DANCING ACROSS THE ABYSS
The whole of Creation and the cosmos is evolving and have been for almost 15 billion years. We, despite our relatively recent arrival, are an important part of creation and are not only part of it but are participants and co-creators with the Mystery ,we refer to as God , by a thousand different names in the ongoing creation story. Humanity is on an evolutionary journey and, just as we have evolved ,and continue to evolve , at both the physical and psychological levels, we are also called to evolve at the spiritual level. This 'call to evolution' is a challenge to us all. For most of the time we tend to ignore, resist or suppress this challenge.
The spiritual wisdom of the ancients and of all the major Faith Traditions contains many reminders about spiritual evolution. They suggest that in order to evolve spiritually we must transcend our Ego Self and step out in confidence to find, nourish and encourage our Evolutionary Self. The Spiritual Masters suggest that our task is to find that 'space within’, what in the Hindu Tradition is referred to as the Cave of the Heart, and there in Silence and Stillness begin to journey across the Abyss that lies between the Ego Self and the Evolutionary Self. Before going further with these reflections, let us pause to read and reflect on an extract from the Hindu Upanishads.
OM ……… In the centre of the castle of Brahman ( God) , our own body, there is a small shrine in the form of a lotus flower, and within can be found a small space. We should find who dwells there, and we should want to know him.
And if anyone asks ‘who is he who dwells in a small shrine in the form of a lotus flower in the centre of the castle of God ? Whom should we want to find and to know ? ‘ we can answer.
‘ The little space within the heart is as great as this vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars; fire and lightning and winds are there; and all that now is and all that is not : for the whole universe is in Him and He dwells within our heart ‘
And if they should say. ‘ If all things are in the castle of God, all beings and all desires, what remains when old age overcomes the castle or when the life of the body is gone‘ ? We can answer.
‘The Spirit who is in the body does not grow old and does not die, and no one can ever kill the Spirit who is everlasting. This is the REAL castle of God wherein dwells all the love of the whole Universe! ‘
Om Shanti, Shanti ,Shanti
Chandogya Upanishad Hindu Scripture
These words from the Chandoga are an attempt to convey the importance, uniqueness and immensity of the 'inner space' that exists within and around every one of us. They speak of the Self that can evolve and leave the Ego Self behind as it deepens its relationship with the Mystery that is at the heart of creation. This is where our True or Evolutionary Self can grow . The Christian Mystic St Paul uses the term ‘that your hidden self may grow strong’. A modern attempt to describe this place of Silence and Stillness can be found in the work of the poet TS Elliott. The following is an extract from the Four Quartets. This is a superb, deep and profound piece of poetry that captures the essential nature of patience as we wait in silence to meet the Mystery.
IN THE STILLNESS DANCING
The Importance of Waiting in Silence
I said to my soul, be still,
and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God.
As, in a theatre,
The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
With a hollow rumble of wings,
with a movement of darkness on darkness,
And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing façade are all being rolled away--
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Or as, when an underground train,
in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;
Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing—
I said to my soul, be still,
and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing;
there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
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Wait without thought,
for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light,
and the stillness the dancing.
Here the poet emphasises the importance of waiting. However, this is a special kind of waiting; it is a waiting without thoughts. It is waiting in stillness and silence with hope, expectation and courage. This is the waiting that the Spiritual Masters call ‘Deep Listening’, ‘Awareness’ or ‘Meditation’. They suggest that this is a real homecoming to a state that is natural for humans, where we can leave behind the false security and servitude imposed by our unhealthy Ego Self. This is a place and a state where we can be truly at one with the Mystery and where we begin to attain our true potential. However, there is a constant battle or resistance waged by our Ego Self that discourages and prevents us from reaching out towards our Evolutionary Self. This is a ‘battle’ based on a deep paradox concerning the building of our healthy Ego Self and how we need to ‘drop the ego’ if we are to begin the journey into transcendence. It can be helpful to understand some of the roots or causes of this battle. Which of them are normal for all humans and which are personal.
When we enter this life it is important that we have the right conditions for growth and unless our basic needs are met then we are restricted in our ability to even consider the area of transcendence. So before exploring the Ego Self let us first look at the basic needs required for a healthy Ego Self. The psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs for human growth in two main areas. These are briefly outlined and shown below.
