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MAPS OF THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY BACK HOME
- A Western Perspective -
Other
maps of the journey can be found here.
CAUTION! - "The map is not the territory"
God cannot be made to conform to our maps. Everyone's
path is unique and some take the steps in different order and
sometimes simultaneously and some appear to miss out some steps
all together. Some experience visions, raptures, voices, ecstasy
and other mystical and psychic experiences whilst the majority
travel a less exuberant path but still reach the same
destination - union with God and even beyond that union. We
should not try to fit or force our experience into another's
model or invalidate our discoveries because they do not conform
to established models. Many of the challenges on the path return
again and again in cyclic fashion until the journey is
completed. What is required of us is to start out on an unknown
journey with a faith that increases with experience. However,
this warning aside, the advice of past trail blazers can at
times be invaluable on our path home.
I have drawn on the following sources
in compiling this map:
A Course in Miracles ®
The Path to No-Self by Bernadette Roberts
The Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John of the Cross
Interior Castle (also known as The Mansions) by Saint Teresa of
Avila
Invitation to Love by Thomas Keating
Putting on the Mind of Christ by Jim Marion
A Course in Miracles - 2 charts
The Four
Nights the Soul Passes through
- a map of the contemplative path from St. John of the Cross
-
Active means
what we can do,
Passive means
what only God can do.
1. Active
Night
of
the Senses: detaching ourselves from imperfections
and worldly distractions in order to attach ourselves to God
instead. (Bernadette Roberts)
Beginners faults:
(observed by St. John of the Cross)
For further cautions see The Enlightenment Trap
2. Passive Night of the
Senses: periodically God seems to withdraw his presence
and thus we feel spiritually empty, dry, or arid. This is
actually the onset of infused contemplation or God's presence on
a more profound level-which we have yet to appreciate.
(Bernadette Roberts)
Keynote: PURIFICATION
Freedom from the false self (ego)
Dismantling our selfish plans for happiness
Marks the end of consolations ("spiritual goodies") - end of the
honeymoon with God. Will occur fairly soon on the spiritual path
- upsets our plans for the journey.
The 3 signs that the Night of the Sense is present:
1 - Aridity (dryness, reduction in spiritual
satisfaction) both in prayer and daily life.
Difficult to read scriptures, meditate, pray and serve others
when once it gave happiness.
No compensation in worldly things.
2 - Fear of falling back on the path as God seems to have
left them. Fear that we have offended God and now we are being
punished. However, God is now offering a more intimate and
mature relationship with Him. The baby is being weaned from
'spiritual goodies' and learning a more substantial faith.
3 - Inability to practice discursive (reflective) meditation
Inability to ponder the meaning of the teaching and example
of enlightened teachers.
If all three signs are present it is normally a sign that the
passive Dark Night of the Senses is present. If there are less
than 3 signs it is possible there is another reason e.g.
depression.
In this night the unhealed contents of the unconscious are
starting to rise into the healing power of the light.
Unconscious issues will also be mirrored in one's environment.
Trials that may arise:
Sexual temptations often as a reaction to aridity. The
need to escape into pleasure, to feel something. Can also result
in overeating or endless entertainment.
Anger as a reaction to loss of
control. Seeing all one's spiritual plans coming to nothing.
Desire to blame God
Confusion as a reaction to losing our sense of security.
The spiritual journey is a movement into the unknown which we
try and control. But God has other plans!
"The spiritual journey consists in doing God's thing" Thomas
Keating
Fruits of the Night of the Sense
3. Active
Night
of
the Spirit: detaching ourselves from spiritual
goodies (consolations)
and the effort to be more passive to God's presence; the
recognition that God's abiding presence is below or beyond all
thought and feeling. (Bernadette Roberts)
A willingness to deepen our faith without reliance on receiving
spiritual experiences.
4. Passive Night of the
Spirit: a permanent and irreversible stroke of God
which is the falling away of the self-center or ego, the
encounter with a terrible void in ourselves-a black hole,
darkness and nothingness. Where experiences of the second and
third Night overlap, and first and fourth are clearly marked.
(Bernadette Roberts)
For a time mystical experiences cease and the feeling of being
connected with God ends.
This period is transition from human personality to the
realisation of our immortality and divinity. A decline of the
ego with its habitual distractions of mind, cultural
conditioning and spiritual pride. However, the sense of self
hood, the "I Am" still remains. An intensive course in humility
and the purification of a secret satisfaction in being the
recipient of God's favours. In Buddhism, the last fetter that
has to be released before we are free of the cycle of birth and
death is subtle spiritual pride.
"My brother, you are part of God and part of me. When you have
at last looked at the ego's foundation without shrinking you
will also have looked upon ours. I come to you from our Father
to offer you everything again. Do not refuse it in order to keep
a dark cornerstone hidden, for its protection will not save you.
