What is the Sacred?
The Sacred is a place of eternal renewal. It reveals to me my better self and shows me how to become it in an integral way. It does so gently but firmly. The sacred is the source of meaning in experience. When I’m with the sacred, I feel connected and wholesome. I see my divine self and the divine others around me.
The Glory Window inside a chapel at Thanks Giving Square in Dallas Texas
How to cultivate the Sacred
I practice cultivating the sacred through moment-to-moment contemplation. Right from when I wake up, I’m trying to sense if I’m where I need to be doing what I need to do. I start to know what to deprioritise. I go into a “not this, not that” state of discernment and once I’m settled, I know I’m where I ought to be. I know it sounds a bit abstract; however, this is what it feels like.
I pursue the sacred because that’s my optimal place of being. When I’m there, it’s like I’m part of a choir. I’m singing my part in my own voice, but I only hear the beautiful song we are all making. It’s glorious! It’s effortless for me to be there, and being feels joyous. It’s as though I’m in the right relationship with being and the life around me.
This is not without challenge, of course. Having young children to care for makes it difficult sometimes because they are still developing their sensibilities. However, I find that leaning into the sacred guides me on how to engage with them. When I do this, I get back to my place of being.
It seems to me that we all have a way of being that’s unique to us. In this way of being, we also have a spot we must be from. However, the spot keeps shifting, and we have to keep up with it. When we are near it, doing life becomes effortless, and the further we get from it, the more life becomes effortful. So this calls for tracking the sacred and sensing into it.
Before I developed my “sense of the sacred”, I often found myself stuck in meaninglessness. I lived by the “I don’t know”. Even through my interactions, I would not know what position to hold or what my opinions were. It was fun to challenge others critically and expose their lack of understanding or misknowing. However, I didn’t know either. I had nothing to offer them when I would succeed at challenging them. I would tear down their perspective and leave them suspended in meaninglessness. In retrospect, this feels mean. It’s just not ideal to live this way.
I would suffer anxiety regularly because I had no discipline to help me predict my day-to-day. Living anxiously felt like a hectic and productive lifestyle; however, nothing seemed to progress much. There’s a metaphor related to this, trying to drive a car and stepping both the accelerate and brake pedals at the same time. If you do this for long, the engine will blow out. It’s not ideal.
Discovering the sacred and learning how to seek it out revealed the depth of the reality before me. I learned how to appreciate the here and now. I learned how to read the signals of what I need to do and how to do it. The virtues started to reveal themselves to me and guide me. I began to see my options, and consequently, I lost my excuses.
Now that I have lived this way for some time, I can reflect and say that I have a wonderful life, and it deserves to be protected. At the same time, it feels like it has to be shared because it’s not mine. It came from a sacred place. Strange, right?
I encourage you to lean into your scared place. I invite you to seek it out and be patient with it. I request that you learn to listen for the meaning it has to offer. It will reveal itself to you, and then all the puzzle pieces will fall into place. Many of us practice living this way, and you will not be alone. Join in. You are welcome.
