Truth Mountain

March 19, 2010 — -- In the early years of my Soulshaping journey, I had a constant desire to be "in the moment." I didn't quite know what that meant, but I knew that there was some connection between my capacity to be fully present for the moment and my ultimate spiritual expansion. If I couldn't be here, how could I possibly grow to the next place on my journey?

I looked for the moment everywhere. I hunted for it on the yoga mat, the meditation cushion, the Bioenergetic breathing stool. I sought it through detachment practices, depth-full adventures, emotional clearings, mantra and tantra. All Go(o)d but something was missing.

What was missing was truth. We often talk about living in the moment but it is my experience that we cannot live fully in the moment if we are not living in truth. Truth is the gateway to the moment. Without truth, our breaths are somehow incomplete, our presence shrouded, our intimacy half-hearted because we are not fully there for it. The moment we own our truths, we get truth-chills -- little sighs of relief from our body temple -- as the veils to clarity fall away and our divine presence enters. Here we are. Here now.

Of course, truth is a subjective experience. What is one person's truth is another person's falsity. For me, truth is that which reflects my own distinct soul-scriptures -- those callings, lessons and archetypal pathways that live at the heart of my spiritual expansion. To the extent that I am honoring my scriptures, I am on my true-path and in the moment. When I bypass them, I am somewhere else entirely. For me, no spiritual practice is effective unless I am courageously honoring my path.

It took me a long time to realize that there were symptoms of my alienation from true-path. They included chronic illness, sleeplessness, self-distractive behavior, and perpetual dissatisfaction. I took to calling these symptoms "truth-aches" -- nudging feelings of falsity, palpable longings for an authentic life. Although sometimes painful, and although embracing them may well force us to turn our habitual patterns upside down in order to effect change, truth aches actually contain the seeds of our transformation. When we repress them, truth decay sets in and the only thing that can save us is a truth canal. Sometimes we wait too long, and we lose our truth altogether.