3
The dawning of the interior spiritual life
We are still in the
first week of our 16 week course on the Interior Spiritual Life 101.
This first
week we have been covering the introduction to the course and the housekeeping
and now at the end of the first week we turn to the question, “How do people
come to realize that they have a choice between the path of the ego and the
path of the spirit?”
This question doesn’t arise for most people until mid life
unless they have been subjected to some trauma and dysfunction earlier in their
lives.
I remember at age 10 reassuring myself in my unhappiness, “This can be a
good life if you know how to live it.” This is not an observation that most 10
year olds would make. Usually, it is not until middle age that a person in
his/her distress observes “There must be a better way.”
In the Substance Abuse
counseling field, it is widely recognized and acknowledged that people are not
ready to question their behavior and lifestyles until they “hit bottom.”
In A Course In Miracles
it is written, “Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit.
Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a
better way. As this recognition becomes firmly established, it becomes a
turning point. This ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously
weakening the investment in physical sight. The alternating investment in the
two levels of perception is usually experienced as conflict, which can become
very acute.” T-2.111.3:5-9
It is in this dawning
awareness that there is a better way that the interior spiritual life is born.
Unfortunately, in our contemporary culture, we don’t have a vocabulary to name
this experience and growing awareness other than to psychologize it. Often the
person presents with complaints of depression, anxiety, substance abuse,
infidelity, various compulsions such as gambling, shopping, hoarding,
workaholism, video and social media addictions, relationship conflicts, etc. The person realizes that the path of the ego is working for them any longer.
Sometimes if the
individual has a faith tradition in which they have participated there is a
tendency to return to the religious practices and membership of one’s
youth even though there is an increased ambivalence about the “faith” required
for membership in such groups. These individuals come to distinguish and
discriminate between religion and spirituality as being two separate things.
Some religious people are not spiritual, and some spiritual people are not
religious. Some people can be both religious and spiritual, but increasingly,
in our contemporary culture, this is becoming increasingly rare.
This awareness that
there must be a better way and the desire for an interior spiritual life
initiates a search. The individual has become a “seeker” even though it is not
clear what, exactly, he/she is seeking. In what direction do seekers typically
go? We will explore this question next.
No comments:
Post a Comment