Heaven is on Earth, Right Here, Right Now
How does that statement strike you? Do you say, “I believe that and I feel it!” Or do you say something more like “Dream on. That is a fantasy or, worse, propaganda put out by religious nuts!”
If you are like me, you may be somewhere in between. You want to believe it, but you are not feeling it this moment, and you believe that it is hard to attain.
Would you like to feel it on a more sustained basis? I know I would and that is probably why the Universe planted the seed in my mind years ago that my divine purpose was to “bring Heaven on Earth”. When I first heard that as my purpose while in meditation, I cringed a bit. I felt it was too huge and rather pompous at that. Yet, as I asked for something more doable, more practical, more defined, the message stayed with me. “Your purpose is to bring Heaven on Earth.”
Since that time I have been trying to figure it out. How do I do that?
The answer: There is no “doing” it. It is all about “being” it. Simple, but not necessarily easy.
So, here is where I AM with it. I ask myself, am I feeling joy in this moment? If the answer is yes, then I know I am there or at least close. Most of the time my answer is some form of “Not at all”. Having brought that into my awareness, I make a choice. Do I want to stay in that place or do I want something better? I know it is up to me, and sometimes I choose to just muddle on. More often, I decide to act on my knowing that I can feel better and use one of my spiritual practices to help me remember who I AM and what is available to me right here, right now in my heart space. I breathe into that knowing and the simple act of conscious breathing shifts my energy. It may take some additional work. It is all part of the process of living as human beings, having forgotten who we really are and what our natural state is. Most saints and sages agree, happiness is our natural state and feeling joy is an indicator.
Let me give you an example of how this works for me these days. I was sitting in a meeting one evening, and the group was having trouble coming to agreement. Conflict happens to be a tough thing for me to experience, so I got real serious about trying to resolve the conflict. In being so serious, I moved myself a long way from joy. When a friend asked me, “what happened to your laugh? Where did it go?” I realized I had a choice – stay in that dreary, serious place or find a way to lighten up. I chose the latter. I allowed myself to rise above the chatter and see the humor in what I was doing. My being so serious was not resolving anything. It was actually adding to energy of perceived conflict. So I let it go, and allowed myself to laugh. Through being able to laugh at what was not serving me or the others, I lightened up. I could feel joy again. My heart space expanded and I could remember. Oh, yes. Here is where Heaven is. I thought I had lost it. How silly of me. It was here all the time.
So what does this have to do with you? I invite you to journey with me along this path of remembering and forgetting and remembering who we really are and what we really are doing here on earth as human “beings”. Let’s play and explore and play some more as we find our way to laughter, joy, and happiness, our true birthright.
I will be blogging on this topic twice a month and will occasionally include free meditations to experience the message of the blog more fully. I hope to lead us in an adventure, an exploration of what heaven on earth really means to us in daily life – ways to connect to our essence and life purpose. And I want to bring in joy and laughter as components of the process because they are both important pieces.
If you are reading this for the first time, please sign up on my email list so that you will receive my emails that will include my blogs as well as spotlights on people bringing Heaven on Earth – globally and locally in the D.C. – Maryland area.
In much love and light,
Lilia Shoshanna Rae