Others as a Conduit

Do you have a spiritual advisor of your faith?
How does this benefit your conscious contact?

To answer the question, I would have to declare a “faith” – as in, a specific, agreed upon manifestation of a Higher Power. But I have not done that. Most of the traits I sense as absolute in my Higher Power are beyond words, though many faiths have metaphors and mythologies that I find useful in guiding me spiritually.

When I first got sober, I made friends with many ministers in the Christian faith – Apostolic, Baptist, Methodist and Jehovah’s Witness. I never felt a pressure from any of them to convert or adopt their faith and denounce all others. I was accepted as someone who believed in a Divine Power, and they were glad to share with me. I learned much about the love and peace in the teachings of Jesus Christ through them.

I returned to the mythologies of the Native Americans as a very natural thing. My grandmother was born on an Apache reservation, and though she married outside of her tribe and I never learned if she had been raised in the ancient Apache God-myths, I have always been curious to learn. Most of my guidance in that way came from books, though recently, I met a man who descends from the same tribe and spent his summers with his grandfather on the reservation. We have expressed our desire to spend time together, and I hope to learn from him those things that I haven’t learned from books. What I have learned, though, are things that have strengthened my connection to the Earth as Mother. I cannot subsist merely on the ethereal; I require a firm grounding in the Earth. Early in recovery, I found myself, in contemplating the essence of my Higher Power, the absolute superfluity of a physical body if we were ultimately to return to our Source. It seemed a needless and cruel exercise! I found my grounding and my purpose when I returned to the Mother religions.

Ultimately, I’ve come around to Buddhism as the closest I have to an adopted faith. The nature of Buddhism seems to me to be more philosophical than religious, which is appealing to me. By the absence of dogma and the emphasis on personal discovery, I feel it helps me to be more tolerant of all people of faith. I have friends in recovery as well as contacts in academia who are practicing Buddhists. I don’t know that any of them would consider themselves my spiritual advisors, though I can say that I’ve gained much from each of them. The issue for me, someone who’s always liked firm answers, is that they seldom claim to have any!

And, of course, believing that we do belong here, that we do each have a purpose, and believing that my Higher Power very often uses others as a conduit, I must listen very closely, no matter who I might encounter. Any person who crosses my path might be my spiritual advisor. If I’m self-obsessing, I might miss the message!

Peace & Love,
Jody K