Quote “The whole secret of the spiritual life is just this painful struggle to come awake, to become really conscious.”
Author Gerald Heard (1889-1971) was a historian, science writer, educator and philosopher as well as mentor to Bill Wilson, (co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous), and Clare Booth Luce (author and politician).
Soul-Questions
1. What does “to come awake, to become really conscious” mean for you?
2. Have you experienced your life, your spiritual journey at any time as “struggle” – as “painful”?
3. If so, how?
4. How would you describe your “spiritual life” today?
5. If you could have described your spiritual life a year ago, how might you have described it?
6. Where would you like to see your spiritual life in a year from now?
7. What and / or who might help you achieve those goals?
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How to use “Soulistry Soul-Questions” You may want to begin a Journal so your responses are all in one place.
From time to time, a quotation will appear along with accompanying Soul-Questions. Write the quotation. Add the first question and write your response. At your leisure, add the second Soul-Question and respond and continue on. Btw, it helps to put the date after each Soul-Question response.
Take your time in writing your replies. This is your time – these are your answers.
The “Soul-Questions” website can be found www.soulistry.com/soul-questions-blog-posts Scroll through the various images/titles (click ‘earlier posts’ when you get to the bottom of a page), make your choice and begin. Periodically, it may help to check in with the “Welcome” post www.soulistry.com/soulquestions/welcome that explains what Soul-Questions is about.
Quote “A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?”
Author
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was born in modern-day Lebaban. With his family, he emigrated to the United States where he began his literary career, studied art and wrote his inspirational book “The Prophet” which became so popular that he is reputed to be the third best-selling poet of all time.
Soul-Questions
1. As you consider people you have considered over the years, what common qualities/characteristics do they share?
2. How do you distinguish between a friend and an acquaintance?
3. Have you ever been betrayed by a friend?
In your Journal, reflect about the circumstances and consequences of that friend’s betrayal.
4. In your world of friends over the years, what distinguishes those you would call a ‘close’ friend and those you would call ‘best’ friend?
5. Social media connects people as ‘friends’. Is social mediat another category of friendship for you and if so, what qualities/characteristics do such friends have which distinguish them from other friends?
6. Picture your best friend in your mind. What is it about this person that draws you to him/her?
7. In your circle of friendship over the years, have some friends changed categories – i.e. acquaintance, close friend, best friend, cyberfriend?
If so, reflect on your role in the changing friendship in your journal.
8. Reflect on a relationship with a “friend who is far away.”
Is that person “nearer than the one who is a hand”?
If so, how?
******************** How to use “Soulistry Soul-Questions” You may want to begin a Journal so your responses are all in one place.
From time to time, a quotation will appear along with accompanying Soul-Questions. Write the quotation. Add the first question and write your response.
Take your time in writing your replies. This is your time – these are your answers.
Then at your leisure, add the second Soul-Question and respond and continue on. Btw, it helps to put the date after each Soul-Question response.
The “Soul-Questions” group on Facebook can be found www.facebook.com/groups/soulquestions
The “Soul-Questions” website and individual quotes/soul-questions can be found www.soulistry.com/soul-questions-blog-posts
Quote “Those who ask questions may be fools for five minutes, but those who do not ask, remain fools forever.” Author: Chinese proverb
Soul-Questions
1. What questions do you have about
* life
* yourself
* the world
* love
* forgiveness
* eternity
* death
2. What questions have been more important to you than the answers?
3. What questions have spoken to you on your spiritual journey?
4. In your journal, reflect on one of those questions. Why was this particular question more important than the answer?
5. Have there been questions about individuals / situations / finances / values / background that you did not ask and wish you had?
In your journal, reflect on those questions and how you might move beyond whatever blocked you in those circumstances?
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How to use “Soulistry Soul-Questions” You may want to begin a Journal so your responses are all in one place.
From time to time, a quotation will appear along with accompanying Soul-Questions. Write the quotation. Add the first question and write your response.
Take your time in writing your replies. This is your time – these are your answers.
Then at your leisure, add the second Soul-Question and respond and continue on. Btw, it helps to put the date after each Soul-Question response.
The “Soul-Questions” group on Facebook can be found www.facebook.com/groups/soulquestions
The “Soul-Questions” website and individual quotes/soul-questions can be found www.soulistry.com/soul-questions-blog-posts
Quote “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” Author: Francis Bacon <1909-1992 was a self-taught Irish artist whose life as an artist was a bleak chronicler of the human condition and after the death of his partner, his art became preoccupied with death in a unique style that was bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw. He claimed to be descended from the Elizabethan philospher with the same name.
Soul-Questions
1. What does “the mystery” mean to you?
2. What gift of creativity have you been given?
3. What defines / makes someone an “artist“?
4. When you express yourself in some creative way, do you think of yourself as an “artist”?
If not, what would it take for you to see yourself as an artist (be that someone who bakes, sews, sculpts, paints, gardens, draws; does carpentry, flower-arranging, calligraphy; makes cards etc.)?
