Sensing Destiny

Do you ever sense destiny? I do. For me it is a feeling that everything that has happened to me before this moment has lead me specifically to this moment. It becomes so obvious to me in that moment how the pieces of my life fit together into a unified whole. It provides me with a knowledge that everything up until that point has been part of a much needed preparation for the task at hand.

Do you believe in synchronicity? I do. Is there coincidence? Of course. But that is just one way of looking at things. Millions and billions of events happen in our lives and any statistician of merit can tell you that lots of things are bound to appear connected when in fact these events are just the random play of large numbers. That is right, go pick your favorite lottery number and play it billions of times, it is bound to come up, and on that day you can say it was coincidence. Or take a thousand trips and on one of them you are bound to bump into a long lost friend, a next door neighbor, a cousin, or classmate. Well, maybe you just bumped into your destiny. That is, what do you do with the information. Yes, billions of events are happening to us all of the time. Which day? Where were you that day? What do you make of it? What do we do with the new thought that jumps into our head? Where do we decide to go next? When we are in synch with the Universe (One Verse), history (His Story) happens. When we are ready to hear our call, we are ready to answer that call. Infinities of events happen and there are thus infinite calls to action.

Do you believe the future is predestined? I don't. I don't see destiny and predestination as one. I have a choice I need to make in each moment. Do I write this next word? Do I follow that next thought? Do I accept Grace into my life? I am destined to do so, but it is not predestined when it will happen. It can happen at any time. It can happen at every time. And when I am ready to sense my destiny, it will happen.

I have experienced a lot of new sensations and feelings in this past week. As I listened to Michelle speak this week, I heard how life can be like a pendulum that has a natural swing but will settle in on a channel. That it is destined to do so, and that once it does, we become tuned into that channel -- drawn in by it, like a tractor beam. She spoke of how when we tune into that channel we begin to act in harmony with the Greater Power that guides us. That is, our growth continues, but the growth becomes harmonious. She also spoke about how the world we exist within has finally reached a time of integrity. And that each of us who are on a spiritual pilgrimage are helping by creating this integrity to balance out the ill-effects of people who do not live in harmony with the Universe.

Do I believe in synchronicity? Yes, of course. What did I pick up and read yesterday? I don't know why, but I reached for a pile of papers that contained something I printed on 8/1/2007 from the peacepilgrim.com website. She had said, "A few really dedicated people can offset the ill effects of masses of out-of-harmony people, so we who work for peace must not falter, we must continue to pray for peace and to act for peace in whatever way we can." She was not just talking of world peace. In fact, the first step towards world peace is inner peace.

Do I believe in destiny? Yes. I saw it this week as I was asked to participate by Rabbi Sigal in a Yoga Nidra exercise and I was reminded of Sigal's words to me that there is not a duality in life while we do perceive a duality. We perceive a separateness from each other and from God, but we are all God manifest. We are all a manifestation of a power greater than ourselves that is within us and everywhere else. So there are these two sides of the same face. Seeing them as two is natural, as we are the Infinite having taken physical form. But when we are ready we will realize that these aspects of us are not two, they are One. There is enough time to do what we need to do in the physical world. It is not unimportant. And there is enough time to connect with the spiritual path, and that too is not unimportant. And in the end the two paths will merge and there will no longer be a veil that causes us to see them as separate.

So my pendulum swings from the grand, and infinite and connected, and the intellect, and study, and prayer, meditation, yoga practice and hope. And then painfully it swings back to the mundane, the physical, the attached, the fear, dullness, boredom, apathy, lethargy, gluttony, ineptness, and inadequacy. So I thought that was my destiny to swing back and forth. That was until this week, when I found new hope in Michelle's words. She probably had said the following a dozen times before in the last few years while I practiced at her Yoga studio, Prasad. And if not Michelle's words, then surely I had heard it a 100 times before that. The words were that yes we are on a pendulum, but no, it won't stay that way. That there is a channel through which we pass and in each passing we tune in. And each time we tune in, we tune in for longer and longer periods. And as more and more of us tune in, the signal becomes stronger and the world comes into integrity, and that great and wonderful things will be happening in the near future as a result of our efforts to tune into this channel. Better yet, as we tune in, once we tune in, we will be drawn in.

And here is one more thought, this one divinely inspired through me. That I can study and study and that is good. But that is not an end. It just prepares me. It prepares me to act when I am needed. And I can think and think, but I will never think my way to the answers. The answers will just be given to me when I am ready to hear them call out to me. When you see a great athlete or dancer or painter or inventor or anyone who has added to the perfection, joy and beauty of the world do whatever it is that they do at their highest level -- you see that is it without thought or intellect. It is simply divinely inspired. It just emerges naturally. They merge with the Infinite and express that Greater Power. So rather than expecting to find the answers, I can just prepare myself to be ready for the answers to find me.