We are not human beings trying to be spiritual.
We are spiritual beings trying to be human.
-unknown
A daily guide to cultivating your spiritual nature
Spiritual Recipes is a daily gift you give to yourself; an opportunity to honor your innate spiritual nature and carve out a piece of your day to nurture your soul. One day at a time, you will embark on a year-long journey which may be your private exploration or you may do in community with your treasured friends. If you are called to follow your heart into the depths of your most perfect soul, begin the journey by reading Spiritual Recipes-The Story followed by the Winter Planner below.
We began our journey into Spiritual Recipes quite unintentionally. We were meeting weekly to share our life challenges. One week the concept emerged to approach our spiritual journey as we would a recipe. Why not give structure to our daily spiritual life by using carefully blended ingredients and a practical methodology? Might the familiar format of a recipe give us a template for creating a dynamic spiritual life?
We are spiritual beings, called to be reverent in our attitude towards life. We crave rituals, meaning and substance. How might we construct recipes with the intent to embrace our spiritual life? The recipes would have to include essential ingredients aimed at structuring and inspiring a spiritual discipline and ultimately a way of living. The ingredients would be the individual practices, rituals and devotions. The methodology would be the process by which we embody the ingredients into our daily life. Out of this dialog Spiritual Recipes was born.
Spirituality is a widely used word. It represents many different things to each of us. For our purposes in Spiritual Recipes, spirituality encompasses the nurturing of our spirit. Because we are complex beings, we have layers to our human experience. These layers intertwine to create our reality. We cannot separate one layer without affecting another. In Spiritual Recipes we are attempting to integrate these layers including the mental, physical, emotional and heart space. When woven together with intent, these layers create the tapestry of our life. We have the creative power to design this tapestry with our own imprint.
Before you begin the journey into Spiritual Recipes, we would like to offer this thought to you. In choosing to read this introduction and consider incorporating this practice into your daily life, you have signaled your openness to new ideas. You may have been struggling with personal challenges and praying for a way to refocus your life, or you might have felt only a discreet yearning for more substance in your life. Either way, your intuitive self is open to inviting a new framework into your life. We honor your intent and willingness to begin this journey.
We have come to the recipes that we are sharing with you through our own individual exploration. Nikki is an ordained interfaith minister and a hospital chaplain. She has spent the last decade studying and integrating varied devotions taught by traditions from around the world into her pastoral practice. Charline comes to this project with an open heart and an eagerness to explore her spiritual life. Nikki has offered up the recipes and Charline has tested them. Philosophies and practices taken from various world traditions have become the inspiration for our Spiritual Recipes. We have carefully chosen the ingredients and methodologies best suited for a set of recipes aimed at enhancing and deepening your spiritual life. We offer insight into the tradition from which the individual ingredients have been borrowed. In this way your journey is both an expansion of your mind space as well as your heart space.
We have organized Spiritual Recipes around the seasonal rhythms of all living things. These rhythms are unspoken transitions we follow naturally each year. We can hardly move from one season into another without being aware of the changes around us. Mother Earth offers us guidance for connecting our spirit rhythms to nature’s rhythms. Using these natural rhythms as a base we have created autumn, winter, spring and summer Seasonal Planners. These Seasonal Planners are your guide and focused discipline for a three-month spiritual journey. Each season has a theme and is layered upon the previous season.
The
daily recipes are intended to help you embody the focus for that season. They will include one or more ingredients and the methodology for incorporating the specific ingredients into your daily life. The numbered recipes may contain a quote or saying related to the theme for that season. The ingredients are baby steps to making an internal and external shift in your consciousness. The daily recipes are meant to nourish your spiritual hunger. You may find specific recipes resonate more for you than others. The recipes are your spiritual tools. Use your own discernment to focus on the recipes that are most appropriate for you in your journey. We are each in a unique place in our spiritual path. Vital to your spiritual development is your ability to discern what is appropriate for you individually.
