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A state of Benestrophe becomes manifest when we accept ourselves exactly the way we are. When we learn to dance in the Perfection of the moment, we discover a Reality that empowers us with the experience of Wholeness and Love. Whenever we express this new consciousness, we resonate with the very same Love in others. As we explore spiritual principles and, ultimately, embrace them in our daily lives, we find that these ideals, which our entire beings find attractive, have far-reaching results.
An ancient aphorism states that we sit at the feet of the master not to receive his knowledge but to watch him tie his shoes. Teaching Love by the way we live is not the same as teaching Love from a podium. Words are a dim echo of wisdom’s teachings. What we say, however wise it may be, has an extremely limited effect unless we also back it up with the power of our consciousness and the integrity of our action.
An intellectual conception, no matter how big or how comforting it may appear to be, will never support us really unless we have made it our own through contemplation.
Swami Paramananda
While minds may play at word games and posturings, Hearts are not fooled. No matter how carefully we prepare our presentation, who we are and how we are gets communicated. Until we are at one with our words, actions, intentions, and philosophies, we send mixed messages. If, on the other hand, we awaken to the blessing of the moment and live with integrity and openness, the smallest of gestures becomes a meaningful demonstration of the power of Love.
In truth, we all teach by the way we live. The question is what do we teach? Is it Love, Trust, compassion, and Wholeness, or fear, doubt, judgment, and separation? The choice is ours to make over and over and over again.
To teach Love, we need not be perfect in the usual sense of the word. We need not be recognized as a spiritual teacher. We need not be trained in facilitating groups or in psychotherapy. We certainly do not need to have all the answers. To teach Love, we need only to be rigorously honest with ourselves and be willing to live authentically from the highest and best within us. When we work Step One through Step Eleven, Step Twelve comes naturally.
In a very real way, the content of our lives, whatever it may be, becomes the curriculum through which we learn and teach. Spiritual awakening shows us that all experience has purpose and that only Love is Real. When we become able to accept ourselves and trust Life, we inspire others to do the same. Teachers of Love are students of Life. By living from the Heart, we naturally attune the mind to focus upon spirituality in all situations. As we look at our lives, we see that mistakes, problems, and sorrows, were not failures, but part of a Perfect unfoldment that has brought us to the place we now stand.
We should be grateful that difficulties come sometimes, because they test our sincerity. They show us whether we are standing on the solid ground of spiritual conviction.
Swami Paramananda
We become stronger at the broken places. From experiences that our egos label as suffering, we learn compassion, patience, humility, kindness, and gratitude. Circumstances we term as difficult ultimately push us to become more skilled, more disciplined, more understanding, and more creative than we otherwise might be. From the pain of our separation comes our yearning for Wholeness.
As we come to understand that living fully is a blissful experience in all circumstances, we no longer have any need to cling to certain things, while trying to avoid others. We no longer need to seek approval or strive for control. As the miracle of Love dawns in our Hearts, the routine stuff of daily life appears wondrous. We come to experience the Perfection of the moment in everything we do. By letting go of fear and honoring the potential in each situation to awaken us more fully, we touch the Truth that aligns our lives with Love.
Who gives? Who receives? For the mind caught up in the illusion of separation, these questions are valid. To the Heart, such questions are nonexistent. The mind has many issues around giving. Are we giving enough or too much? Is our giving appreciated? Is it doing any good? The mind wants specific answers and certainty about giving. It wants credit, approval, and most of all, control.
Who can distinguish the giver from the receiver in the final kiss of gratitude?
David Steindl-Rast
The Heart has no such issues. When freed from the fears of the mind, the Heart opens naturally to other Hearts; and where hearts meet, giving and receiving merge into Sacred Relationship. When we give from our Hearts, we discover that there is no real distinction between giving and receiving, that giving and receiving are different aspects of a single act, not unlike breathing out and breathing in.
Self-centeredness is the opposite of Self-love. As long as we live for self alone, there is emptiness, unhappiness and hunger. As working these steps alters our perspective on giving and receiving, we begin to understand that the full Heart cannot be contained any more than the sun can stop shining. When we experience the turning toward the good we term Benestrophe, we find such joy is unlike money, power, status, security and all the other things we have sought to obtain and hold.
Unlike these other things, we cannot secure Benestrophe for ourselves at another’s expense, nor can we hoard it to tide us over in an emergency. We cannot achieve it by fraudulent means, nor by competition. We cannot increase Benestrophe through investing it in carefully chosen ways. Once we create the experience of Benestrophe in our lives, maintaining it requires that we offer Love without reservation. As we awaken spiritually, our gratitude for what we have been given results in a longing to make a positive difference in the world.
