This article by John-Roger was first published in the Movement Newspaper November/December 1989 Volume 2 Issue 3.

I have given some key words and concepts for determining whether you might be operating from the law or from grace, and talked a little bit about choices. I’ve mentioned that, if you find yourself having negative thoughts or expressions (an indication that you are living under the law) and you want to change that expression, one of the best ways to do that is to say, “I’m sorry” as a heartfelt apology, followed by a change of behavior that demonstrates the apology in action.

There is another way to move from expressions of the law to an expression of grace, and that is to throw away your swords of righteousness. That means throwing away your judgments and your sense that you know what is best for other people. It means allowing others (and yourself) to make mistakes in this world and loving them (and yourself) anyway. Have you ever noticed that a “mistake” is only a mistake in hindsight? It’s rare that you set out to purposefully make a mistake. Usually at the time of the action itself, you are intending to do something very good. You want to prosper and gain from your action; you want other people to prosper and gain. You want to be liked. You want to create something that will be of benefit to you and to others. You want respect and honor. So you take a particular action … and then other things happen that you didn’t foresee or didn’t plan for and suddenly this thing that had such a good intent with it becomes a “mistake.” Sometimes you take out your sword of righteousness and turn it against yourself, and berate yourself for your mistake. Sometimes others do that for you. Sometimes you perceive someone else’s “mistake” and you don’t see the good intentions that were at the origin of it, and so you take out your sword of righteousness to slay them. Because you can see what a mistake they made.

You would be further ahead if you would throw away the sword of your righteousness and become the student of the mistake. Use the mistake as a learning situation; use it as a text book. Replace the tools of war with the implements of learning, of enlightenment. And where does enlightenment come from? From within. Go back inside yourself. If you have made the mistake, go within and examine your intent, examine your actions. Ask yourself, “Could I have foreseen this? Could I have been more intuitive, more aware, more sensitive? Could I have made different, better choices?” If the answer is “yes,” then use the lesson of today to make better choices tomorrow. If the answer is “no,” then love yourself and accept the situation and look to see how you can make it a winning situation for yourself.

Awakening to your inner awareness is a great challenge. To awaken, keep going back inside of you. The greatest challenge is not outer space; it’s inner space. The last frontier is inside. And what’s so nice is that there is no end to it. There is always another turn in the road, another vista opening up, another awareness coming into view, a deeper level of loving and of commitment to the journey. After awhile, you don’t really want there to be an end, either, because the journey is so much fun. When you get back in there far enough, in your own awareness of God and Spirit and Soul, you die to this world. Your body doesn’t die; it actually comes into its proper place. It comes into alignment with the Spirit, the direction you are going, and as it does, it may become more quiet and create fewer distractions that pull your focus to the outer world.

As you explore your inner space more and more, you come to have a clearer understanding of who you are. In that understanding is compassion and acceptance and loving; judgments fade. Harshness is replaced by gentleness. Rule by the sword is replaced by an inner discipline that consistently chooses positive expression. Law is replaced by grace.

So how does that work in everyday life, in the world, in your job, in relationships? Let’s say that you are at Point A, and you have a dream, a goal in your life that looks like Point B. Maybe you are starting a new job and you have a goal of being an executive with the company. Maybe you have a goal of being wealthy, a millionaire, or of being the best research scientist in the world and finding a cure for cancer. Maybe you have a goal of being a totally loving person who can give in selfless service to the world, or gaining soul awareness. Whatever the goal may be, you sit at Point A where you are and you look at Point B and think about what it will take to bring that into fruition; and you go into “overwhelm” immediately because you want it right now. And the time line between Point A and Point B may be 10 years (or 3 or 20 or whatever).

When I was teaching school a long time ago, my “goal” nearly every evening was to get the papers the youngsters had turned in read and graded. I experienced overwhelm just about every night because I would look at the stack of papers and I wanted them to be done immediately. I placed my focus on the completed goal and became frustrated because I knew I wasn’t there. One day I had made some plans for the evening with a friend, and she came into my room and said, “Are you ready to go?” I snapped at her, “Are you ready to take these papers home and grade them?” She said, “What’s bugging you?” I said, “I have 5 classes of college prep students. I have to be sure they have the writing skills they’ll need in college. I have to get these papers graded. I have to do a good job.” She said, “Well, you can only read them a page at a time.” I said, “I can only read them one word at a time.” She said, “Okay, then start with that.” And I realized that, though the goal was to have all the papers graded, the first goal was to read one word or one page or one paper at a time; and that as long as I placed my focus on the immediate goal, the greater goal would be achieved automatically.

Every big goal is made up of smaller goals. When you identify the big goal but fail to identify the smaller goals, you can become frustrated and upset. But when you can identify the smaller goals and just keep moving toward the next one and the next one and the next one, you will make good progress toward the larger goal. Then, when you look up to see the larger goal, you are encouraged because you can see that you are getting closer. You’ve heard me say it before, but it’s a big key for success: it’s a cinch by the inch, but it’s hard by the yard. A little bit done each day on your writing, on your exercising, on doing spiritual exercises, on rational practical spirituality, on anything – is what will get you to your goal.

One day, you will be at your goal and you’ll wonder how you got there. You did it a little bit at a time. If you try to do it too quickly, you will be swamped by the inertia of your mind and emotions saying, “This isn’t possible, so I will do nothing.” And doing nothing will defeat you.

