Do we have the ability to live our lives unfettered from responsibility and in complete freedom or is there a guiding force behind everything that we do?
Before we are born into this physical life we are given the task of setting out the ground-work for our forth-coming incarnation. Depending upon our personal level of Karma, our chosen interests, our natural skills, as well as our general level of spiritual awareness, we formulate what is commonly known as a ‘Sacred Contract’.
What is this arrangement? How does it impact upon our current life and how do we discover for ourselves exactly what circumstances have been pre-established for us in this lifetime?
Map of Life
In many ways our Sacred Contract is a type of promissory note, or legal commitment, that affirms that once incarnated we will spend our lives dedicated towards the fulfilment of specific goals and aims.
It also determines the people that will be important to us in this lifetime as well as the general circumstances that are most fitting to our psychospiritual growth. Some of these will be pleasant and energising but some will be difficult and challenging.
Then once we have established the terms and conditions of the contract — often with the help and advice of spiritual guides, it becomes binding upon us.
Free Will Vs Destiny
Throughout history philosophers have discussed the problem of whether as human beings we live our lives in a way that has been pre-ordained for us or whether we pass through it completely exercising complete free-will every step of the way.
In the case of most of us the truth is to be found somewhere between these two for whilst we enter life somewhat free to do as we wish all of our major actions and choices during the time that we are alive are set with constant reference to our previously defined contractural agreement.
Contractural Agreement Overseer
The Sacred Contract that we create is, of course, made with a higher conscious level of ourselves. Some call this state of being the ‘Higher Self’, the ‘Soul’, the ‘Guardian Angel’ or the ‘Overself’.
Whichever way you choose to describe this element of yourself is not important what is more significant is that we understand the function or role that this other part of ourselves takes in overseeing the process by which we stick to our contract and do not waiver too far from its guidelines.
For the most part we are, in any given physical lifetime, completely ignorant of this higher aspect to ourselves and of the important role that it plays in keeping us on track and towards fulfilling our spiritual destiny.
Difficult Decisions
Sometimes – usually during circumstances of great difficulty and personal challenge in our lives, we need to understand what choices and decisions are the best ones for us to make.
This is where the issue of free-will vs. destiny is so important for it becomes too easy to follow a path in this lifetime that fulfils the needs of the ego but may well be contrary to the interests of our spiritual selves.
At these times it would be helpful to know exactly what our Sacred Contract requires from us so that we can align our decisions to its requirements.
This is why so many people pray to a higher intelligence for advice and guidance during times of hardship. Sometimes the answer comes through via a sense of deeper intuitional feeling but occasionally the advice can be more specific and direct at such times as within dreams or whilst in a deep state of meditation.
In each case the advice will be given with reference to our Sacred Contract which is why sometimes the advice given appears strange and even contradictory to our perceived needs.
Fulfilling Your Contract
As we have already seen the contract that we make is a sort of guideline to our actions, choices and decisions that we make whilst on planet Earth. The reason for having a contract at all in the first place is really rather simple for its’ intention is to provide us with a framework by which we can gain greatest advantage from life experience by transforming each and every aspect of our time here into a spiritual context. Thus by aiding our spiritual essence in its attempt to expand, grow and develop we are accordingly adding to the totality of who we are at all levels of our being.
This brings us to one of the greatest challenges that life presents us when trying to use tools such as self-improvement books and manuals to further ourselves.
Undoubtedly you have come across so many books promoting specific lines of spiritual teaching that claim to have — for one reason or another, turned a person’s life around and allowed them to make major changes to their daily experiences.
You maybe have bought the courses, or publications or DVDs only to discover that the claims made by their authors are not replicable in your own life. This can be immensely frustrating and lead you to think that there is something inherently wrong with you when in fact this is not the case — it is simply that your Soul Contract does not accommodate a specific line of spiritual work and so fails to initiate it in your life.
This is specifically an issue in the case of many books on the subject of manifestation, getting rich or creating abundance. So many of them promise so much and yet so few readers actually make their principles work successfully for them.
The truth is, and despite what most authors on the subject state, we do not all have the innate right to be rich, or famous or endlessly creative. This is simply a potential available to the human condition and does not translate into reality. The fact of the matter is that for a variety of reasons our Sacred Contract sometimes ensures that we live a life that is mundane, uneventful, and often surrounded by a lack of money. No amount of affirmations, visualisations, mantras or any other practice will change that. It is something you have to learn to adjust to.
Indeed, the more we chase after the unattainable the more we inadvertently steer ourselves away from a deeper understanding of what our Sacred Contract does want from us — and this can be altogether richer, deeper and more meaningful than any ego-polishing we strive to create for ourselves.