Following A Calling
Seabury Gould

In our lives sooner or later we are called to particular paths. Each of us has a uniqueness that asks to be lived. There are inner voices and callings that we experience and we have to somehow gather the courage to answer what calls. It is deeply important to discover one’s true vocation and to be open to guidance on life’s journey.

Callings are often experienced as longings that you feel, and you might want to act on them, instead of tuning them out. Callings may come through many different channels: intuitions, symptoms, dreams, afflictions, accidents, etc. Responding to a call means doing something about it. In the words of the Mother: “We are here upon earth to manifest the Divine’s will”. In the Bible, book of Romans: “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. “When you think about what your gifts are and what it means to live the life you are meant to live, always ask, what in God’s name are you doing?

Do you ever have words to a song going through your head that won’t go away? What if you were given an hour of prime time to preach or talk about whatever you wanted to: what would you say?

These are questions which suggest what your calling might be. One of the challenges in regards to callings is discernment. Gregg Levoy speaks of this in Callings: Finding And Following An Authentic Life. Discernment involves “knowing whether or not our calls are true or false, knowing how and when to respond to them” and “requires that we also tread a path between 2 essential questions: ‘What is right for me?’ and ‘Where am I willing to be led?’”

Regarding callings and relationships, he gives an example of a burning question which may come to mind: “Does falling in love with someone else signal that your marriage needs dissolution or [rather] attention?” If you don’t follow a call, you may feel alienated from yourself and frustrated. There may be deep disappointment­—the feeling you have missed or procrastinated an appointment with yourself.

To follow a calling, you need to be willing to challenge the status quo, be shaken up and to rock the boat. There naturally is the fear of giving up something dear to you: a relationship, a house, precious time, or the prestige of being a big fish in a small (or large) pond. As James Hillman says in The Soul’s Code, “The price of the calling is often paid by the immediate participants in the life of the calling, such as wives, children and friends... Often the demands of the calling ruthlessly wreak havoc on the decencies of a well-lived life.” Following a call may feel utterly at odds with what you’re trying to conserve, and it is very likely to bring about a crisis and/or a separation. A call is asking you to separate from something. No wonder you try to ignore It! And yet “the deeper my crisis, the clearer my choices” (Andrew Boyd).

In following a calling, you bring forth the courage to leave behind what you have for what you don’t, and what you are for what you could be. As Rumi says, “This giving up is not a repenting. It’s a deep honoring of yourself.” While it is hard to move towards chaos and upheaval, sometimes chaos and conflict are inescapable.

Nonetheless there probably is such a thing as the right kind of trouble. As you come to terms with a calling, you realize you have to take risks and face conflict, and that you’re approaching a hero’s journey. And part of what heroism is about is the ability to tolerate paradox. While holding or being in paradox, it’s important to “embrace seemingly opposing forces without rejecting one or the other just for the sheer relief of it.” (Gregg Levoy). You need to allow the tensions you feel regarding a call to coexist long enough to inform you, to teach you something.
A calling may involve a vision or inspiration for a certain form of or direction in your creativity. A musician, for instance may be called to a deeper commitment to sacred music or a different approach to music. An artist may aspire to “go out on a limb” and aesthetically express that which seems inexpressible, while noticing the voices of despair and faith and knowing that you must follow your heart, even in the face of heartbreak.

Sometimes a calling involves making a choice and thereby becoming more mature and responsible. In the words of Henri Bergson: “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” Indeed as your life goes on, there may be callings which are inescapable. “In ‘late adulthood,’ when [responding to a calling] character and fate have become more inescapable, then, too, one’s intelligence, and all that it serves, belongs more to the code of the soul than to that of the genes”. (James Hillman).

A calling may be felt wholeheartedly and in your soul. A sense of personal calling is what must be recovered: there is a reason you are alive. It may seem too difficult to live the demands of what you’re called to do, and so-called failure may be a likely result, but “the soul would much rather fail at its own life than succeed at someone else’s” (David Whyte).

Callings involve listening in silence to the voice of God and being open to Grace. When you make a “Grace-ful” choice, you choose according to what will bring you closer to the Divine. “We begin to realize that our deepest nature, the center of ourselves, or God within, is the SOURCE of our callings” (Gregg Levoy). The calling feels essential and reflects a fundamental necessity and instinct, an “I want!” of the soul.

Notice the word “call” in “wake-up call”. Have you had a wake-up call recently? In the words of a Buddhist gatha: “Awake! Awake! Awake! Do not squander your life.” In conclusion, when you experience a calling which profoundly touches your mind, life and body, it may resemble what Sri Aurobindo describes in his poem SAVITRI: “A ripple of light and glory wraps the brain...The Ineffable shall find a secret voice.”

Seabury Gould is a talented local singer and musician. He facilitates sacred singing with groups and individuals, and gives private lessons. For more information, please see his website www.seaburygould.com

Visit the Christine Breese website to read articles on consciousness and awakening, visit University of Metaphysical Sciences Video Satsangs to see talks on spiritual subjects. Read articles on Wisdom of the Heart Church. Visit Starlight Journal for blogs, newsletter, and forums on spiritual subjects. Visit Christine Breese's Metaphysical Sciences youtube channel to view free video satsangs.