Spiritual Drafting When You’re In the Dumps

Having preschool age boys means that a certain amount of illness comes into our house. The latest one had both boys and Holly and I down for about a week, and I was run down, cranky, irritable. Not my usual self.

After a particularly bad day we had dinner out (without kiddos) with Sufi friends of ours. One of them, Dan, mentioned in passing a spiritual practice he was engaged in. It’s a practice that I had done a lot in the past but not at all more recently.

My heart knew to bookmark that one.

I procrastinated for one whole day, long enough to get bored of my own mood. It was time to act. Sure enough, the next morning everything felt better connected, open, easier. What did I do?

Learning About Drafting

“Just put your wheel a few inches behind mine.” Boston, 1990, and one of my college buddies and I were on our bicycles. I pretty much lived on my bicycle then, but I didn’t yet know about drafting.

Drafting is when you get so close to the cyclist in front of you that you’re in their slipstream. It can be a little nerve-wracking riding that closely behind someone, but when you trust each other, and the road is open and flat, it’s an amazing feeling. Wind resistance is gone, and you fly along much more easily.

This technical spiritual-biking term stayed in my mind because one of the more entertaining of my teachers, Habib, talked about drafting other people’s hearts.

Now this is a risky proposition. Like with biking, you have to get super close, so there has to be a lot of trust. What kind of trust?

For what I want to teach you, I recommend any person, or source, you are spiritually drafting:

• Has strong integrity.
• Has a depth and spiritual state that you want for yourself.
• Isn’t running any power games.
• Has teachings, or a book, in written form.

Honestly, finding someone really strong, like a saint or widely-renowned teacher is best. You can also copy any holy book.

Once you find a source to draft, then find yourself a pen and some paper.

Drafting with Pen and Paper

The kind of sources I’m talking about are people you rarely, if ever, have regular access to. So how are you going to draft them?

There’s a little-known spiritual practice I learned on my Sufi path that is referred to simply as “writing.” All it consists of is taking a sacred text or other written spiritual teaching, and copying it word for word onto paper.

No typing, nothing digital. Just pen or pencil, paper, and the text.

It’s a surprisingly powerful practice. What I understand is that helps us, on a physical, embodied level, take the spiritual teachings into our being. Since the written word is an expression of the spiritual transmission of the writer, our bodies, hearts and spirits receive that transmission much more deeply when we physically write the words.

Try it. Find a written spiritual teaching or source that you trust, grab some paper, and sit yourself down for fifteen minutes.

Begin by making an intention/prayer, asking your heart to be opened to receiving from the teaching. Then start copying, word-for-word, onto the paper.

You may feel the desire to pause in Remembrance, prayer or meditation from time-to-time. Take that time, let it sink in.

Once you finish, notice how your heart feels. You can simply recycle the paper when you’re done, the copied words don’t hold any particular significance. It’s the act of copying that allows your heart to be transcribed upon.

What did you notice from this practice? And do you have other practices for spiritually drafting trustworthy hearts to share?