When people first hear my suggestion that they do 2 hours of spiritual exercises each day if they want to make the kind of spiritual progress they say they want, they often react with, “You’re kidding! Me! Me sit on a chair for 2 hours and chant?” Two hours a day looks like a big goal. It seems hard to do. So I say, “Well, start by sitting down.” They say, “Okay, I can do that.” Then I say, “Now, close your eyes and think of God for a few seconds.” They say, “Okay, I can do that.” So they do and an hour later, they say, ‘Wow, that time really went by quickly. What was that? About 5 minutes?” I say, “No, that was an hour.” They say, “Really? It didn’t feel like an hour.” That’s right, because they didn’t make it feel like 2 hours. When you just let that experience (of spiritual exercises) be what it is … a sitting down, relaxing, attuning with the God within, what a pleasure it is. It’s not a chore. It’s a treat. Under the law, it might be a chore. Under grace, it is delightful. Under the law, it is the “sword” that enforces it; under grace, it is the inner discipline responding to God’s calling for your presence in His heart. What a difference!

When you do spiritual exercises, when you read your discourses, listen to a tape, attend satsang in the form of seminars or practice other disciplines that bring the awareness of God and Spirit more present for you, you are putting yourself into a space where the invisible Spirit and the physical Spirit can meet and touch. You have heard people say, “I was touched by Spirit.” There is a point of convergence. There is a point at which Spirit can be felt. It will be subtle, but it can be very powerful. When you practice those things that awaken you to Spirit, you are actively involved in creating that point of convergence between the invisible and the physical – and your awareness of it. Perhaps, you feel the Spirit touch to your physical being; you might feel tingling or a rush of energy. Perhaps you leave your body during spiritual exercises or in a dream and you touch the Spirit in that non-physical state. Either way, you are experiencing that point of convergence. Grace resides there. Participating in the convergence is a way to bring grace into your life.

Be awake to life, inner and outer. When you see a new baby, let the newness of that life and the closeness to God awe you and bring you a sense of wonder. When you wake up and the morning is beautiful, the sunrise clear and radiant, the air crisp, let it awaken you to God’s presence here on the earth and the blessings of being able to share in that. When you see a beautiful work of art, a new car, a magnificent skyscraper, a perfect chocolate cake, whatever it is that makes you say, “Wow!” – let that bring in the awe, the wonder, the sense of God and Spirit present.

Then go home, sit down, get to your holy place, go to the temple within and say, “You and me, Lord. You and me.” Take the phone off the hook, turn the beeper off, put a sign on the door that says, “Do not disturb, God is here.” And you sit and experience that point of convergence where the invisible Spirit comes in and touches to your physical Spirit and you are One. Spiritual exercises are a process. They are a process of asking for God’s presence and when you ask, the prayer is answered. God does come present; that presence is within. The questions are within, the answers are within. The goals are within.

Maybe your goal is to find God. How do you do that? In awe, in wonder, in honor. You find the invisible God by finding the God in the physical manifestations of those around you. Your spouse comes home, knocks on the door, you open the door and brusquely or indifferently say, “Come in;” you are not seeing God. And they will say, “Why am I coming home to this?” If they knock on the door and you open it and say, “Wow, come in,” you are seeing God and they are going to feel like the kingdom of heaven just opened. If you want to clear up relationships, try honoring the other person. Try respecting them. Try seeing them as part of the Spirit around you.

Look for the point of convergence between the invisible Spirit and the physical Spirit. You can practice your awareness of the convergence in spiritual exercises, when you read Discourses or listen to tapes; and you can practice your awareness of it as you move through your everyday life and relationships with people. When I was a boy, I would see my Dad come home from work, all covered with coal dust; it was on his clothes and shoes and face and heImet. And my mother, who would have spent all day cleaning the house, would say, “Don’t you come in here with those dirty shoes on. Take them off, and take your helmet off, and brush off your clothes. If you come in here like that, I don’t know what I’ll do!” So he would come in just the way he was and say, “Well, let’s find out what you’ll do.” She’d get really upset and start yelling at him because her law said that he shouldn’t act like that. He’d just look at her and say, “This coal dust and this dirt on the floor has fed you and your kids and put them through school. You’ve never wanted for food or a home. That’s what this coal dust has done for you.” And she’d go up to him and put her arms around him, and hug and kiss him, and come away looking almost as dirty as he did. And then they would go off together to get cleaned up. That’s seeing God. That’s the convergence of invisible and physical Spirit. That’s grace.

When we become aware of that convergence, the Spirit quickens and moves, and as it moves things in our world change by the perceptions through our vision and in our minds. Where once we saw “coal dust,” now we see loving Spirit. It can give us a shot at a whole new way of life and being and happiness and joy. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe. It seems like we just move a silly millimeter and all of a sudden, the whole world looks different. Some things that seemed so big and overwhelming can be reduced practically to nothingness in a matter of moments, if that convergence hits, if you can see it from the higher perspective, if you can see if from grace.

People ask me how to handle particular situations. I tend to tell them, “Ignore it and go on.” They say, “But this is how I see it, this is my image of it.” I say, “Ignore your image of it and go on.” They say, “But how am I going to make my way in the world?” Ignore the world. If what you are doing is true and honest and right inside of you, ignore the world because it will be destroyed and it will decay, but you are eternal; you are divine. Live that divinity by doing what is right for you. If it turns out to be a mistake, you will learn from it, become stronger and more perceptive, and you will go on.

Don’t make excuses for your life. Don’t even do anything to your life. Jesus Christ, two thousand years ago, died for all your sins, all your mistakes, all your errors – past, present, and future. So don’t worry about it. Just go on with your life, your mistakes, all of it. If you make a mistake, if you hurt someone, you can say you’re sorry and you can do better. If you see someone else make a mistake, you can leave your sword of righteousness on the shelf somewhere, move into the grace of the Spirit and allow them the space to learn from their own mistakes. Recognize yourself as a child of God; recognize others as children of God. Rejoice in the Oneness that all of us have with Spirit. Experience the awe and wonder of the magnificence of the Lord and His creation.

Baruch Bashan