The Road to Spiritual Awakening
Our world view is first formed within the family and later evolves with influence from our contact with the world outside our family home. The expression “It takes the whole village to raise a child” describes this truth. The child must eventually go out into the ‘village’ and make its own way, integrating village values and behaviors with those learned in the family.
In days past the village was small and people conformed to village values and customs because there was no alternative. The people of the village knew nothing outside of village life. The world view introduced at home during infancy was simply reinforced when the child ventured out into the village. In antiquity the highest level of punishment was banishment from the village. Imagine an individual or family being forced to leave the village … with nowhere to go … a complete loss of their sense of belonging and left to face all the challenges of survival on their own.
Even today, voluntary or forced exile remains a most painful experience; exile from family (divorce), exile from community, exile from one’s faith community. All of these experiences are traumas that are often not healed or reconciled.
The Huron Indian Long Houses and the Chinese Hakka Round Houses are two examples of ‘village’ or community living. In these societies the notions of possessions or private property were alien concepts. Today this style of social structure would be labeled communism and vigorously shunned by all Western peoples and much of the Eastern peoples as well.
Why didn’t this community (communist) form of social structure grow and evolve? Rather, human organizations evolved where avarice, selfishness and aggressiveness of the few impose their will on the many. An early example is the Egyptian Empire. A powerful and advanced empire was built on the backs of the many … in this case the Hebrew peoples. Compliance of the weak was enforced through brutality and fear. When this compliance of the weak reached its zenith … that point where the many would not tolerate oppression any longer, we have revolution which is the underlying story of the Exodus. The strong and mighty were humbled (magnificat) and we all know what became of the Egyptian Empire. This paradigm of human evolution has recurred countless times in most geographies of the world in the past 5,000 years with each successive recurrence gaining strength in scope and breadth.
After 43 years of shaping my personal world view, largely conforming to mainstream society, it was unexpectedly shattered in 1993. For the first year or so afterwards the destruction of my former world view took place within my inner self without my conscious knowledge of what was happening to me. Later the transformation of my world view manifested itself in my altered perceptions of the physical and spiritual world.
Several years ago I contemplated the parallels between what happens during the incubation of an egg and the transformation of inner self.
An egg is just an egg until it hatches.
”Since then my daily reflections often went back to the image of a chicken egg ... and what it may symbolize. The parallels between a spiritual awakening and the emergence of a chick from the egg were often part of my contemplation. My mind went to the incubation period ... the time between the chicken egg coming into our physical world and the chicks' exit from the egg shell.
My mind drew a connection between this incubation period of the chicken egg and the book “Dark Night of the Soul” written by St John of the Cross where he describes his souls secret journey to the Divine. What is particularly impressive is that St John could write such a masterpiece while imprisoned by his fellow monks for heresy.
Seems there are many parallels:
• we have no idea what is happening inside the egg ... in the dark night of the chick. The transformation of what we know as egg white and egg yoke into a living breathing walking fuzzy little yellow chick.
• we have no way of participating in the transformation. Neither does the mother hen. All she can do is sit on the egg, Keep it warm and protect it from harm.
• the transformation requires nothing from the external environment; nothing from our physical world, aside from the warmth and protection provided by the mother hen.
• finally the transformation from egg white and egg yoke to a living chick cannot be hurried along. Any attempt to expedite the process is fatal for the developing chick.
Much is written about spiritual transformation, spiritual growth, spiritual awakening and spiritual conversion. All these terms are used to describe something we don't fully understand. Seems to me that people who suddenly find they want to respond to some mysterious yearning within have already traveled a long way. The new life has been developing in their inner self without any conscious awareness.
The conscious awareness may be viewed as the equivalent of the chicken egg showing up in the nest; still a long way from hatching. Nonetheless, all that is required now exists. We have acquired the conscious knowledge that it exists, we see the egg in the nest, we feel the mysterious yearning.
As mentioned above, nothing external is required for further progress, only warmth and protection from harm.
Warmth and protection from harm in today's world is almost impossible to find. The egg in the metaphor is most often constantly subjected to cold and aggressive hostility ... why?? Is there some unknown force fighting to destroy the emergence of spiritual awakening?
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) labeled the society of his day "Life by Competition". The word competition infers winners and losers, struggle, aggression, insensitivity ... the antithesis of warmth and tenderness. Since the time of T.E. Lawrence the pervasiveness of competition in society has increased exponentially. Contrast this situation with one of the pillars of ancient Chinese philosophy where they discouraged competition and promoted the avoidance of competition. Seems the Chinese ancients understood the destructive potency embedded in competition.
Nonetheless we must be prepared to crawl inside the egg ... into the darkness ... the unknown ... and wait patiently and humbly.
Living in society today is like walking in the pouring rain without an umbrella. One gets wet ... one gets soaked!! Likewise for the person on a journey of spiritual enlightenment ... the soul is constantly contaminated simply living day to day life. Some people advocate retreating from the world or abusing our body or mind in an attempt to arouse a spiritual state. While these approaches have proved successful for some they are certainly not universal with many more failures than successes. What then?
Most people on a spiritual journey are either destroyed by the cold and abrasive nature of today’s society or they lose their patience. The desire for linear and timely progress is fraught with persistent disappointment. As a result they surrender their quest and return to mainstream society. The rope bride analogy
The image I received the other day was someone standing on top of the egg with a sledge hammer trying to break the egg open. Yelling hatch! ... it's time! ... I know it's time! ... hatch! Eventually the 'egg' breaks and instead of a living chick all we get is egg white and egg yoke spilling out all over the place ... we cannot hurry the process!
Seems to me this attempt to control or to hurry the transformation is the underlying cause of most religious violence. The word religion means to reconnect with God, inferring that religion is a journey to God with each form of religion providing their exclusive roadmap (dogma, doctrine and ritual) and hostilities develop because of the differences. Human attempts to control the journey to God are analogous to the image of trying to expedite the hatching of the egg mentioned earlier.
Yet when the time comes for the egg to hatch the chick inside must exert some energy to break the shell; intellectual and physical effort is required to achieve life … achieve freedom.
Today the scope is global and the breadth is virtually all of mankind. What will be the outcome? Will we have another Exodus? See notes for December 8th
Certainly the ‘many’ today do not have the tools to overturn the current social structures. St Augustine wrote in his book Confessions “Woe to you, torrent of human custom! Who can stand against you?
Where is the modern day Moses? Where are the supernatural acts demonstrating the will and power of God?
In days past the village was small and people conformed to village values and customs because there was no alternative. The people of the village knew nothing outside of village life. The world view introduced at home during infancy was simply reinforced when the child ventured out into the village. In antiquity the highest level of punishment was banishment from the village. Imagine an individual or family being forced to leave the village … with nowhere to go … a complete loss of their sense of belonging and left to face all the challenges of survival on their own.
Even today, voluntary or forced exile remains a most painful experience; exile from family (divorce), exile from community, exile from one’s faith community. All of these experiences are traumas that are often not healed or reconciled.
The Huron Indian Long Houses and the Chinese Hakka Round Houses are two examples of ‘village’ or community living. In these societies the notions of possessions or private property were alien concepts. Today this style of social structure would be labeled communism and vigorously shunned by all Western peoples and much of the Eastern peoples as well.
Why didn’t this community (communist) form of social structure grow and evolve? Rather, human organizations evolved where avarice, selfishness and aggressiveness of the few impose their will on the many. An early example is the Egyptian Empire. A powerful and advanced empire was built on the backs of the many … in this case the Hebrew peoples. Compliance of the weak was enforced through brutality and fear. When this compliance of the weak reached its zenith … that point where the many would not tolerate oppression any longer, we have revolution which is the underlying story of the Exodus. The strong and mighty were humbled (magnificat) and we all know what became of the Egyptian Empire. This paradigm of human evolution has recurred countless times in most geographies of the world in the past 5,000 years with each successive recurrence gaining strength in scope and breadth.
After 43 years of shaping my personal world view, largely conforming to mainstream society, it was unexpectedly shattered in 1993. For the first year or so afterwards the destruction of my former world view took place within my inner self without my conscious knowledge of what was happening to me. Later the transformation of my world view manifested itself in my altered perceptions of the physical and spiritual world.
Several years ago I contemplated the parallels between what happens during the incubation of an egg and the transformation of inner self.
An egg is just an egg until it hatches.
”Since then my daily reflections often went back to the image of a chicken egg ... and what it may symbolize. The parallels between a spiritual awakening and the emergence of a chick from the egg were often part of my contemplation. My mind went to the incubation period ... the time between the chicken egg coming into our physical world and the chicks' exit from the egg shell.
My mind drew a connection between this incubation period of the chicken egg and the book “Dark Night of the Soul” written by St John of the Cross where he describes his souls secret journey to the Divine. What is particularly impressive is that St John could write such a masterpiece while imprisoned by his fellow monks for heresy.
Seems there are many parallels:
• we have no idea what is happening inside the egg ... in the dark night of the chick. The transformation of what we know as egg white and egg yoke into a living breathing walking fuzzy little yellow chick.
• we have no way of participating in the transformation. Neither does the mother hen. All she can do is sit on the egg, Keep it warm and protect it from harm.
• the transformation requires nothing from the external environment; nothing from our physical world, aside from the warmth and protection provided by the mother hen.
• finally the transformation from egg white and egg yoke to a living chick cannot be hurried along. Any attempt to expedite the process is fatal for the developing chick.
Much is written about spiritual transformation, spiritual growth, spiritual awakening and spiritual conversion. All these terms are used to describe something we don't fully understand. Seems to me that people who suddenly find they want to respond to some mysterious yearning within have already traveled a long way. The new life has been developing in their inner self without any conscious awareness.
The conscious awareness may be viewed as the equivalent of the chicken egg showing up in the nest; still a long way from hatching. Nonetheless, all that is required now exists. We have acquired the conscious knowledge that it exists, we see the egg in the nest, we feel the mysterious yearning.
As mentioned above, nothing external is required for further progress, only warmth and protection from harm.
Warmth and protection from harm in today's world is almost impossible to find. The egg in the metaphor is most often constantly subjected to cold and aggressive hostility ... why?? Is there some unknown force fighting to destroy the emergence of spiritual awakening?
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) labeled the society of his day "Life by Competition". The word competition infers winners and losers, struggle, aggression, insensitivity ... the antithesis of warmth and tenderness. Since the time of T.E. Lawrence the pervasiveness of competition in society has increased exponentially. Contrast this situation with one of the pillars of ancient Chinese philosophy where they discouraged competition and promoted the avoidance of competition. Seems the Chinese ancients understood the destructive potency embedded in competition.
Nonetheless we must be prepared to crawl inside the egg ... into the darkness ... the unknown ... and wait patiently and humbly.
Living in society today is like walking in the pouring rain without an umbrella. One gets wet ... one gets soaked!! Likewise for the person on a journey of spiritual enlightenment ... the soul is constantly contaminated simply living day to day life. Some people advocate retreating from the world or abusing our body or mind in an attempt to arouse a spiritual state. While these approaches have proved successful for some they are certainly not universal with many more failures than successes. What then?
Most people on a spiritual journey are either destroyed by the cold and abrasive nature of today’s society or they lose their patience. The desire for linear and timely progress is fraught with persistent disappointment. As a result they surrender their quest and return to mainstream society. The rope bride analogy
The image I received the other day was someone standing on top of the egg with a sledge hammer trying to break the egg open. Yelling hatch! ... it's time! ... I know it's time! ... hatch! Eventually the 'egg' breaks and instead of a living chick all we get is egg white and egg yoke spilling out all over the place ... we cannot hurry the process!
Seems to me this attempt to control or to hurry the transformation is the underlying cause of most religious violence. The word religion means to reconnect with God, inferring that religion is a journey to God with each form of religion providing their exclusive roadmap (dogma, doctrine and ritual) and hostilities develop because of the differences. Human attempts to control the journey to God are analogous to the image of trying to expedite the hatching of the egg mentioned earlier.
Yet when the time comes for the egg to hatch the chick inside must exert some energy to break the shell; intellectual and physical effort is required to achieve life … achieve freedom.
Today the scope is global and the breadth is virtually all of mankind. What will be the outcome? Will we have another Exodus? See notes for December 8th
Certainly the ‘many’ today do not have the tools to overturn the current social structures. St Augustine wrote in his book Confessions “Woe to you, torrent of human custom! Who can stand against you?
Where is the modern day Moses? Where are the supernatural acts demonstrating the will and power of God?