Getting Lucky by Terry Patten
We've all had times when (in the words of the song from the Broadway's "Oklahoma!") it has felt like "everything's going my way!"
And we've all had times when (in the words of the old blues song, "Born Under a Bad Sign") it has felt like "if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all!"
Sometimes it seems like we're lucky, and sometimes we can't get a break. Our outer circumstances are out of our control, and bad things definitely do sometimes happen to good people (including ourselves) so compassion (including self-compassion) is always appropriate. But that's not the end of the story.
I'm writing today with a friendly reminder - you’re not completely powerless, even if this is one of those moments when you're feeling out of luck, and like there's nothing you can do. There is an important way in which you are always actually creating your luck!
It has to do with your felt connection (or state of disconnection!) from the all-accomplishing, loving, free, creative, inherent Goodness and power of existence. This is the "X factor" that is the reason why gratitude and appreciation are not only a healthy attitude toward life, but ultimately more realistic and sane than feeling like a victim, or even taking your good fortune for granted.
The problem is, when you're down, it really feels like you can't get there from here.
Those two inner feeling worlds (of feeling connected or disconnected) are just that - two completely different worlds! And when we're in the wrong one, it doesn't seem like there's any way to cross over into a different universe. Especially because we're probably coping with a lot of hard facts. Life is difficult for everyone, sometimes very difficult.
The only way to make the leap is to open up and make a fresh, original, alive discovery of the greater goodness and power that's always available - what I like to call "the Good News."
It's always, at least in principle, possible to take a deep breath, release your "monkey mind," feel you appreciative, caring heart, and touch in to the radiant transcendental Grace that is the real nature of every moment of life (even the darkest times). You can actually wake up for a moment from the bad dream of being a separate, skin-encapsulated ego, threatened on all sides. When that happens, your inner weather then changes completely.
Your heart opens, and your way of showing up in life changes. Your connection to grace, becomes a self-fulfilling positive prophesy. You begin to make your own luck.
One way of looking at it is to realize that a synonym for grace is "luck." You can't reliably make yourself feel grace, but you can certainly create the conditions for that to happen. You can up your percentages. Think of it as getting lucky. That's part of what I mean by the words "spiritual practice."
A hole-in-one is just plain good luck. Same with a lot of things in life, inner and outer. But as golfer Ben Hogan once said, "The more I practice, the luckier I get."
Think about that.
Think of spiritual practice as a matter of waking up from the bad dream that tends to keep creeping back, making the decision (again and again) to do your part in "getting lucky."
Because spiritual inspiration is the single thing that can most powerfully transform your feelings, motivations, and behavior - making night-to-day changes in your inner world - in just a moment.
Practice means to straighten up again and again out of the "slump" of feeling flat, or victimized - to open out of even the littlest moments of contraction, and also to finding your way to open and to practice during major hard times that can be overwhelmingly difficult and even discouraging.
And practice means letting that clear, embodied, heart-centered consciousness transform your disposition. It means letting it restore and energize you. And it means bringing that greater loving energy to others, and taking it out powerfully into the world - even when that means dealing with difficulties.
Because if you're going to be effective in serving a higher purpose - if you're just going to have a self-actualizing life, or even just be your best and wisest self in the midst of a difficult life - you need a strong foundation. Which means doing this simple thing - 'getting lucky' - again and again and again and again. It's ALWAYS possible, no matter how impossible it might feel.
Even in this moment. Especially in this moment!
And again tonight, before you go to sleep.
And then tomorrow morning...
Good luck!
Terry Patten
