WHERE DO WE START on the spiritual journey? What is our point of departure? Or put the question in this form - when does the intimation of the reality of the spirit occur in our lives?
There is no single answer to this question. A child is, in many ways, more aware of the wonders of the world around him than he will be some years later when the unavoidable impact of conditioning by his social environment dulls his inner sensitivity and draws him closer to the illusions of material things. But this is not the whole answer. The process of growing into life is one in which all the powers inherent in the personality are progressively realised in the actions of life. The child is in direct contact with a world of spiritual reality, but he is a passive spectator. The experience of life brings him into active relationship with that reality, so that he may eventually be consciously part of it.
In living, the first impulse is to survive in an environment that is often indifferent to us and sometimes very hostile to us. There can be no growth into humanity until the prerequisites of bodily survival and satisfaction have been met. Thus a growing person becomes increasingly concerned about his own well-being, and the process of education develops his personality to its peak of efficiency. But in addition to this there is the need to be acknowledged as a person, and this should take place when we are still little children. The fact that we are recognised as individual persons, each with his own name, is the beginning of the realisation of personal integrity and responsibility.
Many children are not confirmed as persons in this way. They are not acknowledged as individuals by their parents, and they have great difficulty in finding their own identity. It is no exaggeration to say that the greatest problem that afflicts us in the world today is a crisis of identity - personal, national, and global. We do not really know who we are or what the purpose of our existence is.
It is the love of the parent that first affirms the unique identity of his child. The quest for love and its final manifestation in the freedom of the spirit is the whole path of spiritual development. Growth into the fullness of life is also a gradual exploration into the meaning and power of love.
The love that identifies each person as something unique and valuable in his own right is a love that strives for the survival of that person and that works for his own growth into fullness of being. In the early stages of life this love is experienced from outside, and is the true intimation of love. It always comes first to us. If we know of love and are sure we are cared for, we have a direct proof that we matter as people, and therefore that our identity is real. Of course, this view of identity is still superficial and simple. It is a selfish view based on the conception that we are all-important, and that the concern of those about us should revolve around us. Such self-centeredness is the natural awareness of the contented child. He is also in inner communion with nature around him. This is a glorious state, but also a primitive one. It belongs more to our animal inheritance than our human destiny. Why is it inadequate? Because it depends entirely on the equable disposition of the outside world, and it can be destroyed in a single moment by a change in those outside circumstances. It is man's work on himself that is to bring him into a communion with all things that can never be destroyed. To know peace in chaos, joy in suffering, immortality in death is the destiny of a fully realised man. This work brings us into union with Him Who is the Master, the Overseer, of the work, Whom we know as God.
The growth into the fullness of our own being is a growing into a progressively greater knowledge of the being of God. Such a knowledge is not one that is externally imposed but one that is learned from inner experience. This experience demands the consecration of every part of the personality-body, reasoning mind, and emotions, as well as soul and spirit - to the great quest. It does not demand subjection or denial of any part of our being, but rather a full, joyous participation of the whole personality in the glorious encounter. There are no pre-conditions other than a humble receptivity to life and a faith that persists in adversity, of which I shall have more say later.
The realisation of your true identity consists primarily in detaching yourself from those attributes that are superficial but which you, in your blind ignorance, consider essential to your being. In other words, the movement towards the real is first and foremost a progressive stripping from yourself of illusions. This stripping is never really voluntary. It comes to us through those events we call tragedies, or, at the very least, disappointments. We would not seek the real, the unchangeable,the reliable if we could live happily in the world of illusion with all its glamour and false security. But the course of life is punctuated by episodes, not infrequently of long duration, in which those things we have held dear are taken from us. It may be the wealth of a rich man, or the life of one who is dear to us, or our health, or even our reputation. It may be the work that sustained us, or even a special gift on which we relied. In some people's lives there has been very little experience of love. It might be thought therefore that such people would be incapable of giving love or even of recognising it, and yet this very dereliction can serve a purpose in directing the person's attention to his true condition.
It is far worse to live an anonymous life, even on the crest of a wave of material success and affluence, than to be aware of your true identity though in a state of destitution. In this latter contingency you are at least down to bare essentials, and the rock of true being is the foundation-stone of a new life. The role of suffering in the growth of personality cannot be over-emphasised, but it all depends on the view one has about suffering and how best it should be confronted.
