The light of your essence, of your being, of love and wisdom, is always there. But it becomes clouded over with your personal thinking.
How to get the most out of these Wisdom Quotes:
Put aside everything you think you already know.
Open your mind and heart to receive something new.
Take your time going through each point.
Return to any points that particularly touch you.
In the coming days, listen carefully to the wisdom within you.
* All quotes by Dr. Dicken Bettinger and Natash Swerdloff, Coming Home
1. The Divine Spark Within You
"In your natural state, you are like a lighthouse. This becomes obvious when we look at children before they start to get caught up in personal thinking.
Fortunately, this light is within you. It is innate, which means that you are born with this divine spark.
Because you are born into the world of form you often lose sight of this inner spark of light. When you are constantly looking at the physical world, all you see is form and it becomes easy to forget the light that is the essence of your nature.
Your spiritual nature is always present; it's the source and foundation of all of life."
COACHING NOTES:
To really know yourself, you must see that you are not only a body and mind in the physical-psychological world of form. There is more, much more to who you really are. The question is, are you open to recognizing this deeper, spiritual dimension within you?
"You are born with this divine spark." Ah, how we need to put aside our conditioned mind with all its concepts of spirituality and divinity, and recognize that our intellectual understanding is very limited indeed! There is a divine spark within you, whether you understand it or not.
Of course, it's understandable that we "often lose sight of this inner spark of light," and forget that it is the essence of our nature. But that doesn't mean it isn't there. There is a divine spark within you, whether you remember it or not.
"Your spiritual nature is always present." You may be hesitant to embrace our spiritual nature, and perhaps it's too far-fetched to see yourself as a lighthouse, but the world as we know it is the product of a humanity that has forgotten its spirituality. There is a divine spark within you, whether you believe it or not. And it never goes away.
2. The Clouds of Personal Thinking
"One of the oldest metaphors for human psychological functioning is the metaphor of clouds, sky and sun.
Your thoughts and feelings are like the clouds, consciousness is like the sky, and love and wisdom are like the light of the sun.
You can't think your way to well-being. It is not a matter of trying to think better and feel better. Effort and trying are thoughts that create a degree of stress. Stress clouds over the light of your love and wisdom.
Like the weather, when the sky is clouded over it covers the sun. When the clouds are dark and stormy not much sunlight gets through. Sunlight provides warmth and nourishment and is necessary for life to grow and thrive.
When the clouds of your personal thinking fall away, the light of love and wisdom is ready to shine through. Your light shines until the moment when you again get caught up in your personal thinking and these thought clouds obstruct your light."
COACHING NOTES:
The light of your essence, of your being, of love and wisdom, is always there. But it becomes clouded over with your personal thinking.
Realizing this is like waking up from a dream. A good example of this is the character in the film The Truman Show. He eventually finds out that what he thought was his real life was actually a reality show full of actors and props. Everything he thought was authentic and real was actually staged. All along, he had been an actor in a show. As soon as he saw this, he became free.
Just like this character, we have taken our world of form (the physical-psychological realm of the body-mind) to be our entire world. We have become one with everything we think and feel, "and these thought clouds obstruct our light." Just as clouds turn into rain, sleet and snow, our thoughts create our feelings. Seeing this is very empowering.
Have you ever been up in an airplane and seen what is above the topmost layer of cloud? The sun is always there, shining brightly in the vast, blue sky. In the same way, when you don't get caught up in the thought clouds of your mind, they pass through you to reveal the light of your true essence. Always remember that no thoughts, feelings, or circumstances can extinguish this light.
3. Your Deeper Dimension
"You can keep discovering a deeper dimension of what it means to be a human being.
Your true nature is pure being - invisible, yet essential. It is full of creative potential. It is formless. It is what many would call spiritual.
As you experience and realize this dimension of being, it reveals to you more of your innate psychological well-being.
It reveals an inner world of beautiful feelings such as peace, joy, happiness, compassion, and gratitude.
It reveals the richness of living fully in the now.
It reveals a higher order of thinking with characteristics such as clarity, insight, perspective, motivation, inspiration, creativity, and common sense solutions to your daily challenges.
Awareness of your true nature awakens well-being."
COACHING NOTES:
What is it like to experience your true, spiritual nature?
"It reveals an inner world of beautiful feelings such as peace, joy, happiness, compassion, and gratitude." Most of us have experienced all these feelings to some degree, but they have been short-lived because they were dependent on outside factors. However, the depth of these beautiful feelings described here already exists as the essence of your spiritual being and is therefore not dependent on anything outside of you.
"It reveals the richness of living fully in the now." This isn't the now of the present time. It's the now that transcends all time. When you're living fully in the now, you're not caught up in the past-future world of the mind, and this frees you up to experience the riches of life as never before.
