My meditation this morning was rather fruitful. Although, what I am calling a “meditation” was more like me sitting in my living room, sipping coffee, and watching the lights glitter on the Christmas tree before the sun came up. The first idea that came to mind was that of alignment. Alignment is a concept I encountered in many of my readings, particularly of humanistic psychologists, like Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, and Rollo May (though sometimes using different terminology). 

What is “alignment”? It’s when our thoughts, actions, wants, needs, and values are in harmony. When mind, body, and spirit are operating as one. This is an integral part of what it means to be psychologically mature, to be self-actualized, or to be, as Rogers would say, a “fully-functioning” person. Whenever I think of alignment, I envision a tower made of blocks, kind of like Jenga. When one block is out of line, the whole structure becomes unbalanced and has the potential to come tumbling down.

As I was considering the notion of alignment in the early hours of this morning, I scribbled a series of notes in my notebook. What follows is (more or less) what I wrote.

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When we are out of alignment, we are not free to accept the present moment and all it affords us as gifts.

What does it mean to be aligned? To begin with higher values or a sense of higher purpose. This is where we must begin. With a kind of humility and selflessness and a desire to live a good life, to do good in the world, to use our talents and abilities as best we are able for our own highest good and the benefit of others. This could also be aligning with God or a religious attitude—the sense that I have a higher purpose or higher goal than that which is material or mundane. Maslow also talks about this: how self-actualizing people are motivated by higher values, not by the pursuit of material things or ego-satisfaction. 

This is just what I have been saying. It isn’t your job to acquire belongings. It is your job to figure out what belongs to you and create extensions of its light. Our potentialities are a pathway to becoming. Figure out what you love, what matters to you. As Joseph Campbell would say, “Follow your bliss.” Find out what you have to give to the world, and do it to the best of your ability, for the highest good.

When we are aligned, we experience the world differently. It’s as if we see differently. Maslow discusses this at length. So, too, does Jung, when he suggests that seeing from the perspective of the higher Self, when compared to the ego, is very much like seeing through a different set of eyes, as if encountering the world from a different spatial orientation altogether. When we are aligned, we are free to accept what is. We are free to accept the present moment as a gift—the simple things like a sunrise on a frosty winter morning, a snowfall, or a bird. 

We are free to receive because we are not grasping. The mind grasps, but it cannot enter. That is, the thinking mind alone is not a path to the good life. The mind (ego) identifies with things in the physical world that it thinks it needs, wants, or that will satisfy it, like possessions, people, ideas, ideologies, etc., but these things are like mirages. This grasping pulls us out of alignment. It is not the way.

Begin with higher values. Begin with an earnest desire to be good. Let the soul lead the way, and the mind will fall in line.

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As I was rereading and reflecting on these notes, a small voice in the back of my mind whispered, “Alignment is the first principle.” How interesting! I thought, “I wonder what the second principle is.” And sure enough, the second principle followed right away, as did two others. 

They are:

1. Alignment
2. Sensitivity
3. Creativity
4. Mystery

I am calling these “The Four Principles,” or four principles for living. It occurs to me that everything I’ve written on this blog under the guise of creative, inspired, or soulful living falls under one of these four headings. And I think it will be fun to use these four principles as a framework for organizing my thoughts and to explore each more deeply in future posts.