Aging Like a Guru | What is divine will, and what’s it got to do with aging?

— from Rosie Kuhn —

 I don’t know about you, but my will is to have things go my way according to my perceptions and interpretations of reality. However, that’s like allowing a five-year-old to drive a car in downtown LA! Nobody wins!

Many of us are exposed to spiritual and religious principles throughout our lives, and most have similar principles, though their practices are different. Love one another – including yourself, do no harm, and serve God by serving mankind. Gratitude, forgiveness, faith, humility, acceptance, allowance, integrity, compassion. The Dalai Lama said, if nothing else, practice kindness. Okay – so, bottom-line is when I’m choosing to not exercise these principles, I’m most likely choosing to act by principles that I have deemed “higher principles” — thus acting according to my will and not Divine Will. 

This encourages me to touch on the idea of Karma; for choosing to act according to my will — deeming myself a higher authority than the Divine, again, is like a five-year-old driving in downtown LA. It’s gonna stir up trouble, indeed.

Karma, in essence, is the practice of getting the five-year-old out from behind the wheel and putting an expert in the driver’s seat. Not as easy as it seems – as many of you know already. In the end, nobody wins when we let a five-year-old drive in LA, or for that matter, a five-year-old driving on Orcas Island?!

Exercising and strengthening the muscles of allowing and acceptance are the first two biggies to get that five-year-old out from behind the driver’s seat. It’s admitting the five-year-old is powerless over knowing what to do in the midst of the calamities that surround her.

As a five-year-old, I know, or have to learn to accept that there are grownups with more experience than me who can restore my life to sanity. Yet I’ve known a lot of five-year-olds who are not willing to give up control. They throw huge temper tantrums in order to stay in control. Actually, I know a lot of grown-ups who do the same thing!

The point of this conversation is that all of us, throughout our lives, have put the will of our childish-self ahead of wisdom and faith of our grownup selves. We do that because we are afraid to trust that we are safe and supported. And, at many points in our lives, especially through the process of aging, we realize we just can’t do it alone — we just can’t do it. We have to surrender our will and turn to Divine Will.

The process of aging ongoingly puts us in life circumstances where we feel defeated, at a loss, and powerless. We can feel isolated, depressed and hopeless. Over and over again we are stretched to leap into faith and trust that something or someone is there for us in ways that are far better than how we are managing our lives on our own. This is big, hairy and scary work. And every human being on the planet is doing it!

Some people will say there is no evidence to support that this practice of living in Divine Will works. Actually, millions of people around the world who practice 12-Step Programs for whatever addiction they are living with, will tell you that they are living proof that it works. Turning their will over to a Divine Will has restored their sanity, and it allows them the experience of being supported through all of life’s challenging circumstances.By the way, exercising Divine Will doesn’t require sacrifice of anything! It doesn’t require living a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. It doesn’t require giving up any of your dreams and desires. Exercising Divine Will only requires that you willingly choose to put a driver behind the wheel that has experience driving in circumstances beyond a five-year-old’s capacity to make wise decisions. I’m willing to bet that your inner guru has their driver’s license!!  Beep beep!!

For more blogs, books, videos, or if you are interested in coaching or training with Dr. Rosie, check out her website: www.theparadigmshifts.com. And her podcast can be found at aginglikeaguru.podbean.com. The book Aging Like a Guru – Who Me? and Dr. Rosie’s other books are available at Darvill’s Bookstore, the Cottage Gift Shop, and Amazon.