It is no use telling someone who is in severe distress that it is all useful experience for the growth of his own soul. Years can be spent in fighting against a multitude of misfortunes, and one's life can ultimately expire with the mumbled cursing of the personality against the whole cosmic process. Yet such a person may be nearer the great discovery of his own true being than one who is shielded against adversity by pleasant outer circumstances. The key to the disclosure of inner reality is always the tacit admission that we of ourselves can do nothing, that the process of our intellect comes to a humiliating halt, and that we are creatures of darkness surrounded by an even denser obscurity. It is the courage to admit our ignorance and impotence that is the key which opens a new dimension of reality to us. No wonder God told Dame Julian of Norwich that sin is necessary but that finally all will be well.
Sin is man's natural state. It is a condition in which we exalt our own self-interest above that of the greater community of man and nature, even to the detriment of the greater good. The Biblical story of the fall of man, though surely a parable, nevertheless stresses that when man was granted the knowledge of duality - of good and evil - his free will was sharpened and realised. He could now work for or against the cosmic purpose of the living God, and could come back to the Creator only by willed effort. This is the deeper significance of the evolutionary process, that the human creature might re-establish communion with the Creator as a fully responsible agent infused with the power of God, who had never really left him, but who insisted that he should make real the divinity which was inherent in him. Not for nothing was it said that man was created in the image of God. But for this image, imprinted deep in the soul as the spirit, to be made a living reality, man must work in collaboration with God.
It is the nature of this collaboration that marks out the spiritual life. The essence of the human and divine collaboration is that God never makes man's path easy or lifts the various obstacles and burdens on the way, but that He infuses man with strength and illumination to guide him to self-mastery.
There are laws of the spiritual nature which are worth considering. One is that every petition made in faith is heard and answered. The answer is frequently not obvious at once, but it sets into action a train of events that are seen in retrospect to have changed the whole tenor and progress of a life. Not for nothing has it been promised that in asking we shall receive and in knocking it shall be opened to us. What is needed from us in this transaction is faith; not the belief that the request is already granted despite all external evidence to the contrary, but a forging ahead despite all difficulties while knowing that help is coming to us in order to sustain our faltering steps.
Another spiritual law is that all creatures live in psychic communion, and that any sinful action - that is, one that exalts the individual over and above his fellows - excludes him from the spirit of life that animates the world. This is the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. We are indeed all members one of another, and anything I do contrary to nature, and more especially anything harmful to a fellow human being, cuts me off from psychic communion with him. This is the sin against the Holy Spirit, and I am literally in a state of hell until I confess my fault and ask forgiveness. If I, through pride or sheer ignorance, persist in my intransigence, I shall exclude myself from the greater community of life, and eventually my mind and body will suffer.
It is not improbable that such a psychic dysfunction may be the factor that predisposes to much illness that may be caused by other, more tangible agents that would normally have been successfully repelled. The more sensitive and spiritually awake I am, the sooner will be my realisation of the error of my way, and the more rapidly will I be compelled to confess and repent. But if I am thick-skinned and obtuse, I may persist in a state of sin for many years, gradually alienating all those around me so that I become thoroughly isolated. The effect of this on the development of my personality is not hard to imagine.
It is a strange paradox that the further I grow into maturity the less do I rely entirely on my own talents and the more do I open myself to that which is beyond me, yet intimately concerned in my progress. This invocation of the power beyond me, which transforms me and makes me an ever more useful servant, is both my initial and final encounter with God, who is defined as that which is. As I grow more into my true being, so does the fact of God impinge itself more and more intensely on my awareness. Thus God, far from being an idolised father-figure projected by the unconscious of an immature person who cannot face the facts of life on his own, is the source and destination of my growth into full humanity.
The more I acknowledge my weakness, the stronger do I become. The more I realise that of myself I can do nothing, the greater the burden of work I can perform without fatigue or mental breakdown. The fruit of spirituality is an analysis of our various attributes so that the one unfailing quality in us can be revealed. This is our true self, or soul, for there God is immanent as (or through) the spirit, from which the Holy Spirit emanates to lead the whole personality into that truth which alone can set us free from dependence on all things that are not God.
It must, however, be said that not all growing into spirituality is accompanied by violent tragedy and a progressive loss of all that is not essential. It also comes about by active, harmonious participation in the round of everyday activity. It may be that in playing our unpretentious part in the daily task we also see something of the process that guides the surface events, of the meaning that underlies the phenomena of nature. God reveals Himself to us in all guises provided we have the courtesy to pay attention.
We must now try to find out where and when the enlightenment comes.