Spiritual Guidance Blog

This message is for all of humanity.

I was recently complimented by a colleague on an achievement that had been reached. My colleague sent me an email saying… “YOU have done incredibly well.” My colleague was referring to a milestone that had been reached in marketing and promoting a collaborative initiative we had been working on for almost 10 years.

I was momentarily flattered by the compliment. It felt good to be acknowledged. It felt good that someone understood all the hard work that went in to reaching this milestone. It felt good to be noticed.

I then began to ponder what got us to this point of accomplishment. The milestone was not reached by me alone. The success was made possible because of the efforts of both myself and my colleague. It would be quite easy to enumerate what my colleague did and what I did. It would be quite easy to separate the tasks from one another. It would be easy to say “He did this…and I did that.”

But the truth lay in the realization that it was our working together that enabled us to reach the milestone. It was our working together that allowed us to realize the success we had realized. In fact, without each other none of it would have been possible. We each made our contribution to the effort. But the outcome was the synergy of our collective efforts.

I responded back to my colleague’s congratulatory email with the following:

“There is no ‘you’. There is no ‘me’. There is only ‘we’. Without each other, we have nothing.”

The isolated success story above is a mere microcosm of what is a growing need for humanity. There has never been a time when we, as a human society, need each other more. There are a lot of successes we can celebrate. But none of them are possible without each other. Our own success is dependent on others. We cannot be successful on our own. We cannot even survive on our own.

The reason is simple. We are not ‘me’ or ‘them’. We ARE one! Terms such as ‘me’, ‘you’, ‘they’, ‘them’…only serve to divide us. ‘We’ is indivisible. There is no separation in ‘we’.

There is no you. There is no me. There is only we. Without each other, we have nothing.

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.

A couple of months ago I got a new pair of eye glasses. What made this of significance for me was that it was my very first pair of eye glasses! Yes, at 53 years young, I was needing eye glasses to help me read. But the ophthalmologist said I also needed glasses for seeing far away. So I was prescribed ‘progressive lenses.’ Progressive glasses incorporate three different prescriptions in one lens—near for reading, middle distance for working at the computer, etcetera, and far for seeing off in the distance.

From the moment I put on my new glasses, I didn’t like them. I quickly became dizzy and nauseous. While my distant vision was better with the glasses, my middle distance was blurry, I could not read with ease (the vision kept wandering in and out of focus), and my peripheral vision was almost useless. Everything was blurry!

Over the next few days, I tried to use my glasses, but I kept thinking about why I didn’t like my glasses. I couldn’t imagine ever being able to see well with my new glasses. They were far more an annoyance than they helped me see better.

As my list of reasons for not liking my glasses grew, I considered taking them back to the ophthalmologist and having them test my eyes again. Surely, there must have been a mistake made in my prescription. Overall, my new glasses were making my vision worse, not better!

The next morning I woke and decided to try something different. Instead of focusing on why I didn’t like my glasses, I decided to think of one reason that I ‘did’ like my glasses. Well…it was clear to me (pun intended) that my distant vision was more clear with my glasses. Check! Okay, that was at least one reason I liked my glasses. Could I think of another reason I liked my glasses? I was aware that when I wore my glasses outside, the glasses blocked the cold wind. The glasses actually helped to keep my face warmer. Great! That was now two reasons I liked my glasses. In the days that followed, I started to get more comfortable reading with my new glasses. I began to like reading with my glasses because I could see what I was reading more clearly. Hey!...now I was up to three reasons I liked my new glasses.

While I was still concerned that my middle distance was blurry and my peripheral vision was poor, I now had ample reason to like my glasses. As I began to like my glasses more and more, my concerns about middle distance and peripheral vision faded away (pun intended). And when my concerns faded away, so to did my last remaining issues fade away.

Our minds are very powerful. We focus on whatever we allow our minds to focus on. When I began to look at why I didn’t like my glasses, I realized it had nothing to do with the glasses. It had to do with my sense of growing old and my body giving out on me. I was angry that I could no longer do the things I used to and I projected my anger onto the glasses.

As I began to focus on why I liked the glasses, something quite remarkable unfolded. I was able to shift my thoughts from fear and anger to one of joy and love. The transformation from fear to love eventually was completed, all with a simple, conscious decision to move from a focus of why I didn’t like my glasses to why I ‘did’ like my glasses, from a focus on the dark to the light—from a focus on fear to love.

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.

A couple of months ago I was cycling home from an evening coffee with a colleague I had not seen in many years. It was dark out by the time I started back home, so I had on my reflective vest and flashing lights on the front and back of my bicycle.

