Finding Balance In My Personal Practice

I am Aaron Taggert. The first speech I gave at my local Toastmasters International club required me to introduce myself in a four to six-minute speech. I am used to giving three hour long seminars which made the time limit very intimidating. A year later I had earned my first credential from Toastmasters (Competent Communicator), and I was asked by my local Unitarian Congregation to give a five-minute speech about my personal spiritual practice. I have edited the speech for the Medium audience but attach the original recording for your entertainment. This article is my ice breaker to the readers of Medium and the first time I have written openly and publicly about my spiritual practice.
I am sometimes classified as a Neo-Pagan Shaman. Labels aside, there are three pillars of my practice. The Goal, the Gods, and the perception of reality or existence.
I learned the Goal while I was living in Omaha NE. I had the great luck of running into a man that I will always know as Guru. His name is Jagathguru Mahamaharishi Paranjothiar. He is the founder of the Universal Peace Foundation. UPF promotes a philosophy to bring about UNIFIED THOUGHT for UNIFIED ACTION for GLOBAL PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE. UPF asks us to move towards a WAR FREE WORLD, DISEASE FREE WORLD and CONFLICT FREE (MIND) WORLD to assure HAPPY LIVING to all. To gather strength for this thought of INNER PEACE UPF requests all people across the GLOBE to observe ONE MINUTE SILENCE every day from 11.11 to 11.12 AM local time in each country.
In case you missed it, the Goal is hidden in all those fancy words. It took me awhile to really understand, but the Goal is to ‘be happy’. I am only capable of finding balance because I have a guide star. Every action, every plan is held up against this simple standard.
The second pillar of my personal practice is a balance of understanding. It is a protection against both hubris and nihilism. This second pillar is the Gods. Wheather this means the Supreme No-Thing of the Native Americans or the Genus Loci of this congregation or a moving piece of art. The Gods remind me that there is nothing that I can do that they have not already done. There is nothing I can express that has not already been expressed. How can I possibly compare to the vastness, complexity, and power of the Universe?
The Gods also teach me that every moment is unique, that this moment has never happened before and will never happen again. Stretch this moment before us into one thousand years, and you will barely begin to understand its wonder and true meaning. Moments matter. From moment to moment I weave a tale in which I am the hero with a thousand faces. I am King Arthur, Guru is my Merlin, and this life is my grand adventure.
The final pillar: Perception of reality and existence… The mind is a fascinating thing. Guru teaches us that to have the things that the Universal Peace Foundation aspires to, a WAR FREE, DISEASE FREE, and CONFLICT FREE world, we must first have a war free, disease free, and conflict free mind.
The mind is generally categorized into two halves. A ‘Logical’ half and an ‘Artistic’ half. If you would all take a moment to look at these beautiful circular windows…… You have all perceived a perfect circle. However, if we were to take a few measurements, I am certain that we would find that these windows are not perfectly circular, even though they may be perfect. If you draw a perfect circle on paper, again we see a perfect circle, but under the microscope, we would see a seemingly random splattering of dots.
Order and Chaos have long been thought to be the fundamental energies of the universe. I put before you the thought that Order and Chaos are the two halves of the mind crashing together in a wondrous balance wherein our reality is recreated, moment to moment.
I am balanced because I have a Goal, Happiness. I am balanced because I have the Gods, to restrain my Ego and to lift my Spirits, I am balanced because I see perfection and imperfection in all things.