5. How can you, as artist, “deepen the mystery”?
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How to use “Soulistry Soul-Questions” You may want to begin a Journal so your responses are all in one place.
From time to time, a quotation will appear along with accompanying Soul-Questions. Write the quotation. Add the first question and write your response.
Take your time in writing your replies. This is your time – these are your answers.
Then at your leisure, add the second Soul-Question and respond and continue on. Btw, it helps to put the date after each Soul-Question response.
The “Soul-Questions” group on Facebook can be found www.facebook.com/groups/soulquestions
The “Soul-Questions” website and individual quotes/soul-questions can be found www.soulistry.com/soul-questions-blog-posts
What is “Soul-Questions” about? It’s about questions. Difficult questions like – Who am I? – Why does suffering exist in the world? – Does God/Higher Power/Creator exist? – What happens after I die? – What is my purpose? – Why has a particular accident / illness / virus happened to my loved one? my friend? the world? me?
It’s about questions that come in moments of confusion – times of silence – in interpersonal relationships – during meditation – among community – in solitude – at a point of crisis – in moments of peace – in sickness – during prayer – at times of health – during times of doubt and questioning.
Soul-Questions. Spirituality.
Spirituality responds to the difficult questions (the Soul-Questions) which help create soul-space within ourselves. In doing so, we are better able to understand what life is about; recognize, experience and share love; encounter peace and reduce stress in our lives; and heal.
The idea of Soul-Questions began at a particularly difficult time in my life when I was diagnosed with mercury poisoning.
Within 48 hours of the diagnosis, I found my muscles atrophying and my mind unable to process simple things. The only prayer I could utter was “God, help.” I lived alone, was in constant pain and exhaustion; had difficulty sleeping and lost my ability to read for almost a year. I struggled daily to maintain a sense of balance in my life. When the medical specialist told me that I wouldn’t die from the mercury poisoning, but that I would wish that I had (he wasn’t far wrong on many days), I knew that I needed to take back my life one small step, one short moment at a time.
That began in two ways. The first was to record, on paper each evening before going to bed, one thing that blessed my day in some way and had be grateful I was alive. The second was to teach myself how to read once again. Because I recognized the letters, but couldn’t put them together into words. I began with magnetized letters on the fridge and then created short words, sounding them out. Eventually I moved to longer words and then words of different lengths in short sentences. I began a card file of short quotations. I practiced saying the words out loud each day and then … something wonderful happened. I began to not just read the words as words, but wonder about the meaning behind the words in the quotations. I began to write questions to myself around the quotations. I was creating soul-space within myself.
As I journaled my responses to the emerging Soul-Questions, an understanding of who I was, and who I was becoming, began to evolve for they encouraged me to look more deeply within myself. The precious balance I sought began to emerge as I made time to answer the Soul-Questions and my spirit experienced a deep peace that passed cognitive understanding as I began to heal.
As COVID19 continues its tentacle-like spread around the world and the physical fear of being diagnosed with the virus is compounded by growing economic concerns, a global atmosphere of fear, anxiety, loneliness and alienation of spirit, is bringing a growing concern for emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. The pandemic has caused many to self-isolate, so time is no longer the ‘elusive pimpernel’ it once was. Perhaps this enforced time-apart can have a quality of giftedness if we allow it to be a time of inner work.
How to use “Soulistry Soul-Questions” From time to time, a quotation will appear along with accompanying Soul-Questions. Write the quotation in your Journal. Then add the first question and write your response.
At your leisure, add the second Soul-Question and respond and continue on. Btw, it helps to put the date after each Soul-Question response.
This is your opportunity to know yourself more deeply – your time to listen, think, pray, ask yourself “what do I believe about this?”
Take your time in writing your replies. In the process of responding to the Soul-Questions, a deepening of spiritual awareness will emerge as you confront moments when you were fragile, in the midst of pain, lonely, fearful, suffering, questioning, anxious, doubting and as you encounter times in your life of hope, joy, peace, celebration. You will come to know yourself in a deeper way.
Final thoughts:
Try keeping the Soul-Questions and your responses in one place by using a separate Journal that you make or purchase.
If you are an artist, perhaps creating a painting, calligraphic rendering of the quote, piece of sculpture etc., might deepen this journey of self-discovery for you.
Your responses to the Soul-Questions are personal, but if you would like to share them here with the rest of us, feel free to do so. Your responses could encourage someone else.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May the Soulistry “Soul-Questions” nurture your spirituality; may they be an encouragement as you come to a deeper understanding of yourself; and may they provide a unique window to your soul. Shalom. Namaste. Blessings. Peace. June Maffin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Soul-Questions are from the book “Soulistry-Artistry of the Soul” which is available at www.soulistry.com/books, Amazon and can be ordered from local bookstores. the book included directions for making a homemade Journal.
* Authors/publisher of the questions or their Estates have kindly given permission for Soulistry to use the quotes.
June Maffin is a Creative Spirituality Artist, workshop leader, and author of several books books. She lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. [more]
