5 Virtues to Connect with Spirit.
Our heart, or Spirit, is sacred and needs to be treated with kindness and dignity as our highest value and priority. If you do not know where to start, start with these five virtues. Seek your connection and relationship with Spirit first, as the primary foundation of life, and all else — peace, joy & goodness — will come upon you.
Photo by Sandy Millar
How does one seek the Kingdom within? First, to connect with Spirit is to start with the following spiritual virtues:
1 — The Virtue of Stillness.
Most are afraid of the stillness, yet it is the only place where you will connect with and hear the guidance of the Spirit of God. For the silence is not silent, yet full of communication that you will not find in the outer, material world.
You see – Spirit is not your personality, your thoughts or emotions.
Rather, Spirit is a quiet inner-knowing or intuitive feeling sensation in your gut or womb - your Soul - that communicates with and through you in the stillness.
This quiet ‘gut knowing’ or ‘intuition’ is a sensation of understanding or knowing something beyond spoken verbal word and language, conscious reasoning or logical facts.
Trust this sacred connection within your body’s natural wisdom first, and all guidance will come upon you, because you’ll feel it, deep in your gut, to know it within.
Let your source of dependence, security, comfort and guidance rest first in Spirit, for those inner knowings and sensations in the stillness are there to guide and protect you.
In times of trouble or when a higher power is leading, silence and stillness can be a powerful tool for strength, courage and trust.
“Be still and know that I am God.”
2 — The Virtue of Listening.
Presence is deep listening with all of your attention and focus.
Rather than everybody else and the outside world, you are purely dedicated and focused on an authentic connection with your heart and inner world, first as a foundation.
To become present, allow anything that is in your mind, your thoughts, and in your body, your emotions, to come up to the surface.
Just be a silent witness, an observer, to these thoughts and emotions, whatever they may be, without judgment; just total loving acceptance, kindness and compassion.
If you feel like crying, do so; if you feel anger, shame or powerlessness, allow all of the thoughts and emotions to arise and pass through your body like a wave of water, or clouds passing by through your mind, just observing them with compassionate presence.
It’s all okay and acceptable as a normal, human experience to feel these emotions, whatever they may be. It too will pass, as long as you are a silent witness and allow yourself to be with whatever is occurring for you in the moment and needing your total presence, focus and attention.
Moving beyond your thoughts and emotions allows you to connect to your human experience, to your authentic, true inner self or spiritual core.
With practice of this virtue you can cultivate an inner awareness and presence of the Spirit within, allowing you to then listen to the subtle messages of the Spirit in the surrounding land and environment, as well as to others respectfully in their diverse perspectives.
“In Australian Indigenous culture, the virtue of listening (also known as Dadirri) is deeply rooted as an awareness of the Spirit speaking through the land as the same Spirit within ourselves; that all life is sacred and interconnected.”
3 — The Virtue of Humility.
To become childlike is to be open, curious and innocent; humble.
A humble Spirit means to have a lowly, modest disposition of your true place amongst the interconnectedness of all life creation and be willing to recognise one's dependence on this higher spiritual power, which is greater than oneself.
To connect with Spirit, one must be willing to become childlike, a child of God with humility and not know all of the answers – then, and only then, can all knowing come upon you, for Spirit is beyond all Earthly and material knowing. Nothing you hear will be anything like what you hear in the outside World, for the Spirit of God is not of this world.
Anything you hear will be new and unique, because you are a unique child of God and unlike any other.
Therefore, to truly hear, know and connect with Spirit, you must come with total openness, gentleness and humility.
To get to the Kingdom, you must be willing to humble oneself to this higher power to learn something new, so that Spirit can teach and bestow true intelligence, guidance and comfort upon you like the sacred gift that you are. Become a humble student, and all wisdom will come upon you.
For just like animals and nature itself, children are the closest to the Spirit of God, as their hearts and souls are true and pure.
“In Buddhism, humility is a crucial virtue for spiritual growth and enlightenment understood as a way of being that involves acknowledging one’s own limitations and recognizing the interconnectedness of all beings.”
4 — The Virtue of Faith.
To trust is to know that there is a part of you that is larger than just your human experience, mind and body – a higher power or spiritual source that resides within – and to follow that path of spiritual knowing, allowing it to guide you in your everyday life.
To have a simple, humble and trusting nature – a sense of openness, innocence and assurance of belief without needing the conviction of external sight and reasoning – is to have faith, similar to that of a child.
With practice of following this inner-voice, your Soul or Spirit, over time you will develop trust and eventually, faith, that this intuitive knowing is your true identity as a soul in human form and here to guide, serve and protect you in your own and others’ best interest and highest good.
Like anything in life, it takes practice, and with practice, slowly over time, you will develop the faith to want to connect with Spirit first as a priority, because you know accepting Spirit’s word and guidance is in the best interest of all.
“Live by faith, not by sight.”
5 — The Virtue of Patience.
To slow down and connect with your breath, letting go of everything with total abandon and surrender, is how you become aware of Spirit, even when you are not able to be present to the silence — just be present with your breath.
Your breath is you, your Spirit, in your physical body. Breath is alive, life is moving within you.
Your breath – air – is ‘aether’, or ‘Spirit’. Air is a primary element, or physical expression, of Spirit in living form on Earth. Without Spirit, or air, breath, you cannot live.
It is the ‘air’ or ‘Spirit’ that moves throughout and interconnects all things — the lifeforce bridging your humanity with your Spirit.
Taking a conscious breath, meaning to become aware of your breath in this very moment, is to become instantly aware of ‘you’, the Spirit within your human body, beyond all thoughts and emotions.
At the end of the day, you are a Spirit in human form.
You are a unique expression of God, or Spirit, air, in your physical body. Become aware of this as you walk in your everyday life, by becoming aware of and loving your breath.
Just being with your breath is a practice of being present in this current moment, accepting and appreciating what is, and letting go of the past or future.
Life is a precious gift, slow down, be patient and cherish it — for it is a blessing, an opportunity to live the best life you can, in alignment with Spirit, for a joyful and prosperous life.
Your breath is in the here and now, slow down because that is the only place you are ever truly going, as the Kingdom is within you.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
