The spiritual life requires mindfulness, and so all personal experience one deems important or unique needs examination. Regardless of its informational nature, e.g. ordinary, psychic, unitive, it must be examined according to general validity (i.e. what happened) and spiritual truth (i.e. congruency with one’s theology). And of course for the mystic, service to divinity.
A strategy available to most practitioners is to jointly use meditation and contemplation to conduct this important analysis. First, one establishes the best (minimally transcendent) spiritual mind available to one, and then contemplates the experience. Contemplation is holding in transcendent awareness an element of one’s experience one considers most important. One way to do this is to continuously hold in mind an image from one’s experience. Another would be to ask one relevant question repeatedly. In both instances one allows the mind to address this information without focusing on, or choosing a particular response as an answer. Rather, one observes and experiences whatever arises, bringing one’s focus back to the image or question whenever the mind strays. It is only after completion of the meditation-contemplation that one reflects on the material. Then, if possible one decides what is important to use in one’s spiritual practice. Most preferred are insights that are inspirational and serve divinity. Others that might reveal one’s mistakes, if understood through mercy and love, are also of value.
Acting on the insight is now required. Feedback from one’s actions ultimately determine the validity of one’s insights, points one to other considerations heretofore missed, and (always) reveals the workings of spirit. This pragmatic approach is always conducted through the lens of faith awareness and service to the divine; the sine qua non of mystic practice. Repetition of this action phase is often required, perhaps maintained for protracted periods of time, until new experience and insights, developmental changes in one’s spiritual emergence, etc. lead one beyond the immediate insight. And on to the next useful aspect of one’s “following spirit’s way”.
No Perfect Om 