A moment does not pass when we are not giving and receiving in some way. Life constantly pours its bounty upon us through innumerable blessings of both delight and challenge. As we increasingly experience Oneness with all that is, we become more and more able to gracefully express the Love that defines our Wholeness.
As we work these Steps, we begin to experience miracles. We taste freedom and joy, serenity and empowerment. Where once there was loneliness and alienation, we discover a kinship with all of Life. Where once we strived to overcome our insignificance, we begin to rest easily within our own Perfection. The pain, fear, and confusion that once brought recoil and suffering now stimulate us to delve deeply into our Selves.
Grace is received in the chalice of gratitude.
Yogi Amrit Desai
A consciousness of gratitude leads us quite effortlessly to a way of being that teaches Love. In the beginning, we are grateful for specific things, but as our experience of this sacred space matures, we discover that gratitude can be our unconditional response to Life. As we open our Hearts in gratitude for what is, we know Life as an adventure. Beauty is everywhere. We can look at suffering and see courage, can look at struggle and see heroism, and can look at disappointment and see opportunity. The moments of simplicity and the moments of grandeur are equally filled with Life, and we are a part of it all!
Trusting Life, we surrender fear and open our Hearts to the miracles that surround us in every moment. Gratitude fills us and, being filled, we are drawn to give back in whatever way is appropriate to the moment.
The only thing we have to give is our Love. Simple kindness is a strong spiritual practice. Offering a reassuring touch, taking the time to listen from the Heart, being a calm presence in the midst of chaos, allowing another to touch our need, making a stranger feel welcome, and seeing the Wholeness in others despite fearful minds or broken bodies, are only some of the ways that every one of us can express gratitude on a daily basis.
We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.
Pema Chodron
We also give when we bring balance and harmony into our lives. Consistently honoring the environment; eating wholesome foods and caring for our bodies; being willing to forgive, taking responsibility, and being rigorously honest are Life affirming ways in which we express our gratitude. Our discipline, enthusiasm, reverence, and humility are all gifts of inspiration we offer to others by simply living consciously. Our inner work is also service, for as we break free of our masks and resistance, we become available to others in a way that transcends the results of specific acts. As we meditate and pray, we add to the resonant energy of peace present in the world. By sharing The Vision of Benestrophe, we contribute to the critical mass of Love-Energy that is now transforming our planet and our lives.
We have come to understand that, by accepting the fact of our Perfection, our lives are transformed in radical ways. We experience how our belief in the inevitability of fearful and negative realities supports the manifestation of those realities. We have learned to deal with the immediacy of the moment while affirming what can be.
As we apply the principles presented in these Steps to ourselves, our lives shift from fear-based to Love-based. Our personal relationships become clearer. Our experience with Benestrophe shows us that these principles work to create Unity within diversity. Applying them in the world at large is no different.
Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total Universe.
Alan Watts
The earth is populated by human beings who are just like us in all essential ways: people who yearn for love, acceptance, safety, health, prosperity, and freedom; people whose fear and negativity create something else too much of the time. We have all felt victimized and have misused power; we have all been hurt and have hurt others by our anger and insensitive behavior. We have also learned that those experiences in no way define who we are. The compassion we experience for ourselves becomes the basis for universal compassion; Self-love forges our connection with all of humankind. Our Trust in Life allows us to boldly hold onto our vision as Love forges our lives into vehicles for its expression.
As we let go of fear, we replace the perspective that views differences with suspicion, that tells us the best defense is a good offense, that equates prosperity with waste, power with control. Our lives reflect the Reality that true winning happens when there are no losers. As we integrate our spiritual practices into our daily lives, we bring kindness into the family and workplace, onto the highway, and into our Relationship with the environment. By experiencing Love and living it, we offer inspiration for those whose lives are still run by fear, and we give support to those who already share our vision.
Teach only love for that is what you are.
A Course in Miracles
Our ability to Love goes hand in hand with our ability to trust. The kind of courage we found in taking the Steps of self- inventory and disclosure are necessary to carry our Light into a world of darkness. Loving Life shifts our personal destiny from catastrophe to Benestrophe, and shows us what is possible in the world. As enough of us begin to claim our Freedom from suffering and negativity, we experience a shift in consciousness on a grand scale as our schools, businesses, and political institutions begin to respond to the proliferation of kindness within the Hearts of all individuals. We teach Love by the way we live because Love is the only thing that makes sense.
Following these Steps changes our lives profoundly, and yet life remains the same. We still have dishes to wash, carpets to vacuum, and traffic to negotiate. We still get sick and have problems. We still have challenges in our relationships with one another. Before enlightenment, we chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, we chop wood and carry water. But, there is a difference.
