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The Daily Spiritual Practices of a Modern Mystic

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Modern-day mystic Andrew Harvey reveals his four daily practices and explains why continuous spiritual practice sets you up to handle anything that life sends your way.

By Andrew Harvey


Omega: What practices do you engage in to lift your spirit?

Andrew: There are four practices that I truly cling to. First is that I never fail every day to turn to a great mystical poet to inspire me with the vision of the beloved. Rumi is my favorite, but Hafiz too, and Whitman, and Ryokan. They have become my friends. They speak to me of the truth with which I know I must align my life.

The second practice that I use continually is for me the most powerful. I say constantly in my heart—at all moments that I remember—the name of God. I have discovered, as mystics of all traditions have always known, that the name of the divine that you love the most is a lens through which all of the powers of the divine can be concentrated upon your evolution. This sounds fantastic, and strange, and broad, but when you practice the name with devotion, you discover that over time you will evolve a direct connection with the creator of all the worlds.

The third practice that I find absolutely indispensable in my life is saying the St. Francis prayer. It begins, "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace." For me, this prayer transcends Christianity, transcends religion, and is a prayer in which the whole of enlightened love and wisdom consciousness is enshrined in a way that I find in no other prayer. I have taught this prayer to Buddhists, Hindus, Darwinists, Pagans, and Wiccans, and everyone who’s come to any kind of true spiritual understanding can feel the enormous transformative power of the words attributed to St. Francis. I say this prayer whenever I can, and every time I do, I feel that I’m installing it more and more in my being so that it can guide me as I think, act, and feel in the world.

The fourth practice is the Tibetan practice of Tonglen. This is a practice of giving and receiving. What you receive is the pain of the world, and what you give back is the radiance of your own authentic divine nature. You can do this for individuals. You can do this for groups in the world. You can do this for people that you see suffering horribly in the news. Realizing that through such a practice, you can connect with the invisible healing web of reality, and send healing along that invisible web. Realizing this, knowing this, practicing this, gives you a tremendous sense of secret, humble power, even in very difficult circumstances.

Omega: It sounds like you’re suggesting continuous practice is important.

Andrew: I would say that the best advice ever given to anyone on the spiritual path was from St. Paul: pray unceasingly. I would say practice unceasingly.

I don’t feel it’s enough to do practice in the morning and in the evening. For me, the challenge is to keep vibrantly awake to presence at every moment. This is the greatest practice of all, because it turns the whole of your life into prayer and into an act of tenderly sacrificial divine love.

Omega: How can a constant practice help us make change in the world?

Andrew: What practice gives us is access to the voice of the soul, the voice of the self. That voice doesn’t care about the vastness of the problems. It cares only about whether we are rising to the challenge of addressing our fundamental passion for justice, and our fundamental conscience. Our work is to turn up and do whatever we can, to surrender the fruits of action to the divine, and gamble our lives away for God in joy. It's the work of the lovers of God.

When you discover your mission, you discover the meaning of your life, and when you marry the meaning of your life to constant practice, you realize over time that you are a part of the divine doing divine work. And this brings peace, joy, energy, and passion even in terrible times.