Show Me Yours

Everybody's got a soul, but since it's usually not on display, most writers resort to metaphor to describe it. Paramahansa Yogananda used the tiny blue flames issuing from jets in a gas heater to allude to individual souls. His point was that as those flames appear separate but are really expressions of a single source, so in our physical forms we appear separate, but what we really are comes from a single Place.

Jet flames are seen, but our souls are not; it's easy to think that we are the packages our souls move around in. Looking in mirrors, confusing ourselves with our packages, we reinforce our mistaken identities.

What kind of mirror can I look into that will reveal my own True Self, except the True Self of another? When someone takes the initiative to reveal what is beyond her/his mask, I glimpse the soul. Truth telling, authentic actions, deeds of kindness or courage, these reveal the inner, the true. Without them, we're all just 'lost but making good time.'

Another way the soul is revealed is through carefully cultured recognition. It's possible to view people beyond their forms, traits and personalities. To see the divine in others takes an act of will, an iron focus that won't be deterred by the outward, the beguiling or the off-putting. A perceptual beam determined to discern the jewel in each package.

Finally, and most powerfully, we find the soul by removing our attention utterly for a time from the outward show and bringing it deeply within. Using whatever techniques we find to quiet the body and still the mind, we strip away the false and temporary of us and reveal the true and eternal.

It's all in what you're looking for.

Coaching Jim Ballard's way can help you develop your soul-discerning
skills, as well as bring your own soul into great expression. Visit www.myjimballard.com

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