the example on Monday of getting confirmation 3 times. I started to doubt whether I should be pursuing this writing thing, then I got confirmation 3 times (and a couple after that) that I was on the right track.

I use this litmus test when I’m really confused. I don’t look for it either. I just stumble upon the confirmations. That way I don’t end up seeing signs everywhere I turn. They just show up. I realize that this runs counter to the look-for-the-alpha-reflection camp, but I find that I can conjure an alpha reflection out of air. What’s more difficult, is for me to orchestrate 3 independent, spontaneous nods.

Sometimes, there is no way to know.

Sometimes, try as I might to read the signs or check for the path, I have no clue whether the decision I made was the right one or not. Even today, there are choices that I made 10+ years ago I can’t say were right or wrong. Their meanings unfold daily and I may not ever know for sure. Sometimes, you just have to take the leap without seeing the path and move in a direction. That’s why life’s an adventure!

In Spirit,
Nneka

In the book Open Secrets, Rami Shapiro, a rabbi, gets to the heart of the Jewish traditon. It is a collection of letters written to Rabbi Shapiro’s great-grandfather by his mentor and Rabbi. He covers everything about Judaism from the perspective of a mystic: from the Shabat, holy days and Jewish practices, to the nature of God, spirituality, and evil. A few of the topics in the book are discussed in this six-part series. Last week, the discussion was about the nature of God as all. This week, it’s about the nature of evil.

Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael, the author’s great-grandfather’s mentor, explains that there are two types of evil: necessary and unnecessary. Under the umbrella of necessary evil, he places events like illness, death, and natural disasters. He considers these part of the natural course of life. In the unnecessary evil bucket, he counts things like war, greed, or theft. In other words, acts that are chosen.

He eventually came to the conclusion that necessary evil wasn’t really evil at all, but they are events that are a part of life. I agree with him in that we are transient expressions of a permanent being and so death is a natural part of life. I also agree that things like death, illness, and natural disasters shouldn’t be classified as evil at all. However, this is as far as I can agree.

What we see as evil is more a manifestation of our disconnection from Spirit. Disconnection is not even the word. It’s more like being unaware of our connection to Spirit. It is not owning up to our true nature as Spirit. We can never escape being Spirit or being connected to It, but we can be unaware of it, most of the times unconsciously.

Then there’s the issue of creating your own reality. Our bodies seem to have a particular timespan, so death, I agree, is a natural occurence. However, illness, to me, does not fall under that umbrella. If we can create our own reality, we can choose health. In additon to all of the practical measures we can take to become healthier and calming techniques like meditation we can use to reduce stress and mental contributors to illness, we can employ the Law of Attraction to manifest health in our lives.

How do you explain evil within the context of creating your own reality through your thoughts? How do explain natural phenomena such as tsunamis or hurricanes? Does evil even exist at all?

In Spirit,
Nneka