“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
— Proverbs 29:18
Within you, there is a destiny waiting to be born — a life of such purpose, creativity and contribution that its light would blind you if apprehended it in its fullness. But to actualize it, you must dive beneath the surface tension of the mind’s need to control the present. You must project into the future, tap into a vision for your life bigger than your TV screen (or at least your computer screen) and bring your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions into integrity with it.
It sounds difficult to do. But we’re all doing it on some level — although often with less-than-inspired visions. For example, people who walk around fearing economic collapse, nuclear fallout, or any number of impending disasters, are regularly running worst-case scenarios in their mind and commiserating with others about how bad things are. In other words, they’re in integrity with a vision of lack and limitation.
And what we’re in integrity with becomes our experience.
If this describes you, the good news is it’s not even your vision, it’s the collective consciousness — or collective nightmare. It’s a thought virus you caught. And there’s a vaccination against it, or antidote to it: cultivating a vision rooted in your core values that makes you come alive — then committing to it as if your life depends on it.
It’s not for the faint of heart. As Emerson said, “God will not have His work made manifest by cowards.” But the alternative is a life of quiet desperation. Your destiny won’t let you rest until you let it express. The pain pushes until the vision pulls. Until you answer the calling of your soul with a resounding “Yes,” you’ll feel like a puppet in this divine production.
But what does it mean to have a vision? We often think of a vision as something that foretells the future. But that’s prediction, based on the cause-and-effect of your dominant thought trend, and can always be changed. In some self-help teachings, a vision is something we create based on what we believe will fulfill us. But that’s imagination and is limited, since imagination, at best, is just a rearrangement of what’s already known — or worse, a reaction to a limited self-image.
True vision can’t be created or changed; it’s part of the changeless fabric of “Ultimate Reality,” the realm of perfect prototypes or “ideal forms” as Plato put it. True vision can never be imagined; it comes from a place beyond the mind, revealing something unprecedented. And true vision is never in the future; it’s a realization of what is in the timeless dimension of our being.
It may be temporarily obscured like the sun on a cloudy day. But like the sun, our vision is always shining, waiting for us to pierce the weather of our mind and let its warmth and vitalizing power into our life.
Finally, a life of true vision isn’t about adding anything to us, but about seeing our “Real Self,” releasing everything it isn’t, and allowing our life to unfold according to Its perfect pattern. Michelangelo knew this when he created the David. He saw the completed masterpiece in the block of marble then chipped away everything that wasn’t it.
That is what we are called to do as artists of our life — discover the masterpiece hiding in this block of mortal stone and set it free.
Tapping Into Your Vision
- Take a moment to become still and watch your breath. Don’t control it, just let it breathe itself. With each exhalation, release everything that has come before and all concern for the future.
- Bring to your mind and heart a relationship where you’ve felt unconditional love — whether it’s for you or by you, whether human or animal. Feel into that love. Let it expand.
- From this place ask: “What is God’s idea of Itself as me? What did God create when God created me, and for what purpose?” (If the word God is a problem, use what works for you).
- Next ask “What must I release or embrace — how must I change — to allow my highest vision to emerge?”
- Then ask “What action can I take today to live more fully from the vision?”
- Finally, affirm out loud or to yourself: “I know who I really am and why I am alive; I easily release everything that isn’t true about me and joyfully live my destiny now!”
Give thanks for this moment of receptivity, regardless of what answers you received. The intention of awakening is enough to start the emergence process.
To Your Emergence!