Basic needs These are physiological, such as food, water, and sleep; and psychological, such as affection, security, and self-esteem. Basic needs normally take priority over higher or growth needs.
Higher needs also called meta needs or being needs (growth needs). These include justice, goodness, beauty, order, unity, self-actualisation and self-transcendence.
SIMPLIFIED DIAGRAM OF MASLOW’s HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Maslow proposes that unless some Basic Needs are met we cannot develop a Healthy Ego. This is needed to provide a ‘Secure Base’ from where we can begin to transcend the Ego and move on to our Higher Needs. It is at this higher level that we can begin to evolve, reach our true potential and find the Inner Centre or Space where we can more fully and authentically relate with the Mystery. The paradox and the pity is that our true inner self is often blocked, not by the Healthy Ego Self but by the Unhealthy Ego Self. The latter is the part of the self that clings on to fears, insecurities and a false sense of retaining control; whereas, our Healthy Ego reaches maturity and is more willing to let go and transcend the self.
If our Basic Needs are met at a ‘good enough’ level, then it is much easier to begin to develop a healthy and much needed Ego. Many of us have to subdue the unhealthy ego and develop a healthy ego in later life. Developing a healthy Ego is very important as it helps to give us a sense of our uniqueness and provides a secure base from where we can begin the journey into transcendence. This is the journey which ultimately involves us in a surrender that will allow us to dance across the abyss into the presence of the Presence of Mystery.
However, the ‘shadow side; of our Ego is unhealthy. It is the part of us that is insecure, the part that doubts and a part that lacks the courage to surrender. In short, it is a ‘needy part’. Thus it joins forces with the natural part of us that fears the unknown and thus strengthens a normal paradox of humanity concerning intimacy. Our deepest innermost self longs for union and relationship and yet we fear this intimacy and its consequent loss of control. This is not only true in our deep intimate personal relationships but is doubly so when we face the intimacy of a relationship with the Mystery. There is much truth in the Hebrew saying ‘It is terrible (or fearsome) to fall into the hands of the Living God’.
The spirituality of the ancients recognise the dilemma posed by this ‘clash’ between the unhealthy and healthy ego parts and many have a tradition of prayer about Presence. The following comes from Celtic Spirituality – one of its four founding principles is Presence – and is a written by John O Donohue an Irish Celt
A Blessing for PRESENCE
May you awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path.
May the flame of anger free you from falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and anxiety never lingers about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart
All this leaves us with several important questions. How do we develop a Healthy Ego and once developed how can we encourage this Ego to ‘let go’ and have the courage to dance across the abyss which is the abyss of abandonment and surrender to the Mystery?
These are perennial and deep questions and it can be helpful if we resist demanding ‘answers’ and are content to seek ‘responses’. These responses will come from deep within our own inner self. We are holistic people and our body-psych – spirit has a deep wisdom. In addition we have the inherited Universal Wisdom of the ancient spiritual traditions and the advice of the great sages and mystics. Their advice is simple but paradoxically difficult. The advice is to quieten the mind , enter the doorway of silence and stillness and once there, sit and wait for that deep inner response. However, the Unhealthy Ego finds the practice of ‘waiting without thought’ very difficult and adopts a variety of strategies to resist. One of the favourite is to make use of the Internal Commentator and to ally this with another favourite – our fertile Imagination.
Most of us can identify with the Internal Commentator. It is like a background ever present voice that comments on and questions everything. It challenges any attempt at quiet using a variety of methods. It raises questions, jumps from one topic to another, dreams, sings, mocks, uses sarcasm and of course our fertile Imagination. In fact it tries anything rather than allow the mind to quieten down. In the Indian Tradition, the mind is likened to a chattering monkey. If you visit temples in India you will often see monkeys jumping about and chattering incessantly. Many of us have had the experience of trying to sit still and then feeling deafened by the noise made by the Internal Commentator (some call it Infernal!). In addition, the ‘stories’ it tells can seem so real and factual. This is in stark contrast to the silence that the Mystics say precedes the meeting with the Mystery. Attempting to enter this silence can ,at time, seem unreal, unrealistic and perhaps an illusion. Therefore the Internal Commentator will use this latter thought as yet another resistance and thus switching it off is not an easy task. It is often a better strategy to begin to turn its level down and eventually off.
