True living means embracing the evolutionary impulse that’s lodged within our very soul. This impulse activates our forever unfolding potential so that every single day of our lives we can discover something new about ourselves and set it free. Our potential is not allowed to lay dormant but is embraced in such a way that we get to experience bliss. We discover that ecstasy comes to us not through the acquisition of things or status, but through the activation of our limitless possibility.
The world, on the other hand, asks us to be mediocre or to go just an inch above mediocrity. But if we live by this measure we’ll never know the experience of being truly alive. Therefore, we must up-level our social contract. What do I mean by that?
Every society has unwritten social contracts that its members are expected to abide by. For example, when we wake up in the morning we do the basic bathing of the body temple and the brushing of our teeth. We do these things in large part because we know that we’re going to have to meet with each other later in the day and we all want to uphold our end of the contract. We don’t check in with each other and say, “Did you bathe today? Did you wash your hands when you went to the restroom earlier?” We don’t ask each other these things, but we kind of assume that they’ve been done. It’s part of our social contract about cleanliness.
We have social contracts that restrict us (hopefully) from getting behind the wheel of a car after drinking a lot of alcohol. Our society sets a high degree of importance on maintaining a level of safety while driving. There are innumerable contracts that we all tacitly agree to, regarding the health, safety, and well-being of our physical bodies. But individuals who are growing, developing and unfolding spiritually, who have stepped up to the plate so to speak, have agreed to up-level these contracts. We don’t just wash the external body. We also have a social contract with each other that obliges us to cleanse our inner self as well.
We cleanse the mind and spirit by daily setting aside time to connect with the presence of God. We’re up-leveling our social contract so that we’re not walking out of the door with muddy thoughts or incoherence in our mental body. Just as you don’t go around driving unsafely or smelling bad, you don’t walk around with stinking thinking either.
It’s of paramount importance to cleanse your inner being on a regular basis. If you have a meeting with someone at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, they expect you to be there. They don’t expect your past to show up. They don’t expect your anxiety about the future to show up. They don’t expect your parents—in the form of your parental conditioning—to show up at the meeting. They are expecting you to be there. It’s not appropriate to show up psychically lugging the events of years past with you, or rehashing what they said about you in elementary school. We have a social contract not to meet on that level unless we’re in therapy, having a meeting with our spiritual teacher or a spiritual practitioner. In order to experience true living, you—your authentic self—is expected to show up.
As we up-level our social contract, we agree to show up and glow for God! When there is a communion with the higher self, something beyond our imagination gets to be born through that communion. We may think we’re meeting to handle some particular business, but we’re really meeting to download heaven on earth. Perhaps we think we’re meeting about a financial issue when in truth we’re meeting to allow the great wealth of the universe to become activated within us. That kind of communion only comes through a meeting of the heart and spirit. Then something new is born wherein the Eternal comes forward and expresses itself in present time.
That which we touch and agree upon in our communion continues to follow us and become amplified. We then we carry that energy into our next activity. We keep getting bigger and bigger and glowing more and more as the authenticity of our true nature continues to shine. The unlimited energy of God continues to take us over.
So, when we meet each other, let’s assume that we’ve all meditated that day. Let’s assume that we’ve had some moments of prayer. Let’s assume that we’ve studied something other than our own opinion. Let’s assume that we’ve stretched our minds with some new concept; we’ve picked up a book and read it and let it change us a little bit. Let’s assume that we’re all invested in expanding our awareness.
When we agree to up-level our social contracts, we begin to hold each other accountable for standing in excellence and possibility. This is not just an obligation, it is a path to a richness and a joy unlike any you’ve ever experienced.
Michael Bernard Beckwith is the founder and spiritual director of the Agape International Spiritual Center. Highly regarded for his teachings on the science of inner transformation, Dr. Beckwith embraces a practical approach to spirituality that acknowledges the accelerated pace of our contemporary times. www.michaelbernardbeckwith.com
