What is Grace?

What is more precious than gold, more brilliant than sunlight, more comforting than friends, more attentive than a lover, more healing than good health, more awe-inspiring than the most beautiful music, and more joyful than happiness? For many people, it is grace. But what exactly is grace? It is easy to recognize, but difficult to define. The word grace has many meanings, including beauty, elegance, charm, mercy and divine love. For the purposes of this site, grace is defined most closely to its Latin root, "gratia," which means pleasing and is also the root of the word "gratitude."

Following are more ideas about grace:

Grace is Awareness - Grace is the awake, aware, enlightened state of being. The awareness of the natural order of the universe lets you understand, appreciate, and accept reality. Rather than clinging to illusions, grace accepts reality. Awareness of reality creates cognitive harmony, in which everything makes sense, as opposed to cognitive dissonance, in which conflicting world views collide. Grace is a prolonged "ah-ha" moment. Grace is awareness of the paradox that we can never perceive reality as it is, only as we, with our limited perceptions, can see it. Awareness may initially be perceived with terror, because at first, greater awareness can be disorienting, just as walking into the light can be as blinding as walking into the darkenss. Yet expanded awareness inevitably leads to intense gratitude and action motivated by compassion.

Grace is Gratitude - The word grace come's from the same root as the word gratitude. At its heart, grace is gratitude for all that is. Gratitude naturally results when you become aware of the events, processes, and coincidences that must happen to support your life. It is the realization that trillions of cells in your body all coordinate to give you life. Grace is gratitude for our blessings, despite our circumstances. Grace is gratitude for the gift of a blade of grass, the joy of a child, and the existence of the universe.

Grace is Divine Love - Grace is the certainty that you are loved and appreciated. Grace is not only the experience of divine love, but also the action of love. From the realization of our abundant blessings, we give to one another. Grace inevitably leads to acts of kindness, just as water inevitably flows downstream. What distinguishes grace from mere sentiment is the kindness that results from the experience.

Grace is Harmony - Grace is the gift of being in harmony with all that is. Grace is the harmonious connection with the divine flow of the cosmos. It is when one is in communion with the creative source of all being. It is joyful immersion in the flow of the cosmos. This unison with all beings, all things and all events leads to a deep sense of belonging and connection, which many describe as divine love.

Grace is Connection - Grace is the realization that you are connected (immersed) in perfect relationship with the ultimate source of existence. In unity with the ultimate source, you are able to let love flow through you, allowing for deeper intimacy with others. Grace allows you to see your connections to those beyond apparent next of kin so that even as you see their flaws, you also see their divinity. Grace is the realization that all creatures share the same DNA and that all life is not only connected, but also interdependent.

Grace is Flow - Grace is not a thing, but rather a process. It's not something you can hold, but rather something you flow with. Grace is when you flow in harmony with the symphony of the cosmos. When you are living your purpose and flowing in the here and now you are in grace. Grace does not cling to then or there. Grace is a journey with a direction, not a destination. As the Tao Te Ching and modern physics tell us, reality is more like the flow of water than it is a collection of things. Grace is going with this flow.

Grace is Quest - Grace is the search for truth, not the proclamation of truth.  It’s knowing that Ultimate Reality will always be out of reach, but searching to understand it anyway. It is the realization that the story is not complete, and our understanding is even less so.

Grace is Transformative - Grace is the powerful, joyful, and grateful attitude which transcends by transforming the apparent difficulties of life into joy. In terms of chemistry, grace is the catalyst and also the product. Grace is a flame that lights many fires. Grace transforms adversity into joy. Grace is transformation to greater wisdom, compassion and joy as a result of communion/connection with the Source of the Universe.

Grace is Original Blessing - To be alive is the original blessing. Everyone alive today is the survivor of billions of years of evolution. Awareness of the fact that we are the victors leads to gratitude and grace.

Grace is the Precious Present - Like a special gift, grace is gratitude for Here and Now, the precious present.

Grace is Pronoia - Pronoia is the sense that the universe is conspiring on your behalf. It is the realization that trillions of cells in your body cooperate to let you dance, allow you to sing, to give you awareness, to give you the power to fulfill your desires, to experience joy, to help other people, and to thrive sustainably.

Grace is Beyond Happiness - Happiness is a state of mind that may be oblivious to problems, pain and conflict. In contrast, grace is a state of mind that acknowledges adversities and goes beyond them. It is joked that happiness can be found in a bottle. Alcohol numbs the pain, which rebounds when the buzz wear off. In contrast, Grace clarifies the cause of the pain, thereby enabling a person to effectively eliminate the source of the pain. Furthermore, Grace is lasting and leaves no hangover or addiction.

Grace is Balance - When you are in balance, you are in grace. This balance is dynamic equilibrium rather than a steady state. Often, this balance seems a paradox: joy and sorrow, fear and love, give and take, dark and light, yin and yang.

Grace is Peaceful - Grace is the feeling of utter peace and tranquility of being fully embraced by the grounding of perfect love. Grace is when we are at peace with ourselves, our communities and the world.

