Anyone who starts looking around for some spiritual sustenance in the modern world is in a very peculiar position. On the one hand, the wisdom teachings of the ages are readily available. From Buddhism to Hermeticism and from Sufism to Christianity, it's all there. Then there are more modern spins, Theosophy, Anthroposophy and their ilk, various sorts of esotericism, the list is endless. Spiritual teachers abound too, and of every stripe. You are spoilt for choice.
And yet there is nothing of any real substance. Of course, the books have all the information required but it's just words. They may help to introduce people to spiritual ideas and concepts but these soon become familiar and you are not really any better off. Not in a deep sense. The teachers expound but they don't do anyone any good except on the introductory level. Once you are past this you see that they don't have anything further to offer and that for many of them being a teacher is just a substitute for living the life. If they truly knew what the spiritual was they would not be needing to set themselves up as teachers. They remain on the outside looking in.
Then there are the practices, meditation, yoga and all the rest. No practice is going to make you a spiritual person. Not on its own. It's not like sports training. You can do whatever it might be and it will bring some results, no doubt, but don't mistake these for spirituality.
What's going on? The nature of these times is that everything is being brought out, and when it is brought out, it is brought down. When a treasure is revealed, it loses its shine. When the sacred is brought into the light of day for all to see, it becomes profaned which is why such things were guarded and protected in the past. The democratisation of spirit means bringing it down to a lower level.
The remedy is for every individual to form his own relationship with God. You cannot rely on anything external now because it is all sullied. So, seek God within yourself. Not as yourself as some would say, but within yourself. There is a difference.
9 comments:
Really appreciated this post.
"What's going on? The nature of these times is that everything is being brought out, and when it is brought out, it is brought down. When a treasure is revealed, it loses its shine. When the sacred is brought into the light of day for all to see, it becomes profaned which is why such things were guarded and protected in the past. The democratisation of spirit means bringing it down to a lower level."
Yes. That *is* what happens.
To discover an esoteric path is a life-changing event. Akin to a surfer catching a wave. What a thrill! Years can go by - a decade even. But the end will come and it is almost inevitable that one will end up high and dry - washed up on the beach.
However, I believe this too is a natural part of the journey. We have been nourished and coddled and must now learn to stand on our own two feet.
The actual hard work starts at this point.
Thanks Bruce. I do believe that what is happening is happening for a reason, and that is to drive us to be our own authorities. This is a risky business and requires fine tuning of all the virtues but it is ultimately the only way to go. Mistakes will be made but we will learn from them if we are honest with ourselves.
A surfer catching a wave! Great analogy, Moonsphere. I remember when I first came across the esoteric path. I was so excited I ran up three flights of stairs! But, as you say, the thrill wears off and then the hard work begins.
I’m still a baby, but when God set me on a spiritual path the first thing I noticed was that all the current issues are old as the hills. Just take the Christian doctrine disputes: every one was part of the development of the early church. The more intelligent notice this, but then the response tends to be frustration: “But we’ve been here before! This was debated, resolved. Why can’t we move on?” The obvious answer is that the earlier resolution was wrong, but another answer is what you’re pointing to here. Even if every single question was raised and correctly answered, if the authority now lies with the sovereign individual, then everything must always be relitigated for and by everyone. The only objections to this are that it’s inconvenient and unreliable. Ok, so what? All of mortal life is inconvenient and unreliable. Unprecedented levels of reliability and convenience are exactly why modern life is a crushing, stifling, intolerable pseudo-existence.
Questions may (or may not) have been answered but we can only know spiritual truths for ourselves when we do know them for ourselves. That is why the way must be within. Which is not to deny outside authority but that is just a start.
I visited a beautiful rural church on Sunday and was very surprised to see a chapel in the south transept had been arranged as a guest room complete with double bed. This was all fully visible from the nave through perspex windows. It did seem like a mild profanity to me.
As with most activities, people would rather collect maps, read guidebooks and purchase gear than step out the door and start walking. I have hardly reached the garden gate when it comes to the spiritual quest, but I wonder if it isn't better to be unprepared.
I would say a balance has to be struck between innocence and experience. Hard to find the right balance though.
I feel that is an "us moderns", "we modern people" mentality. We can't help but experience the present from the point of view of the past and attributing too much to the future, whether arbitrary or wishful.
As for experience, nothing seems to have come closer than red in tooth and claw nature. Beyond moral, beyond ethical, it is what it is. There may exist a conscious state of mind that knows, unfailingly it knows what it is to know, and it is only, describably, discernably, alive, because it knows, because it experiences, because these are really the same.
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