Walk the walk

Ever heard the saying:

“She doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk”?

It is a compliment. And deservedly so, because people who actually do what they think, believe, and say they are going to do are not the norm.

Thinking or knowing something is not the same as understanding, doing, and becoming what you think and know.

I was a college and university professor for some 25 years. Over the years I found my students becoming less and less interested in “walking the walk” than in “talking the talk”.  It was not their fault: The higher education system puts thinking and knowing on a much higher pedestal than doing and becoming. And thinking and knowing something are much easier than doing it and actually becoming.

For example, which is easier: Learning to ride a bicycle by thinking about how it is ridden in theory or by getting on one and learning to be become a comfortable and natural rider of bicycles?

Of course it is vastly easier to think about the concept of pedaling so that you move forward and moving your handle bars to balance yourself, than it is to actually get on a bicycle and learn to balance while pedaling and moving forward and become natural and comfortable at staying balanced while riding.

Another example:  Is it easier to learn what a spiritual teacher did, and suggested we do, or to do it yourself? In other words, is it easier to think and know spiritual ideas, concepts, and principles or to practice them and “become” them?

Is it easier to think “Love thy neighbour as thyself” or to actually “love your neighbour as yourself”?

Well, duh! Of course it is harder to actually do it!

But which choice will result in your being unconditionally loving?

Thinking the words or practicing the idea?

My favourite bumper sticker of all time:

“What would Jesus do?”

It is quite humorous and profound for me at the same time because it prompts a simple and powerful question:  In everyday life, in all you do and with everyone you meet, are you doing what Jesus would do?

Or are you just thinking about what the “right” thing to do might be?

Not worshiping Jesus. Not knowing his words. But actually embracing his teachings, or those of any other teacher of the highest level of truth, and integrating them into how you live your life and into your thoughts and actions that you do all the time, every day, and in every moment?

Walking a gentle spiritual path is simply the choice to proverbially stand up and walk. To actually take one step after another. Every day, right now, in this instant. To take timeless truths and make them real in your life.

A wise teacher shared that it is just the choice of love in every moment.

Another wise person said it is the choice to always be kind to yourself and to everyone and everything.  All the time. Right now. This instant.

Same same.

Are you fed up with “thinking” and “knowing” because doing so for months, years, or lifetimes hasn’t gotten you very far along the path to the inner peace you seek? And that actually runs you around in circles where you find yourself right back at the beginning again and again, no further ahead for all your thinkingness?

Choose to do and become. Right now. Commit to yourself the simplest commitment:  To do and become that which your soul is pointing you towards.

Walk the walk.

Which is one of the foundation stones of a gentle spiritual path.