2nd Invitation -- Question Everything
Reading and study – Setting Your Heart on Fire, p. 39-68
Questioning, like love, says Cushnir in pages 43-45, spurs us to grow and expand. He indicates that when we question everything, rather than believing what we’ve been taught or told, we open ourselves to a highly personal, constantly changing sense of truth. The Second Invitation asks us to revisit everything we thought we knew, to shatter our frame of reference, to step into virgin territory. Only when our entire life is founded upon exploration, he says, will we have met love’s challenge.
Who am I?: Questioning our everyday identity can lead to a richer sense of self. Do the “Who Am I?” exercise on pages 49-50. What do you feel when you peel off all the layers of accustomed identity? Are you able to access the state of pure beingness represented by the words, “I AM”? Which is more comfortable, to be defined by the roles you have chosen or to have unlimited potential stripped of those roles?
How did my perceived identity arise?: Our beliefs about ourselves may be outdated or inaccurate. Use the exercise on page 51 to find the self-perceptions arising out of your upbringing. Are there parts of your self-perception that have outlived their validity, other parts that go unseen or are distorted?
Distorting judgments: When it comes to judging our own characters, no trait is all good or all bad. After doing the exercise on pages 54-55 did you find a characteristic that could, at times, be considered “good” and, at other times, “bad”? In releasing value judgments that create distortion, do you find yourself easing toward love?
Subjectivity of beliefs: A worldview is the outgrowth of circumstance. Try the exercise on page 56. Do your opinions change when the situation changes. What does that tell you about the subjectivity of belief? What does it tell you about the reliability of belief?
Stretching: Consider the activities on pages 58-60. Choose one or more to do; note your reactions to each experience, comparing your new perspectives in a given category after the stretch with those held before the stretch. Did you notice any change? What would happen of the activity of the stretch became “normal” for you? How do you think your perspectives would change?
Finding comfort in uncertainty: Thriving amid uncertainty requires calm and patience. After the process of questioning everything, are you now feeling a little lost or disoriented? Or do you find yourself compulsively questioning everything? Take a deep breath and relax. Try the experiment in the middle of page 66 to befriend uncertainty. Note how it feels to explore various responses instead of the “habitual” responses you have previously used. Embracing the first two invitations will restore you to the present moment, to the presence of love.
Accepting the Second Invitation:
To the best of my current and evolving ability, I resolve to: