It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius
This morning I am considering the stops and starts of the spiritual journey. Actually, at this time in my sense of spirituality, there are are no stopping points; the spiritual is synonymous with life. Life and spirit are not two separate things. At some point, life as we know and experience it comes to a point we name as death, but death is not necessarily a stopping point. While we are living as the body and psyche of this individual identity in this world, we are living our spirituality. We may personally yearn for greater understanding, faith, or confirmation of spiritual states and transcendence, but despite our conscious striving and interpretation, we remain at the pinnacle of our spiritual life. Our longings and struggles are the exact movements that are opening life, creating and unfolding our individual lives as a creative spiritual process. Our times of insight and awakenings, in the same way, open and expand our lives further. Ebb and flow are principles of life and therefore of spirituality. Sometimes movement is dramatic and deeply satisfying, sometime movement is healing and deeply reassuring, sometimes life is devastatingly painful and hard--we feel abandoned-- and sometimes life is seemingly static and stuck. Is it really necessary to name any of these experiences as less than our spiritual good?
Emmett Fox offers the analogy of a boat that sails on the waves of high tide, but ends up running aground during low tide. Maybe some unexpected circumstances caused the grounding, or maybe lack of awareness. Sometimes it works to push the boat out, or seek emergency assistance, but what looks like one situation at low tide will be a completely different matter in 6 hours when high tide returns, which it will. The tide is nothing personal; it simply is the way of the water in the larger movement of life's gravitational pulls. We all have our times of being "grounded" in our spiritual life, caught up in social aspects, or responsibilities and duties that may sap our time, energy and spiritual focus. But these things are not separate, really, from the spiritual life. Time for spiritual practice and contemplation returns, especially if we don't fight with the ebb and flow, trying to force ourselves and everyone around us to align with our will or a rigid agenda. Instead, we stay the course set before us, and let our hearts remember the larger reality that all human drama is enfolded in--a spiritual life.
When new light shines on us, it often comes when we least expected it, not on demand. As the saying of Jesus (Matthew 24:44) directs, “Be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Rather than the traditional interpretation that Jesus was warning of his Apocalyptic return to Earth, Emmett Fox interprets this teaching metaphysically as an interior experience of Christ consciousness (or a spiritual Awakening or Insight) that arises unexpectedly, like "a thief in the night". The point is that illumination doesn't fit our personal time tables, but happens when the time is right, when new insight and revelation best serve the context of our lives. Our part is to leave that inner space actually open and receptive, whether events are fast-tracked or slow, exciting or boring, at high or low tide. (Susan Nettleton)
For a short poem by Larry Morris, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/freshstart