Some people are blessed to know – or instinctively / intuitively feel that the spiritual energy meridian in their body is the primary meridian. AND, if such people don’t pay attention in one way or another to “spiritual dimension” in their lives, the rest of their day is out of whack. Kinesiologists bump into this kind of thing – from time to time. So, how do you help people who have to pay attention to the spiritual dimension in their lives – in order to live with peace and satisfaction? We suggest that spiritual direction may be of assistance.
For many people, the spiritual dimension is the most real. They may not tell you – you may never suspect – but they are there, living their lives quietly, spending time away from others with a candle, some incense, and a book of meditations. Or playing music of one kind or another – the music of the spheres, chanting, mantras, softly in the background. The colours they wear might give them away, the muted purple, the high violet, even – the blue rinse in their hairstyle.
Quiet lives of peace and serenity.
BUT, what is it that they believe? What gives them meaning in life?
In this day, this age of the global village and instant communication, anyone is free to post their belief, their experience and their story of redemption following this master, that path. Hang on, what are their values? Are they selfish and promote I, Me, Mine? Or they seek human flourishing with values that espouse right action, peace, truth, love and non-violence? Values guide behaviour, so we can discern values very quickly if we watch and read carefully.
And so we have witnessed the rise of all sorts of movements that seem to promise some way to find meaning in life. Psychotherapy and counselling are sought, not just for help with neurosis or with career choices, but for help with living in a world whose centre does not seem to hold. Encounter groups, growth groups, experience groups, and others became popular as people strove to find community and meaning. Mindfulness is the latest thing! Get rid of anxiety, depression, ennui: meditate them all away!
There has been a phenomenal growth of interest in the religious practices of the East, and cult groups have spread rapidly. In the well-founded spiritual groups (churches, yoga groups, spiritual assembly) we have seen a rise of interest in prayer and in the gifts of the Spirit. Retreats of all kinds have flourished. Vipassana retreats are most popular, retreats on silence.
People may be helped to acknowledge the existence of the spiritual dimension in their lives by attending to their own experience. Can they, however, come to the belief that this spiritual dimension (God, the Divine, Avatars, the Divine Mother, Spirit Guides) has come close and is communicating? “Does this (Divine, Divinity in my life ) care for me?” “Has Divinity spoken to me?” These are the existential questions people are asking. How do we help people answer such questions? Again, recourse has to be made to the experience of the individual.
The assumption is that World of the Divine wants to relate to people both as a community and as individuals. Spirit does not need anyone’s help to relate to people. But the human other does seek help to develop his or her relationship with the Divine, (Spirit, God, Saints, Angels, Spirit guides, the Divine Mother) whatever name they want to put on their spiritual experience.
What is for people the most important dimension of all, is their concrete relationship with the spiritual dimension in their lives.
If you ask people what happens when they pray (or mediate), you get a variety of answers. Some say it is hard to pray; others say it is easy; still others say it is sometimes difficult, sometimes easy. The fact seems to be that prayer or meditation – or even, contemplation in general, is no more difficult than the formation of any deep, enduring, trustworthy relationship, and no easier.
The comparison is closer than it may at first appear. If you converse with a person for a half hour or more several times a week about personal subjects, you soon find that either a close relationship has developed or that something is wrong between you and the other person. If there is mutual communication and mutual acceptance of hopes, desires, ideals, fears, and frustrations, the relationship cannot be anything but close.
Relationships change: they encompass mystery, transformation, different experiences. Prayer does not change the Divine in your life. Prayer – or any time you put into this relationship – will be marked by change.
This is where spiritual direction may be of assistance.
