A quick review of the
interior spiritual life model so far has described “the dawning” when a person
realizes that there must be a better way to live their lives.
The “dawning” sparks
“the turning” which involves starting to give up the things of the path of the
ego so that there is time, energy, and resources to start the “search.” At this
point, the person becomes “a seeker” and the question becomes where does the
search lead? The first place we discussed was religion and for some people,
especially early in their search, religions can be helpful, but the study of
religion leads to disillusionment.
Creeds and tradition and
ecclesiastical authority are empty vessels. The seeker begins to see that the
creeds, and traditions, and ecclesiastical authority are themselves idols the
are counterfeit coins in the realm of the spiritual. Increasingly, people in
our contemporary society say “I am spiritual but not religious.” And so the
seeker is searching on his/her own outside the structure of the church. The
seeker is taken onto the path of the mystical and begins to realize that there
is whole human experience of mysticism that has emerged in many religions and
many cultures and is looked upon with fear and skepticism by those who feel
threatened by experience outside the bounds of acceptable, normative, values,
thoughts, beliefs, and practices.
As disillusionment takes
the seeker into a mystical direction, the seeker becomes aware of the witness.
The witness is that part of themselves that observes their own functioning.
The individual observes
their body changes, their thoughts change, their emotions change, their social
status changes, their personality changes and the one constant in all this flux
is that part of themselves that observes all these changes.
The individual begins to
realize that their self is a social construction and is not real. With this
realization the ego begins to evaporate and what is left is spiritual
awareness. The individual observes that (s)he has entered on the path of the
mystic, the path of the spirit. The person in shifting his/her perception and
awareness is “born again.”