Two weeks ago

Kyeli and I were driving home from yet another tour of yet another crappy apartment, when she said, “What the hell are we doing, Pace? We’re trying to check in with our hearts for guidance, but our hearts are telling us different things on different days:

‘Live near the water.’

‘Don’t live in a suburb.’

‘Stay in Portland.’

‘Okay, you can live in a suburb, as long as it’s not Gresham.’

How are we supposed to follow guidance when guidance keeps jerking us around?”

I stopped at a red light.

“I have no clue,” I replied. “I’m trying my best to follow my heart, but this is the first time I’ve ever felt so disoriented and lost. Usually I have no problem trusting my heart to be my compass, but now it’s like my compass is spinning around in circles and I have no idea which way north is.”

The light turned green. I took a right turn onto the Avenue of Roses, heading north.

Kyeli nodded. “I feel like that too. How are we supposed to know what to do?”

That’s when it hit me.

The 4 Layers of Reality

According to Sufism, there are 4 layers of reality, all superimposed like transparency sheets on a projector, stacked on top of each other.

1. The first layer is the world of the self: the physical world most people live in. It’s the matter you can see and touch. Objects have form and solidity, and they’re separate from each other. The first layer is furthest from the Real, and therefore filled with illusion.
2. The second layer is the world of the heart: the psychic world. Lines of energy connect all living things. Energetic beings like angels, spirit guides, and our hearts exist on this layer, and they have form but no solidity or consistency. The illusion of solidity is stripped away, but plenty of illusion still remains.
3. The third layer is the world of the soul: the world of the Divine qualities such as mercy, strength, protection, love, and compassion. There is separation but no form.
4. The fourth layer is the world of the secret, and in this world there is only Oneness: no separation, no duality, no illusion.

“When asking for Divine guidance,” I told Kyeli, “we’ve been asking for first-layer advice: ‘What do I do?’ No wonder we’ve been spinning around in circles because we’re so many layers removed from Source. What we need to be asking for is third-layer advice: ‘What Divine quality is needed here?'”

Kyeli’s jaw dropped. “Holy fuck, Pace,” she said. “This changes everything.”

When we arrived home, I asked my heart, “What Divine quality is needed here?” and I received the quality of the Protector. I called that quality into my heart and I felt reassured, solid, confident that things would work out.

And things did indeed work out!

In summary:

When guidance seems weak or askew,
Remember to zoom out your view.
It’s what’s in your soul
That’s guidance’s goal.
God doesn’t care what you do.