Growing Inward

Excerpted from my Winter Volume: Seasons of The Soul

We cannot afford to be careless in our inner life.

We help ourselves and others just in proportion as we exhibit

our inner soul qualities. We devote ourselves too eagerly to

outer non-essentials and they color our mind.

It is not that God gives more power to one than another;

[He] equips all equally. It is that we do not always take advantage of our blessings.

True efficiency must come from within. It springs from spiritual ardor. We cannot have power without inner wisdom. Our salvation lies in the practice of inwardness.

Swami Paramanada

Book of Daily Thoughts and Prayers

Our inner work is our soul’s priority. While it is true that outer influences and events/experiences can alter our circumstances, how we greet and understand them is crucially centered in the depth and soundness of our inner work. As it has been said in a variety of ways:

     Because faith is the opposite of having or needing control, we can say that faith is how we respond to what life gives us; it is our response-ability and the clarity and compassion of our responses come directly from how attentive we are to our inner truth, to our sense of tranquility, to our willingness to observe and decide on what would be the most virtuous and vital path to take.

Inner work is an all-encompassing term for those spiritual practices that are kept, rehearsed, valued, and shared. Even though the term spiritual can be all too wide, shallow, and mistakenly ego centered, the direction spiritual work truly and authentically moves in is from the specific to the universal; what is true, real, healing and transformative for me, with a few adaptations for culture and knowledge, are equally relevant, genuine and true for all humankind.

     The caveat, as I see it, is that there must be a timeless and/or a time-honored body of knowledge, wisdom, and practice behind any path or approach you choose to adopt or make your own… One cannot become an expert by wandering through the spiritual marketplace or by just sampling different ideas and practices from different aisles and teachers.

     Those outlooks and practices keep the door wide open for spiritual materialism, by-passing, and other flaws and shortcomings of a path not well-chosen!

     Eventually, you need to plant roots deeply with a tradition (or in some more select and rare cases, like Brother Teasdale had two) that resonates with you, that allows you to align and delve deeply within its messages and meanings. As the Swami clearly advises, “We cannot have power without inner wisdom. Our salvation lies in the practice of inwardness.”