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Poise, in our pursuit of consciousness growth, is as important to our success as focusing the lens is to the photographer. A lack of it means a distortion of perception and a clouding of vision. Without poise we are as helpless as a ship without a rudder, and we get tossed around and never get to our destination.

I live just a little bit off the coast in South Carolina and sometimes I go out into the ocean and enjoy floating on the gentle waves. But once in a while a big wave will come up on me and I can see that it is about to break just where I am floating. If I let it, it will pick me up and slam me down in its turbulence. I find that if I dive down under the surface that the turbulence will pass right over me. It always serves as a reminder to me that when life gets stressful that I need to go within.

That’s how life is. If we stay on the surface of things, we get tossed around. If we go within, into that inner ocean of tranquility, we remain unaffected.

Without poise, we cannot stay present, and if we can’t stay present, then we can’t experience life fully; we can’t feel the joy that comes from Presence, that inner connection to our source of being. If we are not present in the moment, then our ability to listen is compromised, as is our ability to think, to see, and to act. We are not all there. It’s almost like a driver under the influence of alcohol.

When something happens that disturbs my poise I’ll regain it much sooner if I can realize what’s happening within me. But sometimes it takes a while to look within. Then I can take a step back and use my consciousness to bring back the poise. I find that I most often lose it when behind the wheel of my car. All it takes is a driver to cut me off or pull out in front of me and I lose my poise. I’m working on it. I know it doesn’t do my passengers or me any good for me to be upset. It’s been a while. I’m eager to see how I handle the next unconscious driver that comes my way.

To lose your poise is a dissipation of energy. It can really create self-destructive tendencies. In poker, some players will resort to tactics to get other players to go on tilt, or out of control. Then the player on tilt will almost always and uncontrollably loses all of his chips. Sometimes a player goes on tilt after a string of unfortunate losses. Poise is essential for success in poker, as it is in all life.

In spirituality it’s essential. In the spiritual master-disciple tradition you will see this. Some of you must be familiar with the Sufi poet, Rumi. He is now the number one selling poet in America, translated by Coleman Barks, even though he lived in Turkey (born in 1207 in Afghanistan). Before he became a spiritual master, he was a disciple of Shams-e-Tabriz. One of the poise strengthening endeavors Shams had Rumi do was walk through the Muslim community with a large bottle of wine. This would bring upon Rumi rebukes and taunting from the crowds of people he would pass by. They would even throw stones at him. Eventually, he became immune from the taunts and didn’t care what others thought. That was a big part of his spiritual growth. Eventually Shams-e-Tabriz brought Rumi up to the infinite heights of consciousness and he became a spiritual master in his own right.

Meher Baba used similar tactics with his disciples. It was all part of spiritual training. Sometimes he would ask a disciple the same question over and over until the disciple would explode in anger. Meher Baba would smile and say, “I won, you loss.” Life is like that. It’s a game. The next time you find yourself in a stressful situation where you keep your poise, pat your self on the back and say, “I won.” I guess the attitude we need to take is that if it doesn’t kill us, it only makes us stronger. The crisis is an opportunity.

Speaking of having a crisis, I just received a phone call (just after writing the previous paragraph) from a long time friend and psychologist in the Washington, DC area. She woke up this morning and discovered she didn’t have any hot water, which forced her to take a cold shower. Then she went downstairs and discovered three feet of water in her basement, which knocked out her hot water heater and her furnace, because her sump pump broke down.

She went to work, called a plumber who told her that she would have to call the fire department because the house could explode because of the build up of gas. She called the fire department and they said it was a threat to the houses surrounding her house and that they would have to break into the house to turn off the gas. When she asked if they could wait until she could get there they said no. What a test of poise that was. She was pretty upset.

It turns out that she has thousands of dollars worth of damage and she thought she must have been a murderer in her last life to have such bad karma. I then told her the story about Rumi, which lightened her mood a little bit, and that, no, she didn’t have bad karma, it was just God preparing her for some serious consciousness growth.

I think the universe will give us situations to help us strengthen our poise. If we curse our fate and think thoughts such as life being cruel and unfair, then we will attract more and more of that into our life. If we can express gratitude for at least something, we will attract more into our life to be grateful for. The universe doesn’t disappoint.

But we are not stones, and we all get upset and angry from time to time. But by the use of consciousness, can move beyond it and let it go. It is counter-productive to be in a bad frame of mind. It has an adverse effect on us mentally, physically, and spiritually. I find the quickest and easiest way to move beyond a bad mood or bad reaction is to practice gratitude. By being thankful for what I have I changes the focus of my consciousness.

If our lot in life gets to the point where we can’t even afford a pair of shoes, we can at least be thankful for our feet. If we don’t have feet, we can at least be thankful for the ability to crawl. And if we can’t crawl, we can at least be thankful for being alive and the ability to remember God and this situation in life, which made us totally dependent on Him.

That is one of the reasons poise is so important. Without it, we are prone to get into negative thinking, which produces negative energy, which spreads out into our environment. It’s very toxic. More bad things will be in store for you. That’s where the expression, waking up on the wrong side of the bed came from. The whole days unfolds in a negative way if we start off in a bad frame of mind.

Detachment is a big component to keeping the poise before it has a chance to be disturbed. Eckhart Tolle used the term, “rooted in the unmanifested” in his book, The Power of Now. I find that very helpful. When we can find our identity beyond our physical form, then we are not so attached to what happens to it. We can even approach death with serenity. And if we can approach death with serenity, then why sweat the small stuff?

When we are rooted in the unmanifested, we are rooted in the oneness of life. And with that consciousness, we can love and serve others because we have moved beyond separateness. With that mindset, poise is much more stable.

People with that level of consciousness maintain their poise, even when disasters like major hurricanes destroy their city. The reason: they are looking for ways to be of service to the victims that they deem much less fortunate than themselves. They are thinking of others more than they are thinking of themselves. Those are the real heroes of the world.

When we can become present in our feeling of Presence, we are much more immune to outer situations affecting our inner state. We have more awareness, and consequently, more resources available to us to respond with. Our minds work for us instead of against us when we are present in a state of poise. If someone speaks to us in a derogatory way, we can respond with compassion and understanding rather than react with hostility, which intensifies the negative energy. Compassion and understanding dissipate it.

A lack of poise, due to the negative energy that it produces, along with the universal law of attraction, brings about more situations that challenge our poise again and again.

Living in a state of poise produces positive energy, which transmutes negative energy, and along with the universal law of attraction, brings more peace and harmony into our lives.

So enjoy the game the universe plays with you when it tests your poise, and pat yourself on the back when you win. You’ll get better and better at it.

And I’m ready now to get back behind the wheel.