Dear People Whom God Loves,
I find the work of Ken Wilber helpful in looking at spiritual growth from another perspective.
Growth goes through a series of stages. This applies not only to spiritual growth but also to many kinds of growth. He mentions cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, and musical intelligence as examples. The common denominator is that when we enter a stage, we arrive at it from a lower stage. We then hold it permanently, and it is the basis for further growth.
The whole journey can be divided into a few stages or many stages. For example, a travel journey from New York to Los Angeles may be divided into New York to Chicago, Chicago to Denver, and Denver to Los Angeles. We could also divide it into many places in between. If we divide our growth journey into too many stages, it tends to become unmanageable.
It is also helpful to remember that we can have brief glimpses into a stage higher than we are. These glimpses are not permanent so they are called states rather than stages. For example, lifted to a state of wonder and awe when seeing a sunset or state of peace when listening to music that transports us. These are called states because they have not become stabilized into permanent stages.
Also, different parts of us can be at different stages. For example, we can be at a high stage of cognitive intelligence and a low stage of emotional intelligence. When we are in this situation, we are good thinkers; we can reason well and plan well. We will be very bright but…have little emotional connection to other people. We will have little compassion. Being bright, we can find ways to get what we want and have little feeling for those we hurt and destroy along the way. This is a very deadly combination. We need to recognize its existence.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
Leave a Reply