Mark Anthony Lord considers himself blessed because he loves his calling, which is so much greater than a “job”. He’s one of the rare one’s that says often, “Are you kidding me? I get paid to do this? Come on!”
His success in founding the Bodhi Spiritual Center in Chicago, a couple books, and a deep passion for helping people awaken spiritually, gave him a name on the street. He has a real gift for speaking and teaching about spirituality making it practical, digestible and fun.
For as grateful as he is for his life today, Lord will tell you there were many obstacles he had to pray,meditate, cry, and pound his fists at God over – like addiction, loads of self-loathing, and being told at age 7 that he was going to hell for being gay.
In hindsight, Lord will tell you he’s even grateful for self-sabotage, which made his career and personal relationships really suffer. He also walked away from his role as founding, Sr. Minister at Bodhi when it was at the pinnacle. He found himself, as many entrepreneurs do, with nothing in his pockets – time to start over. And he did! In the past year he has made over $200K working in the spiritual world.
Lord’s unique piece of advice within his industry, directed at other spiritual teachers and healers, is to be normal! Be authentic! The world doesn’t need more priests, ministers, healers and gurus who act like they are above others or closer to God while they are over-drinking, sexing, and deeply depressed behind closed doors. People need spiritual leaders and teachers who are willing to walk by their side.
If you were to ask Lord which spiritual practice has impacted him the most, he would say, “Hands down, it’s forgiveness!” Through the power and practice of forgiveness he had a miraculous healing of the sexual abuse he endured as a child, which gave him deep insight into how forgiveness actually works, and our part in the forgiveness equation (which he says is much easier than we make it). Having taught thousands of people about forgiveness via workshops, online classes, and talks, he has seen clearly that most people have it all wrong when it comes to this profound and permanently freeing practice. They just don’t get it, and because they don’t – they stay in unnecessary suffering far too long.
People think forgiveness is weak, something they should do, but deep down inside they really wish for revenge. They think saying “I’m sorry” makes them vulnerable for more attack, when the reality couldn’t be more opposite.
Forgiveness heals. Forgiveness empowers. Forgiveness rewrites the past and sets you free to live fully in the present and create a much better tomorrow. Simply, forgiveness seriously works … when you know how to work it!
- Ask. You don’t do the forgiveness work. You can’t solve the problem at the level of the problem, so don’t try. Ask your Higher Power, God, an Angel, or anything that is higher and holier than the pain you’re in. Ask, from your heart, that forgiveness set you totally and permanently free.
- Refrain from repeating the broken story. To the best of your ability, don’t talk about it, and don’t rope other people into singing your poor-me story with you. Detox from the story so it can dissolve.
- When the story comes to mind – go back to #1. Ask, and ask, and ask again … and don’t stop until you are free.
Lord has had a number of spiritual awakening experiences; be it from his time in India at an Ashram, ayahuasca, deep prayer and meditation, or simply taking walks through nature. One thing he knows for certain – God is nothing like he was taught as a kid. God holds no judgment. Zero, nadda! He says, “It’s not even possible for God, who loves you unconditionally, to see you as anything other than innocent and perfect, so give up all that unworthiness bs. It serves no purpose except to keep you in pain.”
Lord’s passion and purpose is to help people spiritually awaken out of the coma of guilt and fear into the light of perfect love that they are, were, and always will be! To find out more about the interesting life of Mark Anthony Lord, head to his Instagram account @markanthonylord
