I embody the Living Presence as I surrender into my highest vision for my life.
This month we are going to do some visioning about Unity of Corvallis. Hence, it makes sense to share some of the framework behind visioning and contrast it with the more commonly understood practice of visualization. Both are powerful spiritual tools often employed when we are seeking a sense of guidance or direction or when we want to manifest something in our lives. In a nutshell, the main distinction is that visualization tends to arise from personality whereas visioning is more about soul expression.
Here are a few of the details explaining this distinction between personality-based visualization and soulful envisioning.
In the visualization process we are taught to imagine something we want and picture God gifting it to us. We are often urged to pick a certain date by which we want the object of our visualization to appear. The transformational "work" we are expected to do is to hold a positive mental image of what we want and infuse it with appreciative energy. The concept is that it is God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom of heaven, which naturally includes giving us some external thing that is exactly what we visualize as adding to our good.
On the other hand, in a visioning process, we are seeking to understand what Spirit is wanting to create or co-create with us.... we are searching for the avenue through which God manifests something for our good and we are expected to be an integral part of this embodiment. The focus is on creating a state of being within ourselves through which something is manifested. Instead of the starting place that "something is missing", which is how visualization typically begins, in visioning we are taught to hold that something is already present as a full and complete idea seeking our cooperation to bring it into full expression on the physical plane.
In visualization, some people get trapped in an attachment to their own personal strategy of how to get a need met. For example, let's say a woman (we'll call her Zoe) feels isolated and her life is not as fulfilling as she would like. Zoe then gets the bright idea that a romantic partner is just the ticket to make her life less lonely and more fulfilling. Thus she decides it is a good idea to visualize her new perfect relationship and while she is at it, she decides to visualize her new perfect partner.
Now, there may be times when the chosen strategy aligns well with the need, and things unfold smoothly. The partner and relationship bring about a sense of connection that leads to development of new interests and an exploration of a deeper self in relationship.
There are other times though, when the deeper need is not connected with the strategy and this often leads to heartache and mistrust of the Higher Power. In the example above, if the partner Zoe visualized turns out to be looking for a partner to give their life meaning and to take away their sense of separation as evidenced in her own visualization, then it is likely that each will want more from their partner than the other is willing to offer. Each is approaching the relationship with the idea of what they can “get” and not how they can express their Divinity. In other words, in this made up example, Zoe and her partner have a need to make a connection with and serve Life but instead adopt a strategy to take away their isolation. As a result of this visualizing process they are directed toward a goal that their ego is invested in and not a goal that comes from their soul expressing. It is likely then, that they will both still feel lonely and still feel unfilled, even though they are now in a relationship. That is because the underlying belief is that some object outside themselves can remove their sense of isolation and the unfulfilled nature of their life. The loneliness that Zoe puts out into the world through her visualization about her lack of a romantic partner comes back to her as lack of meaning and lack of fulfillment under the laws of karma.
This same question taken to visioning might lead Zoe to a very different course of action. The Spirit-led vision would tend to help her to find the meaning directly by becoming willing to serve Life. Her soul would yearn to resolve the loneliness by reducing isolation through connecting with something within her that is yearning to be learned or discovered. Then the authentic action might be to join an activity that has a social overlay or that has some intrinsic meaning. Perhaps she would be led to volunteer at a non-profit that is aligned with her ideals. There are many possibilities. (Visioning tends to open to more possibilities than Visualization).
From this space of being open to God's unfolding through her, Zoe's lack of purpose is met with increased purpose which leads to transformation under the laws of karma. Likewise, the lack of connection is transformed into the energy needed to overcome her inertia as she joins a group or volunteers, which then creates a whole different paradigm in her energy field.
Now, as happenstance or Spirit would have it, Zoe enacting the vision co-created with Spirit might end up meeting a romantic partner at the study group or at the non-profit, and who knows how that will play out. The difference is that she is not looking for something to receive from outside of herself to make her feel better, she is looking for something to contribute, and in making that contribution she will feel better and then perhaps attract a partner.
Here is a personal example. I was wondering at one point many years ago, about what my next step towards ministry would look like. In my visualizations I considered myself doing guest speaking or teaching classes, but that was my ego’s plan. I decided to do a vision process and what came back was to volunteer at the Centre for Living with Dying. This idea never entered my mind prior to that moment and terrified me. I was afraid of death, I was uncomfortable with grief, and when I called them I learned that the minimum commitment was one night per week for an entire year, plus many other hours of training and volunteering. Do I need to mention, I was afraid of commitment too?
Yikes! This was way more than I thought I was ready for, but my authentic action was to make just one call about volunteering. I made the call and as it turned out, the application period for volunteers was open for only three more days and then it closed for the rest of the year. I decided this must be Divine Order and asked them to fax me the application. Then I found out to even be considered as a volunteer I need two personal references from prior volunteers. At the time I caught the vision, I had only the vaguest idea of what the Centre did and didn’t know anyone who had volunteered there. I took this into prayer and two names of dear friends came up. My authentic action was to call each and it turned out that both had been volunteers there and were very happy to give me a glowing reference. To make a long story short, this whole thing unfolded perfectly, I was accepted as a volunteer, given invaluable training and experience and some confidence that I do have some skills in working with bereavement. Looking back on it, my soul knew that I needed more compassion in order to take my next step in ministry, while my ego thought I needed more speaking. Now, many of you know my past profession was as a trial lawyer. Which do you think was Spirit guiding… my visualization or my visioning process?
So too, in terms of Unity of Corvallis, Debbie, your Board and I are wanting to vision what Spirit is co-creating here. For too long I think some of us (including, and maybe especially, me) have been holding onto some idea that our ego might have had about how this church should look. We might have been unconsciously trying to impose our will on Spirit's plans and attempting to set up Unity of Corvallis according to our personal preferences. In the past, I heard stories about the conflict that occurred whenever this church body tried to come together to determine this church’s mission and so until now we have shied away from this type of process. Well, it seems to me that we are now ripe and ready to uncover and take steps to manifest God’s vision for Unity of Corvallis with Spirit acting through us and with Spirit guiding our collective process.
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