Less than 100 feet from my home, a cyclist coming in the other direction, suddenly cut across the street and abruptly veered toward me. To avoid a collision, I slammed on my breaks. I stopped too quickly, however. The momentum of my moving forward caused me to flip over my handlebars and crash to the pavement.

I remember at one moment I was aware that my feet were above my head. Time seemed to stop. I then felt myself hit the pavement and skid briefly. I remember hearing the bicycle crash and scrape the pavement. I remember hoping the bike was going to be okay.

As I lay on the pavement, I remember wondering if I was injured. So I decided to move slowly. I started with a leg. That one was okay. I moved my other leg. That was okay too. I moved an arm. That arm was okay. Then I moved the other arm. That arm was okay too. I slowly, very slowly made my way to my feet.

I remember looking down the street. I saw the cyclist carrying on their way. It did not appear that they had slowed down at all. They certainly had not stopped. They didn’t even look back.

At this moment, I remember feeling an intense rage well up inside of me. It felt like the other cyclist had intentionally veered across the street to hit me. My rage wanted me to yell some profanity at the cyclist. My rage wanted me to hop on my bicycle, chase down the cyclist, and confront them. Even worse, my rage wanted me to physically assault the cyclist for what, in my rage, I felt the cyclist had done to me.

As my rage was having a field day with what it wanted me to do, I became aware there was a part of me that had been watching the entire event unfold. Let’s call this part of me the ‘observer.’ This observer did nothing more than observe. It watched the other cyclist veer toward me. It watched me slam on my breaks. It watched me flip over my handlebars. It watched me crash to the pavement. It watched me pick myself up. It watched me fill with rage.

And through all the watching the observer simply observed. It did nothing more, and nothing less. It simply watched what unfolded. It did not judge. It accepted it all. Most significant, the observer was silent. The observer was at peace.

I quietly walked my bicycle home. Remember, I was less than 100 feet from my home. I remember feeling at peace. I also remember feeling rage. It was like there was an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Except, the observer was watching both!

In the days that passed, I vacillated between rage and peace about the event. Eventually the experience melted away. But what has stayed with me is the memory of the observer. That observer is someone or something I intend to cultivate a relationship with.

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.

I have always enjoyed cooking and I have reached various levels of proficiency with my cooking through the years. But a recent transformation to a vegetarian diet (partially vegan), has gifted me with a renewed interest and enthusiasm for cooking.

Even with my renewed enthusiasm for cooking, I would not claim to be a chef. I do admire those people who can guide themselves, without assistance from a recipe or cookbook, to create a meal based on their sense of what foods, spices and other ingredients go together, complement each other, and come together to create a gourmet feast.

Even though I have been cooking for many years, I still need a recipe to guide me toward the desired meal I want to make. I do not have an awareness of what ingredients go together and complement each other, the proportions to use, and other elements required to create the outcome I desire. I have a sense of the basics of cooking, but not the ‘essence’ of what makes good food. What has been missing from my culinary journey is desire, dedication and discipline.

I enjoy cooking very much, but I don’t have a burning desire to become a chef. Because I don’t have a burning desire to become a chef, I have never dedicated myself to the pursuit of achieving a certain proficiency in the culinary arts. Basically, I have not cultivated a discipline when it comes to cooking. I can do what I’m told (vis-à-vis a recipe or other instruction), but I have not advanced enough on the path of cooking to claim any mastery of the art.

As I was joyfully cooking some meals recently, it dawned on me that the difference between a cook and a chef is analogous to the difference between a spiritual seeker and a spiritual adept. The spiritual seeker is the ‘cook.’ The spiritual adept is the ‘chef.’

The spiritual seeker uses recipes and instructions to attain a place or state they search for and / or strive to attain. The spiritual seeker does not have an awareness of what ingredients go together and complement each other, the proportions to use, and other elements required to create the outcome desired. To become an adept, the seeker must have the desire, dedication and discipline to obtain a proficiency in their chosen or desired practice(s).  

The word adept—from the French ‘adepte’ or Latin ‘adeptus’—means “who has achieved.” Wikipedia defines an adept as “an individual who is identified as having attained a specific level of knowledge, skill, or aptitude in doctrines relevant to a particular [discipline]. The adept “stand outs from others because [his or her] abilities.” More specifically, the spiritual adept is a person advanced enough on their spiritual path that they have become a master. The spiritual adept has an awareness of what ingredients go together and complement each other, the proportions to use, and other elements required to create the outcome desired. The adept has gone beyond the basics of their practice to understand the underlying ‘essence’ of the journey. The spiritual adept has demonstrated their desire, dedication and discipline in their chosen practice.

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.