This Week’s Quotation:
Can you imagine how your problems might look from God’s point of view, or envision how God might resolve them? Do you ever ask yourself what is the reason for the circumstances of your life? Have you ever considered the notion that those vexing dilemmas that plague your daily life are challenging you to open to new ways of thinking? Can you sense how these difficulties are the means through which something mysterious, perhaps even great, is struggling to be born through you?
~ Vilayat Inayat Khan, Sufi Teacher
Breakthrough Questions
I enjoy Socratic questions like these posed by Vilayat Inayat Khan, because they encourage my mind to think outside its usual boxes. Asking them supports me in having meaningful conversations with God that shift me from breakdown perceptions to breakthrough solutions.
For example, when I am faced with an onslaught of urgent matters, I ask my mind questions that encourage it to think like God. The dramas of life can be like an enormous gravitational pull sucking us into the pool of fear and suffering where we become discombobulated and forget the deeper reality that lies concealed by outer appearances.
Those difficult situations that we struggle with are opportunities for allowing God to be born in everyday life, as well as the means through which our soul evolves. It’s spiritual creativity to view the problems in our lives as catalysts for accessing divine artistry.
While we may think our purpose is to awaken beyond life, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of awakening in life—to do our best to respond to whatever is put before us as we believe God would respond. This gives us an opportunity to bring those insights gained from awakening beyond life into our response to whatever is happening in our daily lives. Then, like the phoenix rising from its ashes, we emerge out of the flames of life’s difficulties, reborn anew, as an even stronger conduit for expressing the presence and flow of heaven here on Earth.
About Open Windows
We, the authors of this blog, dedicate it to the transparent exploration of the world’s sacred scripture and enlightened spiritual thought. We believe that the original inspiration of all faiths comes from a common source, named and revered in a myriad of ways. With that understanding, the innumerable symbols, beliefs, and practices of faith cease to divide. They become open windows to a common reality that inspires and unifies us. We find deeper insight and nourishment in our own faith and from the expression of faith from others.
We hope these weekly quotations and meditations speak to your heart and soul.
Breakthrough questions indeed! How clear you state it, Terri, that life’s challenges can be great opportunities for new vision and growth. I’m reminded of the statement, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” My own centering in the Divine is due in considerable measure to the insights gained from difficult circumstances I’ve had to face in life.
I loved reading your thinking and perspective – thank you so much.
A meaningful conversation that leads to breakthroughs allows everything in my creative field to thrive. This satisfies the deepest urge I know, to fully live this adventurous Life given freely and abundantly in a multitude of facets.
I am so grateful for ‘open windows’.