I give you the lamp and I will go with you. You will not take
this journey alone. I will lead you to your true Father, Who
hath need of you, as I have. Will you not answer the call of
love with joy?"
A Course in Miracles T-11.in.4.
Temptations that need purification: (Thomas Keating)
Glamorous self image e.g. the prophet, martyr, wonder worker,
victim, enlightened teacher, charismatic leader. Service is the
hallmark of a true teacher - not self interest or satisfaction.
"The spiritual journey is a series of diminutions of the self"
(Thomas Keating)
"To be perfectly passive - to belong perfectly to God - is the
most difficult of human accomplishments" (Bernadette Roberts)
The fruits of the Night of Spirit:
(from Thomas Keating)
(from Bernadette Roberts)
The 5 phases of Unitive Life (Transforming Union)
as experienced by Bernadette Roberts
"The Father and I are one" Jesus (John 10:30)
1 - Dark Night of Spirit (passive)
A sudden falling away of the ego and its self-control. Need to
submit to a higher power. A powerful shattering of self-hood. A
journey into the depths of nothingness to God.
The I of the ego is replaced with "I AM"
"I call attention to the fact that God does not communicate His
will to us on a conceptual basis. If he did, His deepest union
with man would be mental-a kind of union of intellects. But the
center of our union is on a deeper level than mind or intellect.
It is in the very center of existence, which I call the
will-to-God. This will is a silent faculty; it does not think,
speak, remember, or form images. It is a silent power that takes
its power from God, and in this silence our will runs into His
will, there to receive its life, strength-virtue. To know the
will of God, we have only to remain silent, remain in the still
center which, automatically, without a single thought, is the
perfect acceptance of the present moment, and what we are at the
moment. Thus, all the intellectual searching, including the
often agonizing efforts to ascertain the will of God, is nothing
more than the refusal to accept the present moment, and our
present state. The secret of the unitive life is the graced
ability to live in this passive silence of wills, a silence
which is always here and now, and always one with God. The
truest communication with God is absolute, total silence; there
is not a single word in existence that can convey this
communication. "
2 - Peace found.
The peace is initially dark and dry but also deep and restful. A
welcome relief from the pain of phase 1. Eventually this peace
becomes a gateway to God and joy. Work is required to retain
this peace - to become passive to this still point, to bring all
problems back to this inner peace where they dissolve.
3 - Continuous interior silence.
Reaching the top of the unitive mountain. Great strength, power,
energy and love leading to selfless giving.
4 - Active phase - the way to Calvary
Continuous flow of exterior trials, tests, persecutions and
suffering. Only refuge is God. Walks alone on the path with God.
Cessation of judgement. Development of an open mind.
5 - Final end of self-hood or the "I Am" (ego has already
ceased)
A falling away of the "I AM" or sense of self-hood. The self
united with God ends. Perfect interior silence with cessation of
self-awareness. No-self, non dual reality. No person left and
therefore no personal God. God alone is.
Words cannot describe this non dual reality. "We say 'God is'
and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are
meaningless" from A Course in Miracles ® Workbook p.3l5/p.323
The Path of the Mystic
- Saint Teresa of Avila -
Her 4 Stages of Prayer leading to deepening levels of absorption
with God
1 - Infused Recollection
A mysterious awakening, a breathe of fresh air, God's grace -
does not overpower but is like a sweet perfume. Indicates the
end of the Night of Sense. Memory and imagination can still
intrude and disturb.
2 - Prayer of Quiet
More absorbing than one with an accompanying desire to prolong
the state. A state of interior silence in which the will is one
with God.
3 - Prayer of Union
A deepening of level where memory and imagination are suspended.
Self reflection (commentary) still present.
4 - Prayer of Full Union
Memory and imagination cease. The will is absorbed into God. No
self reflection.
"As it happened, St. Teresa never shed any light on my interior
life, but then, she was a mystic and I, a common contemplative.
As I see it, one never knows where the mystic is going to be the
next day; their path-if they have one-is difficult to pin down
and certainly impossible to follow."(Bernadette Roberts - who
experienced the two passive nights back to back. See caution
about spiritual maps at start of this article)
Traditional Christian 3 Stage Map
- St. Dionysious 500 A.D.-
1 - Purgative - purification from the grossest forms of
egotism and selfishness.
2 - Illuminative - the breaking in upon the person of
greater spiritual insights and understandings
3 - Unitive - union with God
"Had I been the one to map the original contemplative path, I
would never have thought of including an illuminative stage
because, from beginning to end, the interior life is an ongoing
illumination; as a discrete stage, I do not find it authentic or
necessary." (Bernadette Roberts)