Aims Part 6
January 9, 2026
Aims Part 6
Many years ago, at the institution where I worked, a lady caused trouble in the office. She divided people into factions and brewed conflict. Her final blow was to lead a rebellion against the administration with those who followed her. As part of the administration, I met with her to fix the situation. After being confronted, she promised me that she would be a team member going forward. My blind spot was that I chose not to see the truth: she would always feed on conflict. And I denied the truth about myself, that I wanted to be seen as benevolent. She continued her same behavior and then eventually had to be let go after causing significant damage.
An aim that spiritually conscious people nurture in themselves is to integrate inner realizations. This means not just being aware of essence from time to time but creating a life around presence and truth. A life organized around these essential qualities implies that everything is experienced as a spiritual experience, not just happenstance. We integrate (embody) the realizations about truth gained from seeing the spiritual in all experience. Increasingly, presence and truth become our ways of being and moving in the world.
When we enter the spiritually conscious life, we immediately place the highest importance on spirit. But the ingrained ego patterns often still run the show. Even so, we become increasingly more sensitive to our ego’s responses because we value truth and presence more than anything. This priority allows us to see reality, especially the truth about ourselves. The truth about ourselves is not focused on our deficiencies, but the whole of who we are, including our strengths and potential.
We also see the truth about others, including their strengths and limitations. But seeing the truth about situations, us, and others is not about forming judgments or inflating ourselves. It is to engender deeper levels of compassion, alignment with divine will, and the ability to love more purely.
And with increasing awareness of the ego’s distortions, we see more and more of the undisguised truth without illusion. Additionally, knowing that things are often not as they appear, challenges us to perceive the spiritual reality beneath everything.
Presence is the way to be in the truth. Presence is not to make anything happen, or to force the situation according to the ego’s wishes. Instead, it is to be immersed in and alert to the present moment and all that it holds. Our entire self is there, not distracted, not split off, not shut down, not anesthetized, and not driven by passion. All these veil the truth, but in the presence, the truth arises. As we show up, the truth is unveiled.
Truth and presence are interlocked. Accepting, speaking, and looking for truth are vital components of presence. Truth and presence are the main components of moving through the world as essence and as one who recognizes essence. We continue to grow spiritually as we integrate what we realize from experience into our being. Realizations of reality and its truths, integrated into our wholeness, grow us spiritually and enable us to live from essence.
Spiritual practice: In the next interaction you have, be alert to the level of your presence and the issue of truth. After the conversation, make notes about what you learned from the interaction. If you knew more truth, then, in a spiritual practice of your choosing, integrate (embody) that truth into your being.
Self-inquiry: Why would there be any disadvantages to your accepting, speaking, and looking for truth?
Prayer:
Dear God, please make it possible for me to see your truth and be part of it. Forgive me when I allow myself to be dulled to the moment and lose myself in distractions. Amen