The Spiritual Masters remind us that beyond the Internal Commentator and our fertile Imagination is the Inner Silence, the place that the Chandoga Upanishad describes as ‘The Cave of the Heart’. It is here that we can find the Reality that is the Mystery – and thus experience a real homecoming. In order to develop both the capacity and ability to find Inner Silence, we must first value it and it is a well known fact that we give time and attention to what we value. Ishpriya Mataji, the spiritual guide of the International Satsang Association, reflecting on the importance of communicating in silence has this to say: ‘we need to recover the power of silence to aid communication because when, in silence, we can listen to the other’s being we can respond out of our own being’. Essentially, although this will require holistic work it is mainly ‘Soul Work’ because to truly evolve we need to open ourselves to our ‘innermost self’ which essentially is our soul/spirit. This is true spiritual and life long soul work that requires a serious and conscious approach to Sadhana – a Sanskrit word loosely translated as Spiritual Practice.
It is now time to return to the Internal Commentator and its roots. These are in two main areas , the normal and the personal. The normal is common to the vast majority of people, i.e. our natural tendency to be anxious about unfamiliar territory and lack of control. This is part of the programming of our brain in the Amygdala region which is designed to play a part in ensuring our survival and that of our species. This results in an almost ‘hard-wired’ programme which encourages us to be suspicious of the unknown, to carefully approach new territory and to tread warily as we slowly explore and move forward. Any sudden or unexpected occurrences will ‘strike up’ the Flight- Freeze- Fight parts of our brain and automatically force us into one of these three responses. In addition, each of us will have our own unique life experiences, cultural influences and personality type which will reinforce the Amygdala’s natural response. Here again, our brains will have heavily reinforced neural pathways that will quickly strike up in certain situations. In addition we are programmed to remember negative experiences. Hence the saying in neuroscience ‘ Sticks are stronger than carrots’ . It can take many positive experiences to outweigh a negative one. How can we begin to modify and reduce these natural tendencies and what practices can aid us in this endeavour?
Well both modern Neuroscience and ancient wisdom have some answers. Neuroscience suggests that our brain possesses a remarkable ability to adapt and change- this is often referred to as Neural Plasticity. In other words we can basically re-wire our brain. Here science meets ancient wisdom as both agree that practices that calm down the Sympathetic Nervous System and fire up the Parasympathetic Nervous System, allied to developing awareness can rewire our brains. That is, they can reduce anxiety and create new neural pathways or strengthen existing ones. Two of the easiest and well researched methods are breath awareness/control and mindfulness.
The former is well documented in Hinduism and is one of the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga. This is known as Pranayama or control of the breath. Printable copies of several basic Pranayama practices can be accessed on the UK Satsang Associations Website www.satsang-companionship.org . These can be found in the Resources section.
Mindfulness practices are many and well publicised. By beginning to develop a regular practice , or Sadhana, of Pranayama and Mindfulness, one can calm down the Amygdala and develop positive neural pathways that begin to open us up to deeper reflection. Here again , further details can be accessed at www.satsang-companionship.org.uk
As we develop our practice of pranayama and mindfulness they can prepare us for the deeper practice of Meditation. Other Blogs and resources on our Satsang Website outline this in detail. However some useful points now follow.
Meditation
In our Meditation Practice we are invited into a deeper relationship with God, Ultimate Reality. We enter a period of practice ( or silent prayer) which involves us in reaching deeper levels or states of silence. Sister Ishpriya, the Spiritual Guide of the International Satsang Association, often reminds us that our meditation practice is ‘an invitation to follow the sounds of our life into the inner silence’.
Our meditation practice is a gateway into the actual meditative state. In short our Sadhana, or practice is the Journey but it is NOT the Goal. The latter is the Meditative State which is pure gift. This is the actual Abyss into which we fall. In both Hindu and Buddhist spirituality , these two states have distinctive names and outcomes. Whilst I am not an expert in either Tradition, I am a little more familiar with Hinduism. Let us look at Hinduism and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Here we find the two stages or states more clearly outlined. The quote below gives us some ‘clues’ to both Meditation and Meditation Practice. Let us start with the latter.
However, for most of us, suddenly finding a ‘place’ where nothing exists is like falling into a deep abyss and is very challenging. It requires great faith and courage and for most of us this is a life long journey with , perhaps, tiny glimpses into the Unknown Abyss.
These reflections are merely designed to put forward a few points about the common lifelong struggle of Spiritual Seekers