My life is my message.
Mahatma Gandhi
Self-acceptance, surrender, and forgiveness open the door to the moment. When we walk through that door, we open to whatever Life brings and stand in awe and gratitude before the mystery. When we no longer feel the need to judge, our lives are no longer filled with the conditions that judgment creates. We may do the same things we have always done, but we are different. Whatever guises our aims and goals take, we have an overriding purpose, which is Love.
As part of the expression of our purpose, we share The Vision of Benestrophe with others we know. The power in the Twelve Steps is multiplied exponentially within a community of equals joyfully discovering Unity within diversity. Sharing our process of Benestrophe allows us to teach what we most need to learn. No matter how enthusiastic we are, we respect the principle of anonymity, and we do not proselytize. In the Twelfth Step, we allow the joy, gratitude, serenity, and peace radiating through us to attract others to our celebration of Life. We trust our Hearts to tell us when it is appropriate to invite someone to attend one of our Benestrophe meetings or when to share our experience of Benestrophe with those who might be open to joining the process.
Love calls for open arms. With arms open, you allow love to come and go as it wills, freely, where it will do so anyway. If you close your arms about love, you’ll find you are left only holding yourself
Leo Buscaglia
Our commitment to live these Twelve Steps means that everyone who comes into contact with us automatically comes into contact with Benestrophe. Our own experience with this dance has taught us that the moment can be trusted, that we do not need to manipulate or control anyone to make things come out right. We can rely on synchronicity to bring the perfect people to Benestrophe at the perfect time. All we need to do to spread Benestrophe is make ourselves available and listen to our intuitive voice.
Benestrophe is not the only path to Wholeness. Benestrophe is not in competition with other paths. Benestrophe is merely one way of many to arrive at the same place. There are many spiritual paths that take us to the mountaintop; Benestrophe is one such path. For some, Benestrophe constitutes a primary spiritual approach; but others choose to be involved in various other teachings-Judaism, Christianity, Shamanism, Eastern or New Age traditions. Because Benestrophe relies upon spiritual principles that are universal, it does not contradict other traditions, nor does it seek to gain converts for itself. Rather, the Benestrophe movement is designed to be a place where those traveling on many paths can meet and share.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Teilhard de Chard in
The Twelve Steps can be used to accelerate any spiritual practice. Some groups choose to focus on a particular path, such as bodywork, service, or conscious breathing. Many groups leave the focus open. Whatever the focus, at the core of Benestrophe is each individual’s experience of Life and the world around them. This experience, not a particular philosophy or dogma, makes Benestrophe universal.
To awaken spiritually means to live fully in the awareness of each moment, to experience Life from the Perfection of the moment. Benestrophe is no more complicated than that. By letting go of the fear that blocks our experience of Love, we automatically let go of everything that hampers our ability to be here now.
The path of Benestrophe is a path of acceptance. We accept what is. What is, is Love. Each of these Twelve Steps is about learning to Love, about learning to trust and to surrender. To do this, we do not need to do anything special or be anyone other than we are. We do not need to wait until our lives get less chaotic, our kids get back in school, or our company leaves. We teach Love simply by living fully in the moment. By our willingness to live openly and without our defenses, we gratefully carry the message of Unity, Freedom, and Bliss to a world that yearns for Wholeness. As our minds and Hearts join forces, we discover the powerful Truth in the phrase,
Awakening spiritually as a result of these Steps, we gratefully share The Vision of Benestrophe and teach Love by the way we live. Sharing Benestrophe is Benestrophe.
How do we know when to share Benestrophe?
Share about your spiritual awakening since you have been working these Steps.
We teach Love by the way we live. Share about what you have learned from the example of others.
Give an example of a time when someone taught you something about Love by the way he or she lived. What did you learn from that experience?
What truth have you learned that you would like to share with everyone?
Share your experience about the small, heartfelt gestures that demonstrate the power of Love.
How has working these Steps led you to live more authentically?
What is your favorite passage in The Vision of Benestrophe? What does The Vision mean to you?
Tell about an instance when you shared something and the results were positive.
In the process of your spiritual awakening, what is something you have let go of?
In the process of your spiritual awakening, what is something new you have discovered?
Share about a challenging situation in which you responded with Love, courage, or optimism.
What ideas have others shared with you that you feel have helped you in one way or another?
Tell about an instance of sharing Benestrophe.
What hopes do you have for the future of our world?
Which of these Steps was the most challenging to you? What did you gain from taking it?
Share about how taking the Twelfth Step has changed your life.
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