Stages of Spiritual Growth – Part II

Last week, we started our examination of the stages of spiritual growth as they are described by all of the world’s major religions.  In effect, collating that massive amount of data gives us a map of the territory ahead.  And I have always found it easier to get to where I want to go if I have a map.  How about you?   

We started last week by looking at the first two steps of the Way:  faith formation and the necessary behavioral changes for traveling the Way.  Today, we will start with the third step, learning to concentrate our attention, since our attention is the fundamental tool necessary for this journey.

We have a structural problem that is largely invisible to most.  The primary tool that we have for the spiritual journey is our attention.  While we think that we can control our attention, very, very few of us actually can.  Instead, our attention chases after this and that, and everything under the sun.  If, by chance, we have a moment's calm, our ego will make up stuff for our attention to go chase.  You see, the ego understands that it is under assault when we begin to walk the spiritual path.  It understands this far better than we do, because at this stage in the journey, our ego is the primary obstacle to union with God.  And our ego is a fierce opponent!

So, to make progress, we need to learn how to maintain a constant and focused attention on a single subject.  When we begin, it makes virtually no difference what that subject might be.  It could be something spiritual, like the image of a cross; it could be something mundane, like a small stone.  (In actual fact, the small stone might be better as a meditation object because you are unlikely to make up ideas about that stone, where you will undoubtedly start making up ideas about the cross.)

It’s like learning to lift weights: it doesn’t matter if you start with a fancy, expensive set of barbells or if you start lifting with a soup can.  The package the weights come in makes no ultimate difference to your success or failure.  What matters is that you keep your focus on lifting, and gradually lift more and more weight.

You see, the moment you sit in meditation, your ego-driven mind starts racing around to distract you.  The funny part about all of this is that we think we are in control of our mind.  This is manifestly not true!  Let me demonstrate.  If you were actually in control of your mind, when you tell it to “Stop!” it should stop, right?  So go ahead and try stopping your mind.  Try stopping the ceaseless flow of ideas.  It doesn’t work, does it?  This is pretty clear evidence that we do not control our minds.  Instead, our mind, driven by our tiny ego, actually controls us.

More than that, our ego actively fights us when we start aiming our attention towards the Divine.  Think of it this way – when you start on the spiritual journey, you are actually engaging in combat.  Our foe is that invisible entity we call the ego.  This ego constantly generates content for us – content that we label ‘ideas.’  We think these ideas are important, but how many of them over the course of the average day actually are important?  I can’t speak for you, but very few of my ideas have much importance at all.  What is more, many of these ideas are rather nasty.  We criticize everybody under the sun, including ourselves.  As a result, our ego typically creates a rather negative environment for us, and because this environment is rarely looked at, we take it for granted. It’s as if our ego actually hates us.

And look at what happens with our thoughts.  Because they are “my” thoughts, they become precious, valuable beyond measure.  If you doubt this, just listen to the current political debates going on around us.  People take sides, often with little understanding of the issues, and then they fight to the death to prove their side is right.  Reason often disappears in these debates, and all manner of foolishness is put forward in support of “my” position.  And why is this position so important and valuable?  Because it is mine!

When you draw back a little and watch this kaleidoscope of shifting content in our minds, you realize that ‘you’ – your self – are not in control of this.  We stream a constant blather of random comments and observations in our heads, but we have very little to do with its generation, content, or cessation.  While we have identified with the content flowing through our awareness, we actually have no real control over it.  We can’t even get it to stop.  

Once you realize this, you start withdrawing from this ceaseless, nonsensical ego-generated content.  You start to notice the context of this content – the field in which this content appears and dances around for us.  In other words, you start paying attention to the larger Self, not the ego-self.  Our spiritual development, then, consists of learning how to pay attention to this wider field, and this is where focused attention comes in.  

The more we learn to live in the field of the Self, the deeper and farther we go spiritually.  However, our intention to live in the Presence is not unopposed.  Our egos give fierce battle to our intentions.  “Look at that bright shiny object!  OMG, there it goes again!!”  Over and over again, our ego throws up powerful seductions to pull our attention away from our quest.  And if this content doesn’t pull you away, then the ego generates another seductive bit to grab your attention.

Rather than focus on the content of the mind, it is far more fascinating to look at the process that lurks invisibly behind all of these seductions.  To move forward spiritually, we need to shift our focus from content to observing the process that underlies all of the content.  The best metaphor for this is the movies.  When we watch a movie, we see the flickering images on a silver screen.  We are so captivated by the images that we fail to see the screen on which they are projected.  We focus on the shifting patterns on the screen, but fail to see the actual object itself, which is the screen.

That’s all for this week.  Next week, we will continue to explore the stages of spiritual growth.  As I said last week, I am also working on a new focus for meditation that is extraordinarily powerful.  So stay tuned in the coming weeks.  There is some great stuff in the works…

With love,

P.S.  Several of you have expressed the desire for an online meditation class.  If there is enough interest, I will try to figure out how to hold a group class on the web.  If you have an interest, please write me at [email protected]. 

Humility as a Tool  → Letting go → Fear → Openness →  Acceptance & Growth

If you are finding this newsletter course helpful, you may want to consider Dr. Kaisch's latest book, Inside the Invisible:  The Universal Path to Spiritual Transcendence.👇

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