Two Spiritual Journeys

The Transcendent Path: Human beings on a spiritual journey

  Imagine you are a cloud floating in the sky.  You become enamored with your cloudness; your dimensions, color, and shape.  You become so absorbed with your nature as a cloud that you barely notice the sky.  Now imagine that you (as a cloud) have an experience of transcendence: you recognize that there is no boundary between you and the sky.  You are still the same old cloud, you haven’t changed a bit, but your perspective has changed immensely.   A cloud’s transcendent spiritual journey then, is to awaken to the experience of itself as the sky.  You (as a cloud) have awakened to a broader self-understanding, a wider perspective in which to experience a more inclusive you.

  We are like the cloud, though instead of identification with our water content, we are identified almost exclusively with the contents of our thoughts.   Through over-identification with thinking we come to experience ourselves as finite capsules of ego and flesh.  When we open to that which is beyond the mind’s thought production we have a taste of transcendence.  Transcendence is a moment of going beyond thoughts to an experience of an identity without boundaries.  Transcendence means transcending the story of separation through the experience of a identity as the whole. 

  Meditation facilitates the transcendence of familiar boundaries of identity.  Meditation offers us a break in the narrative of “me.” Meditation simply means that we don’t oppose this moment.  When we don’t oppose this moment, we cease creating boundaries between “me” and a separate “world.”  When we oppose nothing, we don’t experience the symptoms of isolation: feeling small, squeezed and separate.  Without the story of separation, we feel relaxed and whole.  Ego (the separate self sense) dissolves temporarily when it is not choosing what it likes versus what it doesn’t like.  Thus, the transcendent journey takes us from seeing ourselves as a fraction in time and space, to being the whole in the timeless dimension.  ‘Human being on a spiritual journey,’ means that we transcend our partial identity as a capsule of thought and flesh and wake up to the experience of being life itself. 

 

The Descendent Path: Spiritual beings on a human journey

  It may seem fantastical to say, but while the cloud seeks to know that it is the sky, the sky seeks to know itself as the cloud.  While humans seek the vastness, the vastness seeks to express itself through humans.  We reach up towards a wider identity while the vastness reaches down to contract itself into something very particular: the human being.  Like the snowflake with its unrepeatable geometry, you are a totally unique expression of spirit.  Spirit did not choose to remain completely undifferentiated like a cloudless sky forever.  Unmanifest spirit chose to express and experience itself in the world of duality.  When spirit takes the human journey, the human curriculum, it experiences a wider life through you.  It seems paradoxical that when spirit contracts into something particular that it should experience more of Life, but it does! 

  Spirit wants to serve in the realm of form through your unique gifts and capacities.  Each human has a unique contribution to express.  Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft”, writes, “Discovering what is truly yours is the journey of the soul.  By soul I mean: the deepest core of your human nature, the reason spirit has taken shape as you, and the essence of your specific life purpose.” 

  To discover your deepest core and purpose you need to search, rest in stillness and silence and listen!  To receive the call of soul is to be open and receptive.  But it is not uncommon for a human being to live a circumscribed life, cut off from their true purpose, which is the pulsing beating heart of a life authenically lived.  When we don’t live our lives rooted in a soul-rooted identity, spirit cannot fully experience itself through us.  Spirit can’t fully shine through your soul until your life purpose is revealed and lived.    

    “Soul searching” has taken many forms over the centuries, including: wilderness rites, depth psychology, vision quests, dream work, and soul mentoring.  The key ingredient in all journeys that lead to a soul-rooted identity is to connect with your deepest longing, the urge to truly live authentically.  If you listen quietly, soul itself will guide you to the right places, teachers, and experiences. 

An Integral Spirituality: Awakening and Serving

  Reclaiming our soul rooted identity in the context of a transcendent awakening allows us to live completely: as unmanifest spirit and soul.  It is then that we can give away our gifts to a world that yearns for the wisdom and service of people who have become true soul-full adults and who’ve tasted the experience of transcendence. To experience the transcendent path of the spiritual journey is to awaken to what is identical in each human being: their shared core of that which is nameless, indivisible and timeless.  To experience the descendent path of the spiritual journey is to awaken to the particular gifts lying within you, the individual core of your specific life purpose.  Non-dual awakening shines when you realize you’re the sky.  Awakening in duality (in form) is expressed when you realize, fully embody and express your unique gifts.

  We have a comprehensive spiritual life when we discover both the transcendent and descendent aspects of our true selves.  When we reside exclusively in the “upper world” of the transcendent, we can become detached from our human experience.  When we reside exclusively in the soul realm we can become over identified with our particular roles in the human drama without the ability to contextualize our human life. 

  The transcendence and decendent spiritual paths complete each other through service.  Service is what naturally arises when 1) You know you are everything, and  2) You know what your gifts are and to whom they are meant for.  It is then that we can give away our gifts to a world that yearns for the wisdom and service of people who have made it to true adulthood and who’ve tasted the experience of transcendence. Ultimately, the “cloud” finds its deepest gladness in the recognition of its unlimited sky nature (transcending) while simultaneously meeting the worlds greatest needs with its deepest cloud gifts (descending.)

There are two roads on the spiritual journey, the transcendent path and descendent path.  The transcendent path offers an experience of self that goes beyond the body-mind.  You transcend your exclusive identification with the particularity of your personality to embrace the whole of your being.  The other spiritual path, the “descending path,” asks “Is there something I’m overlooking between everyday personality growth and transcendence?”  The answer is soul, which ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin defines as, “The deepest core of your human nature and the essence of your specific life purpose.”  We will examine both of these spiritual journeys along with practices for each to a reveal what an integrated spiritual practice could look like.

by Jonathan Gustin