“Awakening cannot be forced; I know now that it will only come by the grace of Divinity.”From El refugio del corazón
How much closer do you want God to be? He dwells in your very heart, literally under your nose. Right now He knows you are reading these words, because He put them there for you to read.
That is how grace works. God will communicate with you as He deems necessary, and you will know it is Him because He loves you and will always want what is best for you.
Nothing happens without grace
Nothing in your spiritual life, and no effort of your mind, happens without grace. Transformation comes about through God’s intervention.
Awakening happens when the Being is ready, not a minute earlier. There is no way to force it; there is no list of steps to follow to make it happen, there simply is none. Nor is there an exact number of hours of meditation that will guarantee it. It will always come to the soul that is ready, and it will happen by the grace of God, because it is He Himself who is revealed as your own being.
The ancient yogis, shut away in caves, meditated until they had purified the mind so much that it became pristine and allowed the obvious to arise naturally. But those techniques require a great deal of discipline, and they are not so easy in the world we live in, with our families and our financial commitments. Drawing on my own experience and that of many of my patients, I found a viable path: devotion to God. Along this devotional path toward the heart, many people have opened up to a clear spirituality, where you are simply experiencing God in your heart.
Merit and surrender
Does this mean your efforts are useless? No. Today I can tell you that every moment I went through and every meditation I did was the merit I generated so that the experiences that came later could reach me. Merit must be generated. But awakening cannot be controlled; it goes beyond the mind, and that whole process arises only from the Being.
While we are fragmented, it is hard for us to see ourselves as whole and at one with the universe. Our reflection is distorted into a thousand pieces: every belief, every sorrow, every conflict, every pain, every frustration. And it is difficult to integrate the image of something absolute into something broken. When you meditate, you let your attention rest and dissolve in that deep ocean of life which is nothing other than you, and the fragments begin to come together again. Grace will always come to whoever is ready, but even so, you will need to make merit and grow in devotion.
So ask for His will to be done: it is not about what you want for yourself. There is nothing you want that the universal Father does not majestically want for you. He wishes for us what our soul needs, while we wish only for what our mind wants.
The bridge of devotion
Surrender in love and devotion, without asking for anything in return. This bond must be authentic, because the only thing God expects of you is that you acknowledge His presence. It has nothing to do with any technique, but with a transformation: it is a way to unite with the Universe and to connect with your power and your truth.
As long as you remain in the state of separation, you will need a bridge of devotion to cross over, and then you will realize that the Father and you are one. All of this leads you to grace, which is the same as the feeling of being in love, and you will live this devotional process even more deeply, on much subtler levels.
Each soul lives this bond in a different way. Your experiences will never be like mine: each of us will face different tests. But stay alert, because grace will always be within your reach. Only God knows how to communicate with you.
To exist is already grace
Our whole existence is full of grace, because we ourselves are full of life. This is the first expression of grace in all human beings: the grace of existing, of living, of being, of knowing and learning, of perceiving. God created us within Himself, and He dwells within us.
There is grace in all your experiences, in every moment shared with your children, even in the most painful moments. If you can see life from this perspective, you will appreciate it even more. God is always protecting you. Rest assured that, whatever others may do, His divine presence is there; often it is He Himself who is transforming your karma in circumstances that could be much worse, but that end up being liberating.
God loves you so much that He sustains the stage in His intelligence so that you can go on living your movie, even in ignorance. But you are not separate, nor different, nor other. Do you realize that you are alive? That is God, waiting for you to realize it.
A romance at the level of the heart
Feel your heart full of gratitude toward the whole Universe, toward everything around you. This is the beauty the Father Himself is offering you. Do not let anything or anyone steer you away from this relationship.
He will always know if you feel true zeal, not as a dogmatic display or as someone who feels compelled to bend the knee. This relationship is lived in a very innocent way: it is romance in its purest form, at the level of your heart, with the Being who dwells within you.
I invite you to seek God’s grace through your own life, confident that it is possible, that it is real. God exists beyond any belief, any book or church, and you are perfectly capable of establishing a relationship with Him, without intermediaries.
From Dr. Zuluan Orion's books: El refugio del corazón · Illumination · Devoción