12 PILLARS of the SPIRIT WARRIOR
1. Recognizing ones’ own Essence or Presence
2. Emotional Pain-Body
3. Developing Burdens
4. Mirroring Parental Dialogue
5. Challenging Daily Dilemmas: Regress or Grow
6. Finding the Gold in our Burdens
7. Developing Determination
8. Evolving the 4-Chambers of the Heart (the horizontal axis)
9. S.A.F.T. – Turning IT (one’s life) over to Spirit (the vertical axis)
10. Creating a Spiritual Practice
11. Dedication to Excellence
12. Forwarding Gratitude
“We are Spiritual Beings having a Human Experience!”
1. Presence – Our connection to Spirit lies within the embedded human polarity that dominates our consciousness. It is through Spirit that we are connected with the universe and one another. Being in the moment and experiencing oneself is called “presence.” Presence is the ultimate victory of a Spirit Warrior to be fully present in Spirit and committed to deliver one’s mission through connecting with another’s Spirit. “Presence” requires one to process how we regress to our “pain-bod” experience. Much like taking a “mission” statement, we take on a pledge, . “I am no longer____ , in Spirit I am ____ .”
2. Pain-Body – As a new being in the form of a young child, all the child really knows is their state of grace and their inevitable collision with the realities of the human experience. Most of what children know is that they are connected to being loved and giving love. Once that bond is broken, there is a pain-in-the-body experience. For some children, the emotional pain comes very early. For others, it inevitably happens before the age of 7 years when the mental recognition of one’s life takes over. The rest of one’s life, there is a memory of the Pain-Body. Knowing how to recognize it and turn the Pain-Body over to Spirit is the way of the spirit warrior.
3. Burdens – Decisions need to be made in reference to the Pain-Body experience, how to avoid the pain or to seek pleasure. Once success is experienced in getting past or around the Pain-Body, one develops new behavior and a new belief system that becomes one’s “winning formula.” While this formula immediately works, it ultimately will not be successful with future events. Therefore, that decision becomes a Burden. We carry these Burdens every day as we try to transact business in the present moment with decisions made to escape the Pain-Body. Like the term, “shadow” which is about what we “hide, repress and deny.” Burden also has an emotional component but the emphasis is on the decision one made to deal with the “pain-body” experience which exposes it more to a working through process. Here we look for “triggers” which set off being On-Burden.
4. Parental Dialogue – which is also referred to as the “parent imago.” The central dilemmas that we face on an every basis can be the almost identical dialogue that is the essence of our parent’s communication. That dialogue gets imprinted into our consciousness and “runs” us and will determine the conclusions of our interactions unless we can learn to bring Presence into our consciousness and transcend these early imprints. We notice, for instance, that the essence of our present Dilemma corresponds almost immediately to the parent’s dialogue in their dilemma.
5. Challenging Dilemmas – all of us experience Dilemmas on a daily basis. A Dilemma is a present and persistent conflict with another person that has a lose-lose outcome. Most of us only see our reality in a one-dimensional way. We don’t allow ourselves to see the risk factors on the other side of the Dilemma. Simply looking at and feeling the other side of the Dilemma can open up new possibilities. Challenging our Dilemmas allows Spirit through Presence to guide us to experiencing a 3rd option.
6. Finding the Gold in the Burdens – Fortunately, our Burdens are the story that we carry with ourselves and somehow we define who we are with this story emanating from the “pain-body” experience. We tend to believe this “story,” where in effect, we are simply a pure spiritual being having a human experience. We convince ourselves that the old conditioning is who we are. Yes, patterns are real and there is a profile to what our tendencies are but that doesn’t define WHO we are. Once you see the “gold” in the Burdens, the pain starts going away and you find a pathway to accept your life for what it is. And we determine that “we are not our story.” We are “Spirit’s Creation.”
7. Developing Determination – There is a basic human tendency toward entropy and wanting to be “accepted just for who I am” or “our story.” The only problem is “who I seemingly am?” – “my story” is still a product of the Pain-Body and the person functions in Shadow. One needs to align with being a warrior and be determined to establish new pathways to success, otherwise the old stale, over-used self-structure will take over again. And “there is no such thing as giving up.”
8. 4-Chambers of the Heart – When Spirit is seen as the core of the Spirit Warrior and one lives in Presence, Spirit emanates to the heart of our lives. Everything is seen in terms of being in relationship. We embrace our determined and orderly commitment to relationships with: Health and Well-Being, Fulfilling Love Relationships, Financial and Career Responsibility and finally living Missions of Service. This is the work of the Mastery Group, and is the essence of re-integrated I-group work.
9. Surrender, Acceptance, Forgiveness, Thankfulness (SAFT) – On a daily basis we are reminded of the need to surrender our egos, accept the truth that lies within us, forgive ourselves and others for past transgressions and to live everyday with thankfulness and gratitude. SAFT becomes a guiding principle in being an effective Spirit Warrior.
10. Spiritual Practice – Presence can really only be experienced through some means of silence, solitude through meditation and/or prayer. For some, a “practice” can be more informal but it can only happen with focusing on the “space between” our thoughts and behavior. Developing a “practice” comes with commitment to the path of the spirit warrior. There are many forms of Spiritual Practice which can be chosen for your particular personal pattern.
11. Excellence – Being on the path of the spirit warrior happens on the journey towards excellence. We practice “mastering the ordinary” as a means of experiencing our extraordinary nature. Yet, living our higher purpose requires setting strategies and composing a plan to experience and master short and long-term goals. To be conscious requires a plan, a strategy for living that allows for us to be more conscious on a moment-to-moment basis.
12. Forwarding Gratitude – Being on a spiritual path opens us up to living out of gratitude rather than defeating the battles of the egoistic life. Each act in life offers us the opportunity to embrace the blessings provided us. By embracing these moments or the reflection of these moments provides for what others call the “antidote to anxiety and depression.” Moments of the “pain-body“ experience becomes more of a vague memory.
“The Warrior prepares for risk, the Spirit-Warrior prepares for Happiness.”
David Lindgren
Director
Path to Spirit-Warrior