Grace is Universal - Grace is for all people of all paths. Some believe that grace may be attained only through some particular path, religion or set of practices. The reality is, different people attain grace in diverse ways. Grace may be attained by following the essential teachings of of Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Patanjali, Mohammed, your enlightened and loving grandmother, your best friend, your pen pal, your hairdresser, your own higher self, and many others. All people, regardless of religion, history, and ability have access to grace. Grace is like the lottery winnings. Both are fantastic and improbable prizes. Yet with grace, each person has already won: the only task is to claim the winnings.

Grace Leads to Faith - Faith is certainty of grace despite uncertainty of circumstance. Grace is uncertainty about the outcome of an action, but certainty that it is the right thing to do. Grace is courage that knows that doubt is the doorway to discovering this faith. When you have developed the ability to thrive with grace under challenging times, you will develop faith that you can attain grace at any time.

Grace is Interdependence - A person living in grace depends upon no one person or thing, but instead realizes the interdependence of all.

Grace is Divine Radiance - Like the energy of the universe, grace is all around us. Sometimes we can see this energy in the form of light. But like electromagnetic radiation, most of the radiation of grace is beyond our ability to experience. However, by cultivating awareness, we may begin to refine our perceptions, so that like finely tuned "antennas" that receive electromagnetic waves beyond our normal perception, we may learn to receive the grace radiating all around us.

Grace is Clarity - Grace is the ability to discern priorities from the hordes of distractions that clamor for your your attention. Grace is a process of enlightenment.

Grace is YES! - It is the realization that everything is working for you, that your body, mind and spirit are all aligned fro the single purpose of bringing more wisdom, love and joy into the world. When you realize that the entire universe is conspiring on your behalf, you are experiencing grace. For many, this may feel like one is born again, when fears die and hope, faith, and charity are born. Grace is a sense of grand alignment, when your innter and outer purposes align to bring more abundance into the world.

Grace is Freedom - Grace is the liberation of the spirit. It is liberation from false ideas, from the tyranny of ignorance. Grace is freedom to question everything and the freedom to know that not all questions have answers. "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery," sings Bob Marley. Everyone can be free, few are.

Grace is Strength - Like a ballerina, a person has grace if she possesses strength. As a spiritual strength, grace allows a person to carry out their convictions, to do the right thing, even when it is difficult to do so. As with muscular strength, strength of spirit comes from practice, stress, good nourishment, and rest. Grace is cultivated by exercising right actions every day, nourishing your spirit, and taking breaks from the travails of life.

Grace is Realization of Divine Order - At this moment, 100 trillion of your cells work in union to keep your blood flowing, providing you with oxygen and nutrients to feed your muscles and your brain so that you may sing, dance and love. Thousands of life-sustaining events happen billions of times each second to support your life. A complex, interrelated ecosystem ensures that oxygen is recycled, that you have food and water. A complex society gives you love, support and access to global communication networks. Although way too much to comprehend, all these events are essential for life. "The world is not to be put in order; the world is in order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order." ~ Henry Miller. Putting ourselves in unison with this order is grace. This "Good Orderly Direction" is known by some as the acronym "God."

Grace May Seem a Paradox - To the insane, truth sounds like gibberish. Walking into the light is sometimes as blinding as walking into darkness. To those with fractured bones, setting the bones straight is painful. To those living in fear, grace seems like a delusion. Although always within reach, paradoxically, grace is rarely held for long. By grasping for grace, you lose it. When you give, you receive. Grace is awareness of the paradox that only through death is grace possible.

Grace is Transcendent - By including and harmonizing opposites, grace is a transcendent awareness. Grace allows one to realize that without hate, there is no love, without darkness, there is no light, without loss their is no gain, without death, there is no life, and without absense, there is no presence. "Only grace can transcend danger; only grace can transcend tragedy. Without the possibility of perdition, grace has no meaning." ~ Sky.

Grace is Impermanent - Grace is a state of awarness, not a stage of development. Humans. like all other living creatures, must attend to the "10,000 things" that keep them alive. We must continually eat, breathe, digest, sleep, renew, exercise, bath, grow, attend to families, friends and cultivate the resources that make all of these happen. Realizing that the feeling of grace is impermanent paradoxically allows you to experience more grace.

Grace Flows Toward Divine - The universe progresses in a direction toward greater complexity, cooperation and consciousnesss. Even human culture shows evidence of "progress of the moral zeitgeist" according to Richard Dawkins. Understanding this direction of evolution, we realize that when we "go with this flow" life is much simpler. Grace, then, is like flowing effortlessly down a stream. In contrast to fear, which is like clinging to rocks, grace is letting go. "Let go and let God" is the phrase many people use. When you "align with the divine" you allow yourself to be carried in the current of divine love, the flow toward grace.

Grace is Salvation - "Grace assuages the pain of loss and makes the risk of loss worth taking." ~ Sky

Grace Flows from Source - The pattern of life, the laws of the universe, the Way, the Truth is the nature of all being. Grace happens when you follow the way (the Tao) with integrity (Te).

Grace From Laughter - "Laughter is carbonated holiness." ~ Anne Lamott. Laughter is the quickest path to grace. Humor quickly reveals a different perspective. 

The Art of Grace - Sometimes, grace happens. Chance favors us sometimes, and grace falls into our laps, seemingly by random chance or by accident. For the other times, we can cultivate Grace, nurturing it like a garden. These pages are intended to help you cultivate grace.