Endings? Or Beginnings?

In the summer of 2013, Richard Harvey and I embarked on a journey to develop and launch an online training program for Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT). After an initial series of videoconference calls, we established the training was intended for 3 audiences:

• therapists – psychotherapists, counselors, and other healing practitioners
• people who want to train to become SAT therapists
• seekers who wish to practice SAT for their own personal growth and spiritual development

In earnest we began our collaboration. Richard started writing the lectures and supporting documents; in parallel he recorded the lectures. I turned my attention to figuring out the technology end of the equation: What platform would we host the training on? How would students be enrolled? What would the student experience look like? Etc. In parallel, I served as a second eye for the lectures and supporting documents.

The process was daunting. Month after month Richard toiled over the lecture material and supporting documents. I would make a discovery and progress in one area of the technology equation, only to be set back with the realization of the challenges, shortcomings, and/or glitches with the approach being considered. There were times when the entire process seemed out of reach.

But we persisted and in January 2015, SAT online training, Level 1, was launched. Since that time students from around the world have applied and enroled in this progressive, radical, and innovative psycho-spiritual psychotherapeutic training program. Very soon after Level 1 was launched, Richard and I talked about developing Level 2 of the training program.

Four years later, with many of the same challenges we faced in Level 1 training development and production, Level 2 of SAT Online Training has been launched. Level 2 has a distinctly different look and feel. The content is very different, but a natural extension of Level 1 training, and the lectures themselves have a very different look and feel to them.

When Richard sent me the final written material for the Level 2 course, he expressed great joy that this Level of the training had been completed. Four years of hard work had come to conclusion—it had ended. I smiled along with Richard at his, at our, sense of accomplishment. Indeed, there was a great sense of accomplishment knowing that all our hard work had finally come to fruition.

For me, however, there was an overwhelming sense that this journey, with SAT Online Training, Level 2, had only just begun. Yes, the course material was completed, developed, packaged, and launched; but now the journey of sharing this progressive, radical, and innovative psycho-spiritual psychotherapeutic training program with the world would begin.

This ending and beginning with SAT Online Training, Level 2, got me thinking about how we treat endings and beginnings in our lives. How do we deal with endings? Do we resist endings? Do we run away? Do we loathe endings? Or do we embrace endings? Do we celebrate endings? And what about beginnings? How do we treat beginnings? Are they reason or cause for joy? Concern? Fear? Of course the answer to any of these questions may differ, depending on the situation. But, in general, how do you treat or deal with beginnings and endings?

Birth and Death

Is there any more poignant metaphor for beginnings and endings than the societal metaphor of life and death. Conventional wisdom has us being born to start our life, and dying to end our life. It was not until my 30s that I questioned this story of birth and death.

I can’t remember exactly where I heard  the following, but it was either on a radio or TV show many years ago. The host of the radio or TV show was sharing that many of the great faith and spiritual traditions share the common pedagogy that when we die, as our soul leaves this realm, we pass through a dark tunnel but we see a light at the end of the tunnel. Many spiritual and faith traditions indoctrinate their faithful to “go to the light” upon their passage to the mythological heaven. The host of the show then shared their ponderings about what it must be like for a newborn child to pass through the birth canal. The newborn child may experience a dark tunnel but see or sense a light at the end of the tunnel. The host of the TV show asked if is was possible that the process of death as we commonly know it was merely a passage way from one life, one ending, to a rebirth or new beginning?

If this be so, is there really an ending or beginning? I have heard it said that death is not the end of life and birth is not the beginning. Life always was, always is, and will always be.

The Flow of Life

Is it possible that death and birth, endings and beginnings, are the natural flow of never-ending life? What happens when we examine these matters from our mind versus our heart? When we open up our heart center, do death and birth allow us to see endings and beginnings differently?

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.