Sunday, March 11, 2018

Interior Spiritual Life 101 - Week four - "Walking with Love."


Week four

As we have been described the interior spiritual life begins with “the dawning” which leads to “the turning” which initiates “the search.” Where does the search take people?

Often the searching takes people back to the religion of their family of origin and onto “new age” ideas and self help.

Sometimes, if the symptoms are severe enough they will seek psychotherapy. Often psychotherapy is not sought until the seeker has exhausted the exploration of obtaining meaning from romantic relationships and/or friendships.

Sometimes the seeker will jump wholeheartedly into some avocational interest or get involved in becoming a diehard fan of a sports team or athletic figure or entertainment celebrity.

Sometimes, the seeker takes solace in chemicals such as alcohol or cannabis or some sort of compulsive activity like gambling, pornography, or video gaming.

All of these worldly activities and solutions provide only temporary respite to the deeper hunger and spiritual longing.

Sooner or later the seeker will become intrigued with a mystical path. The mystical path involves the eschewing of the ego and the involvement with cosmic consciousness.

There is no one mystical path that is best. There are hundreds if not thousands which have been taken over the centuries. Asceticism, meditation, tantra, yoga, fasting, repetitive praying, whirling, chanting, singing, snake handling, baptisms of all sorts, altar calls, hallucinogenic drugs, scripture study, and alms giving all have been tried.

What all these methods come down to in the last analysis is a change of heart and mind. Jesus tells us very simply that the way to the kingdom is to “love as I have loved.”

The mystical path is the answer to the question, “What would Love have me do, think, say, believe?

The search takes us, ultimately, to Love. It says in the introduction to A Course in Miracles, “The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.”

The mystical path takes us on a journey of miracles, a miracle meaning, simply, a change of heart and mind. The change is from the path of the ego to the path of the spirit. The ego will die but the spirit lasts forever.

This stage of spiritual development is called “walking with Love.”

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