Do you think having psychic gifts makes you more spiritual?
Let’s face it:
On the one hand, plenty of saints of every religion have experienced what are called paranormal, near-miraculous or psychic gifts–yet nobody sane would claim that all psychics are saints.
Flying over the barn or the bar or the monastery will elevate your body but it wont guarantee you spiritual elevation. Turning water into wine might win the oohs and aahs of the media–and your thirstier friends–but it wont quench your spiritual thirst, or even prove your spiritual thirst.
In short, what you do for conscious gratification might not speak to your real needs.
No matter what direction you launch the arrows of your efforts, your inner intent will greatly decide what outer mark you’ll hit. Or miss.
Of course as an archer, you might not get the grand prize & mighty praise you think you seek, but you are guaranteed your emotional experience along the way.
Why is this important, you ask? After all, you seek real, measurable, worldly success. You want to smack the center of that bull’s eye! What good are fine intentions alone?
We do agree that intending to be an Olympic champion, no matter how noble your intent, wont get you far if you never pick up a bow. But you will reap the emotional result of happy daydreams along the way. Which, apparently, is what you’d really wanted–or you would have applied yourself to learning the art.
An important question, particularly for our Western culture readers:
Does your success or failure “at the end” determine the value to you “along the way”? Can you ever succeed at anything if you wont appreciate its value–and so your value–until after your moment-by-moment exploration, study, exercise, practice, trial-and-error refinement, over and over and over?
How can you be a success if you delay being that success until after you’ve succeeded or not?
Isn’t that really the intent of experiencing self restriction? Isn’t that the emotional experience of withholding your self approval and gladness at being alive? Remember, you do get the reward of emotional experience from everything you do–but does that aim really satisfy you?
Ask yourself:
What else can fulfill my strength except living my purpose?
What if your arrow–once released from your fingertips–refused to fling itself in full confidence of flight before it “knew” it would hit its mark? Why, that faithless arrow would shrivel up into a crooked stick. It’d bury its head in the ground at the soonest possible moment. Far short of any target.
But when you act with trust–that makes all the difference, doesn’t it? To set aside superficial ego chatter, just bend your bow. Focus your eyes and muscles into the distant target…
Though you might not hit the bull’s-eye you’ve been training for, you do gain benefit from your patient practice. The thrill of capably letting fly your dart. The timeless sense of inducing the birth, flight and descent of your arrow into its destined mark. Whether it’s a “hit” or a “miss”.
You are the archer.
It feels good.
The same way with any psychic powers you seek:
They feel good along the way–as long as you’re developing them with good intent.
But just as the same sharpened arrowhead can be used to kill a man in cold blood or to bring home supper to your hungry family, so your psychic powers–which are really spiritual powers awaiting recognition–can be used to harm or help.
We advise that even as the archery student meditate on the fulfillment of his or her art, so the psychic development student meditate on seeing hidden intent.
If you do glimpse a purpose in yourself that’s for less than spiritual good, for less than recognizing and honoring your own God-reflecting qualities, please set aside your psychic ambitions. No matter how well developed they are, stop to cleanse your intent through prayerful introspection.
Surround yourself with the golden Light of Christ. Ask it to uplift your mind. Let it.
It’s better to go thirsty than to drink waters stirred up with mud. Let your ego’s ambitions settle awhile. Let your inner vision clear before you take aim again.
Once you’re sure of your mark and desirous of spiritual success, bend your bow & arrow back to the psychic skies…
Once you do:
Your heart will meet its target.
Peace and blessings to you,
Rev. Scott Ufford
PS–Please let me know how I might help you reach your own bull’s-eye. I provide effective spiritual psychic counseling at relaxed rates. Thank you.
Copyright Scott Ufford 2011