"Awareness of your true nature awakens well-being." When you know your true nature, you are no longer caught in the identity trap of never being enough and never having enough. When you know your true nature, you discover your innate well-being which is always there when you're not interfering with it by believing your stressful thoughts.
4. Intuiting Your Inner World
"Let us say this to you again - it bears repeating - as it’s often hard for many of those like us who have been steeped in the world of personal and spiritual growth to hear this:
Becoming more loving and wise is not a matter of development, personal growth, or self-improvement. It is not a matter of working hard on yourself to gradually develop the capacity for love. We will not be teaching you a series of techniques or practices that you will have to do in order to become a better person.
Intuiting this inner world will deepen what you will come to know as the only constant in this world. Everything in experience comes and goes, but the source of experience doesn’t come and go. It’s what is always here."
COACHING NOTES:
When we don't know our true essence, we can spend years trying to improve our false sense of self.
We are bombarded with messages about how to become a better person. In fact, it seems that everything needs improving: how you look, where you live, and what you know is ultimately never good enough, and we innocently buy into this, conceding to a life of constant lack.
However, so much of what we're trying to improve is temporary. Your life circumstances are always changing - jobs come and go, relationships come and go, health comes and goes, money comes and goes... It's all changing all the time. So what can we count on that is constant and doesn't need improving?
"Intuiting this inner world will deepen what you will come to know as the only constant in this world." Don't listen to the thoughts that tell you it's too difficult to know your inner world. You are born with a powerful intuition but have lost touch with it because of living in the world of the mind. Now it's just a matter of remembering to live in your heart instead of your mind, and a whole new wonderful world will reveal itself to you!
5. Your Nature Will Reveal Itself to You
"Your essential nature is already one of love and wisdom. Therefore, it is a matter of realizing, or waking up to, what is already here."
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"The most direct route to having more love and wisdom in your life is to have an insight into your essential nature as a human being. Insights into your essential nature reveal your capacity for love and wisdom.
These insights allow more of the love and wisdom that is built into the very fabric of your being to reveal itself to, and as, you.
Realizing your essential being is simple if you know where to look. You have insights into many aspects of life every day. It’s natural, it happens spontaneously throughout our lives.
Insights come to us effortlessly. So, often, when our minds are open and relaxed, something new and fresh comes to us.
There is no need to try to have insights, they happen naturally.
You don’t have to work to realize your nature, your nature will reveal itself to you."
COACHING NOTES:
The fact that "your essential nature is already one of love and wisdom" is too mysterious and wonderful to comprehend with your mind, so of course there will be some resistance there. But as challenging as it may be for some of us to realize our spiritual nature, it actually makes more sense than going through life not knowing who you really are.
Put aside any concepts about having to try to understand your true nature. Put aside any concepts about having to try to find your true nature. Put aside anything that involves effort in realizing your true self.
You know you need an insight to realize your true essence and nature, but you can't make yourself have an insight, nor can anyone give you one. "Insights come to us effortlessly. So, often, when our minds are open and relaxed, something new and fresh comes to us."
"You don’t have to work to realize your nature, your nature will reveal itself to you." Let the wisdom in these words speak to you, and allow yourself to relax and trust.
6. Don't Lose Sight of Your True Nature
"Your true nature is identical with the source of life. It is generating and giving unconditionally. All that you see has been created from the same source. It is out of the generosity of spirit that everything that exists is created.
If the nature of life is to give unconditionally and generously it would make sense that, as you align yourself with this source, you too will become more unconditionally giving and generous. You become kinder, gentler, and more loving as you align with your true nature.
Love is the very nature of life. It is your nature to love. It’s built into the very fabric of life for you to be unconditionally generous and giving.
It’s only when you get caught up in your thinking that you lose sight of that which is invisibly living you.
When you lose sight of your true nature you tend to be less kind, less loving, more egocentric. You feel separate from life and stop giving freely and unconditionally. It is nice to realize that this is not your true nature."
COACHING NOTES:
Oneness and love are hidden from you when you are living in your thought-created world, believing yourself to be small and limited in nature.
"All that you see has been created from the same source." An easier way to understand this is to realize that everything in the world of form is created from formless energy. Essentially, everything comes from the same source.
"You become kinder, gentler, more loving as you align with your true nature." Read this sentence again. It all happens as you align with your true nature. Everything your soul longs for: the oneness with love and wisdom, the peace that surpasses all understanding, and the joy from simple contentment in daily life, are all available for you to experience when you align with who you truly are.
"It’s only when you get caught up in your thinking that you lose sight of that which is invisibly living you." Recognizing thought instead of constantly getting caught up in it, is the simple way to align with life - this life which is living you, which is keeping you alive, breathing you; the same force which makes the sun shine and the food grow. In all the drama of the play of life, never forget your true essence.