We suggest that you print out and carry the Daily Bread with you throughout your day as a reminder of your new spiritual commitment. If the challenges of your day seem insurmountable, you might re-read the Daily Bread throughout the day to silently remind yourself that you are gaining tools to redirect your life. Give yourself permission to make the changes in your life you intuitively know must be made. You may jot down daily observations, successes, goals, magic words or maybe even the grocery list. When the day has come to a close, you will have a written expression of your new journey. Perhaps this will be the beginning of a spiritual journal. You have the right to be content and you have the personal power to restore yourself. Our recipes simply add structure and inspiration to gently guide you on your path.
When you have traveled through all four seasons and the year is complete, you will have participated in and created a hearty and deep spiritual awareness. We believe the daily practices will have integrated your intellectual, emotional, physical and heart space so that you might know the feeling of wholeness. We are hopeful this practice will inspire you to keep your personal spiritual journey as a priority in your daily life.
There are only two items you must provide in order to prepare each recipe: your intent and your time. Time is a series of moments strung together. You must endeavor to separate and embrace each and every moment. Time will move forward whether you mark it or not. This is your opportunity to choose to mark today as the moment you embarked on a new chapter in your personal spiritual journey.
Now it is time to begin your journey. Find a quiet time when you can follow the instructions in the Winter Planner below and begin your journey. As in any devotion, your intent is paramount.
Winter is the season of darkness and of slowing down. It is a perfect time to explore the quiet corners of your soul and nurture your inner light. Your inner light and voice guide you in all aspects of your life. It is nearly impossible to hear your inner voice amidst the noise and commotion of our busy lives. You must not only train yourself to develop inner peace and quiet but also create a ritual of stillness in your outer life.
The dark season is a perfect time for this weighty work. In a brightly lighted room it is nearly impossible to spot one corner of darkness; however, in a dark room it is brilliantly apparent when a flicker of light presents itself. You will use the darkness to your advantage. You need only strike a match and you will have the experience of light. You can begin to nurture and build upon this experience of light and coax your inner light and voice into a blaze.
The Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism offer us several practices to assist us in nurturing our inner life and coaxing our soul’s light to shine. Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, known to the world as the “Awakened One” lived in India from 563-483 B.C. His personal spiritual journey took him from a prince to a pauper to the Enlightened One. His inner awakening, which guided him to hear his own truth and wisdom, was developed through stillness, meditation and discipline. Hinduism, the world’s oldest religion, has no beginning—it precedes recorded history. It has no human founder. It is a mystical religion, leading the devotee to personally experience truth and light within through devotion and prayer. Ultimately aiming to reach the place in our consciousness where man and God are one. The common goals of inner truth, wisdom and God consciousness will guide us in the winter season.
Your daily ingredients during the winter season will support you in the journey into your inner being as you experience an inner awakening. This journey will be layered upon the theme of balance from the autumn seasonal planner. You probably spend many hours tending to your outer shell, your body, and not nearly the same amount of time on your inner self, your soul. Now is an opportunity to establish balance between your inner and outer self.
Establishing stillness is our key goal for the winter season. We will use meditation and breathing exercises as the tools to help you achieve this goal. Meditation takes many forms. Whether you are a newcomer to a meditation practice or an accomplished practitioner; you will find these exercises complimentary to your existing spiritual practices. We are playful in the exercises as we offer you an opportunity to experiment with your boundaries. You can utilize meditation to explore the possibilities of clearing your head, or conversely filling your head. You may also choose to harness your impulses, confront your fears and open up your creativity. The journey is up to you.
The Spiritual Recipe journey began in the Fall. For your convenience, the Fall Daily Bread entries as well as the Seasonal Planners are archived at:
http://community.icontact.com/p/spirithouse
If you would like to receive the new daily Spiritual Recipe via an early morning email, use the link below to sign up. Please include your name and the email address where the Spiritual Recipe should be delivered.
Bon Appetit!
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