8 Spiritual Principles for Connecting with the Divine Inside
You Are Light

This has become so commonplace in spiritual teachings that it might seem banal to begin here. But it is so easy to forget what it means and, more importantly, what it does not mean.

The essence of this principle is that you are a spiritual being having a human experience. This means, first and foremost, that you are connected directly to God. Your connection is non-negotiable because you are an aspect of the divine made form. It is your birthright to cultivate that connection. You do not need the permission of a mediator to connect with God, but teachers who can guide you to cultivate your connection can be profoundly helpful.

By being an aspect of God, it means that you are literally energy — cosmic energy. Everything is energy, vibrating according to our nature. We are part of, and inseparable from, a field of energy that can only be partially captured by our physical senses.

In that way, most of our senses are inadequate to understanding the full array of who we are. We typically limit ourselves to the rational mind and the material world — what our five senses and our logical minds, aided and augmented by technology built from those same minds and same senses, can perceive. We assume that what our eyes tell us is reality rather than a version of reality. What we experience is part of a totality that we cannot fully comprehend.

It also does not mean that we are only light. It does not mean that our bodies are illusions, or that we only experience positivity all the time. Our materiality and our pain are critical to understand what it means to be light. As spiritual beings in human form, we are here to move beyond our sense of separation as material beings, while at the same time embracing our materiality. In other words, we awaken to our true nature while still living as beings of flesh and blood.
['Patrick Paul Garlinger']
['Personal Development', 'Spirituality', 'Relationships', 'Philosophy', 'Self']